ATSC Digital Converter Box with TV Tuner, TV Recording, USB Multimedia Function, 1080P HDMI, Metal Case, Clear QAM, by Mediasonic HomeWorx (HW250STB)

Perfect for me connected to Spectrum digital cable in Southern California. This is the 3rd brand I have worked with since discovering my 50" tv coax port was defective. Spectrum changed from converter boxes over to digital directly through the cable. The channel display on the front of this box matches the channel that Spectrum says it is. The other 2 brands did not. The channel I select using the remote is the channel that the Spectrum channel list says it is, the other 2 brands did not. The quality of the remote feels -how can I say this?- REAL. It has a solid feel and makes me believe that it should work for a long time. The first brand had failed buttons and felt cheap. This one feels real. The placement of the number keys is like what I would expect after using push button phones and 10 key calculators here in The U.S.. row 1=1,2,3 row 2=4,5,6 row 3 =7,8,9 and zero is centered below 8 with the - key on that row with zero. Amazingly, the other brands chose arrangements that made me hunt for the keys. One had 4 across and the other was 3 across but zero and - were off in another area away from those number keys. All in all, this feels like a quality product and has a good logical arrangement of keys to make it easy to use, displays correct numbers in LED on its face so I do not have to press a button to make the TV display the channel. My last feature that is very useful to me is the wide range LED on the remote at a frequency that bounces nicely so the remote works even if i point at a wall or ceiling. very useful when I forget and set something in front of the receiver. The others required direct line of sight. This converter box cost $8-$10 more than the others and so far is well worth it to me.

I purchased this mostly to watch shows in MP4 format downloaded over the Internet to a 2 TB hard drive. It works well for this purpose. I hooked it up to my old roof antenna. I'm 60 miles away from the transmit antenna and it received more channels then my previous HW-150 model would receive. Picture quality is excellent. I use the HDMI port to feed my TV set. Remote control seems to be more robust than the remote that came with the HW-150. Please note that this receiver is Compatible with ATSC 1 and 2 broadcasts and not for ATSC 3 NextGen. Installation was as simple as plugging in the antenna coax, HDMI cable and plugging it into a wall power outlet, installing 2 AAA batteries in the remote (batteries not included). It powers itself on, follow the manual and on screen prompts for configuration. It does have a built in LCD screen that displays a clock when turned off with the remote. I have not found a way to dim or turn off this display.. but I've only had it for a few hours. I purchased this in "used" condition. It came in the original box with a printed manual, HDMI cable, remote, and RCA phono jack cables for composite connection to the TV all in like new condition. You will need additional cables if you are going to use coax audio output to a audio amplifier, feeding an old TV with coax on NTSC RF 3 or 4, or component video.

2nd Purchase... 1st one which was 5 stars, follows this updated review of a recent 2nd purchased unit UPDATE AUG 2026 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had Amazon replace the defective unit. The replacement works. Support did send me the latest software update which I appreciate. That has resolved some other issues except 1.... When powered off, the time of day clock is still not accurate. Within 24 hours it moves forward several minutes. Worse than that, when you power on, the current time shown on programs is out by numerous hours. The only way to reset it is to change the time to "Auto", which then shows the clock out by 2 hours, then change the time again (in my case) to GMT -7hrs. As long as you don't power it off, the time stays accurate but once powered off, you've got a small out of messing to get it reset/accurate again. I've reset the star rating to 4 stars simply because their software just doesn't seem able to keep accurate time. I don't know who does their programming but it's time to put it in the hands of an expert!!!! Just don't turn it off and it works great, the recordings are excellent and overall for the money, it's a very formidable OTA broadcast DVR. NEW PURCHASE JULY 2026 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh dear... how can you go backwards??? I'm so disappointed... The original DVR I purchased was a refurb in Oct 2025 and I gave it 5 stars because for $25 it was outstanding. I needed a 2nd unit for a TV which has a ATSC-1 tuner and I was missing some key OTA broadcasts. So knowing this DVR had a ATSC-2 tuner I thought I'd buy a 2nd unit. I was initially pleased to see that it was a 2026 hardware and software version... they've likely fixed a lot of "issues???" No, they've introduced a lot of issues... 1. No matter what I do, keeping the Time of Day accurate ONLY works if you keep the unit powered ON. The older unit is generally powered OFF and it has a clock display that keeps great time. The new unit is awful. Within a couple of hours being powered OFF, it was already 20 minutes out!!! That means if you want to set up Timer recording... I'm out of luck 2. Setting the time menu item to "Auto" is useless... It ALWAYS sets it 2 hours ahead of my actual Time Zone so I have to set the time to -7hrs GMT. That works so it's just a minor quirk. There is a greyed out option to select a time zone but no matter what I tried, I cannot get it to display, it looks like they removed that feature in favor of setting the GMT manually. Also, after numerous attempts, I also discovered that unless you set the channel on the TV first to a local channel, fixing the clock to display the correct time is impossible. Again quirks that can be addressed but you have to find out through trial and error as there's no documentation supplied. I emailed Support but not heard back yet. However, I suspect this unit has a hardware defect. The clock is so messed up which makes Timer recordings impossible. So I've sent this one back and ordered a replacement. I was thinking of waiting for Support for a week or so but other reviewers issues with support leave me concerned this might drag on. Besides, the fact that the unit cannot keep time when powered off, is in my mind, an electronic problem and therefore a defective unit. The older 2025 unit has no such issues with keeping correct time or setting time. Hopefully the replacement will resolve the Time of Day issues. On a positive note, they have made some software improvements to the 2026 unit since my older 2025 version. When pressing REC it starts recording immediately. My older unit has a 4-5 second delay before starting to record. Not a huge issue but nice that they have addressed this. I just wish there was some decent documentation (NONE supplied). I've found quirks with the menus but all were overcome once I figured out to use "<-" and "->" sometimes instead of "OK". Overall, I do love this DVR and if the replacement unit fixes the Time of Day issue, I'll update the review again and pop it back to 5 stars but for now, until I'm sure they've not introduced a hardware or software defect, not being able to do Time recordings is a major problem. None the less, for last years model I stand by the 5 Stars. Price/performance it's an incredible buy. 2nd UPDATE of original 2025 Model ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. I discovered from a Google search that the time to REC is influenced heavily on the size of the USB drive you use... So I replaced the current USB drive with a 500GB hard drive... and the time to REC has now dropped to 7 seconds. That I can definitely live with. I may try a 500GB SSD at some time but I have a few old 500GB hard drives laying around doing nothing so this is a good solution for me. I know this may seem upsetting to some BUT... I also discovered you can have multiple drives so for REC I use the smaller drive which will hold about 60 hours of recording and for cataloging of other stuff, I use a larger capacity (4TB for about 512 hours of playback). Regardless, for $25 for a "Like New" box, I'm really impressed. 2. I found a simple solution to the issue of not being able to watch one program while recording another. I used a Coax Splitter. So the OTA Antenna Coax is the Input to the Splitter (btw. its a tiny adapter for a couple of dollars). There are 2 outputs each for Coax cable. One goes to the Homeworx box "Antenna In" and the second goes to the TV "Antenna In" (In my case I'm using a modern TV which already handles ATSC already. Won't work if you have a NTSC only TV). You also still need the HDMI from the Homeworx to the TV. Now I can switch the TV to HDMI and setup a recording and let the Homeworx record say channel 45-1, then I can switch the TV to Antenna and watch whatever other channel I want. OK, it's not a perfect solution, but it is a workable and minimally invasive solution as far as I'm concerned. Hope these little tidbits help. I still stress, the recording quality of this Homeworx is excellent. And for $25 for the "Like New" box I received, I could not be more pleased. I don't have to pay for any subscriptions, I can watch and record whatever the Antenna receives, I can pass other video/audio/picture files I want to the Homework via the Windows formatted NTFS drive and watch ATSC recordings on the USB drive from the Homeworx, on my computer. UPDATE: ~~~~~~~ I replaced the Seagate USB drive with a Samsung 1TB SSD in a USB enclosure. Now pressing REC takes about 17 seconds before recording starts. That's considerably better than the 30+ it was taking with a Segate USB spinning drive. It still bother me it takes so long though. The SSD drive was empty, I had just reformatted it so it's not like it was doing a lengthy directory search. I can work with the 17 seconds but it is irritating that if I just hit REC while watching something that catches my eye, by the time the recording starts... I've missed it... I suspect that this delay also occurs when time recording so whatever time I set for recording, I need to start 1 or 2 minutes earlier to ensure I get the start. That being the case, whether I use a SSD or a Hard Disk drive will make little difference so I may just go back to the Seagate drive as it's a 4TB. I tried setting the antenna option as "pass through" but I couldn't get this to work. Basically, "Pass Through" is (used to be) the option that allows you to disable the tuner in the convertor box and simply pass through the antenna signal through the coax cable to the TV. Again, not a huge issue in how I'll be using the box and I'll try and find out what this option really means/how to use it in the Homeworx box. ORIGINAL REVIEW: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First off, I have to admit to a boo boo... When I reviewed the different convertor boxes and of course the user reviews, I narrowed down my selection to this one and although $40... I scrolled down the screen and bought it. When it arrived I was disappointed because it was a pre-used unit. It was marked as "Like New", had been opened and sea;ed with a white sticker and that sticker had been cut and opened and finally the ragged box was taped closed. There I was about to return it and I checked the price I paid $25... "Huh I thought it was $40"... DUH.. when I purchased, in my haste i clicked the "Like New" buy option. So for $25, I thought I'd open it up and check it out.... Although the box had been opened and reopened several times, the contents were pristine. Remote had no batteries so grabbed a couple of AAA's and slipped them in. So I plugged it in and I'll admit I did not have high expectations. Job 1... configure it for OTA channels. NO... I don't read instructions first.. my view is that most things like this should be intuitive.. Hit the Menu button and it soon became obvious. Set the Time Zone, when to channel search, selected Auto and then waited.... It took a couple of mins but found all the channels the TV I was using previously had found so there was no loss of channels in that aspect. Played with the buttons.... You can enter a channel manually (use the Up/Down buttons) or you can use the Green "TV List" button and then scroll up/down to find the channel you want. EPG will give you the details of current channel and forthcoming programs on that channel. Used the yellow "Aspect" button to set the aspect ratio to Auto. Tried the various manual settings which all worked great. I really LOVE an aspect button on a remote... OTA channels are a mixed bag to say the least and some channels don't correctly display the aspect. So being able to override for you personal preference is a big deal for me. At this point I had played for about 30 minutes and wanted to see how well the DVR feature worked. In fairness, I've never owned a DVR so some readers may find my comments amusing... I found an old 2TB Seagate USB drive (old but powered by the USB port NOT a separate power adapter). I reformatted it on my PC and then plugged it in and went to the Menu option for USB. It has a Format option there!!!. Well of course it does... but I wanted to know if I could record on a standard preformatted Windows NTFS drive. Behold... a message tells you... you can only format up to a 2TB drive. If the drive is a 4TB drive, format it on your computer. So I thought, what the heck, lets see if this box formats the 2TB drive differently and makes reading on a computer problematic. Let the format finish, tried it on the PC, Windows sees it and shows it empty. Plugged it back into the Homeworx Box, found a random channel to watch and just hit the "REC" button. Now there's only one minor quirk here... it throws up a message about "Enter Record. Waiting..." which lasts 30 seconds before the message goes away and then a record timer length count appears on the top left of the screen and it start recording. I let it record for about 10 minutes and then stopped the record using the industry standard [] symbol button (stop), unplugged the drive, rushed it over to my PC, plugged it in, found the directory HBPVR, and found the .mts file. Played it using VLC. No problems whatsoever. At this point I decided to create a few of my own directories and copied, pictures, music and video files (various file types). Plugged back into the Homeworx and pressed the USB button. Found the menu. PVR ~~~ THIS is where your recorded programs are held. They are in .mts format. Just one point. I had a .mts file on my computer which was a copy of a video file from a Canon Digital Camera. It would NOT play. Recorded files no issue but this previously recorded on a different device would not. Media ~~~~~ Does not support .flv nor .asf (no surprise) Did support various others (these are a minimum I expected it would and pleased it does): mp4, mkv, avi, mpeg BTW, Media does NOT see .mts files... You have to be in the PVR menu section to see .mts files Music ~~~~~ It "played' .wma (didn't complain about it) but no audio. I have a few different .wma files but the same issue with all of them. appears to play but no sound produced. It played .mp3 and .wav no problems whatsoever. Almost all my music library is .mp3 so I have no issues with the .wma not working. Small irritation but not worth griping about. Pictures ~~~~~~ Supports .jpg just fine. I know there are others and I have examples of many other image types but I have no concerns... I'm only interested in .jpg and any image file is easily converted to .jpg with free software All the different file testing did encounter one issue. When I was trying to get it to play .flv and it said "Unsupported", which was just fine, I hit OK again and the box locked up. I had no choice but to Power Cycle (pull the plug out the wall) to get it to clear. I will admit I could have left it a few minutes and maybe it would have cleared it self but I wasn't interested in waiting to see. Problems. ~~~~~~~~ I set up a timer record for CBS Channel 5.1 to start at 4am until 4:10am (test). I watched it... at 4am the box cycled and went into a reboot (like it thought it had to wake itself up).. came back up and gave me a 5 sec timeout about wanting to record, then went to the "Enter Record. Waiting..." and 30 seconds later it started recording (all without touching the box). However... this took over a minute in total so my recording missed the first minute. I changed drives and used a USB3 4TB Seagate drive (uses power from USB not external PSU). It already had a load of stuff on it. When I tried to record "on the fly", every time it took 65 seconds before the recording actually started. That is a real concern. You can't simply perform a manual immediate recording. Also, the disk already contained numerous movies/TV shows. There was a .avi and a .mp4 file that I found at random it would NOT play. The .avi didn't even show up in the directory list but it was there. It does have a weird file name so I think that may be the problem. However the .mp4 file was a standard movie file formatted H.264 and should have played but the Homeworx kept reporting "File Type not supported" even though it showed the file size details etc on the right window. Still need to figure out why.... But to be clear... This is NOT a box intended to play all/any media files... It's a box designed to record shows you want and play them back WHICH IT DOES. Plus you can move those files to a PC and they play equally correct there too. So obscure files I've created or downloaded that it couldn't handle is more my issue not Homeworx!! CONCLUSIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I still have some experimenting to do to see if some of the quirks are me or the system and for $25, it definitely fulfills my needs. A lot of the testing I did was purely to see what it could do and not relevant to how I expect to use the box in general. BOTTOM LINE. The quality of recordings was excellent. OTA channels in 1080p recorded in 1080p. There were no glitches or interruptions or any issues with the recorded program. Those recordings replayed on the Homeworx perfectly and they played perfect on my PC too. Now it's time to read the manual and see if any of the problems I did encounter are due to me or the unit. None the less, I would definitely recommend this box (especially the $25 "like new" version). I'll update the review if I find any useful features or solutions I uncover.

Once Again, Another Disappointment - After The Return Window Has Closed. This is the third budget DVR box I have purchased - Of three different brands. It Will Be The Last One. When I ordered this from Amazon around April of last year, I tested it, And Tested It, AND TESTED IT! Not a glitch. Not a single hiccup - For Months. I recorded dozens of shows. I was so happy! I was considering buying another one of these, and a spare remote. I sent Mediasonic a glowing email of how pleased I was with the box, and a very detailed list of numerous product improvements. Finally a stable budget DVR box that works reliably well. Or so I thought. Then This Crap Happened! Again! Several weeks ago I noticed that two scheduled recordings Did Not Record. The DVR had turned on, but it Did Not record anything. Later I had a recording scheduled for once-per-week at 4:00 AM on Sunday. That one Did Not Record either. The DVR had turned on, but it Did Not record anything. Further, when I checked the Timer Schedule, the schedule had been Completely Erased. After sending at least two emails to Mediasonic about this, I researched it using Google AI. What I found out was the issue is caused by a hardware bug in the chipset used in these budget box DVRs. Mediasonic, and the other makers of these budget box DVRs do not make the chipset, and have no control over the bug. There is nothing Mediasonic can do to fix this, as far as I know. So I would advise people not to by a DVR made by Mediasonic, or anyone else, until the bug has been squashed. Update: 7 July 2026 Whatever this bug is, it has gotten much worse. A few weeks ago I noticed another missed recording. Then a deleted schedule. And for the past three or four weeks the box would turn on, and not record anything - Consistently. I am totally done with this device, and the fly-by-night companies that make them. I have lowered the rating to One Star. And if Mediasonic does not like it - Byte Me!

The machine, once set up properly seems to work OK--as long as you leave the storage device plugged in and it has no problems of its own. The manual>>> written to offer as little help as possible. It tells you all the obvious things to do that appear on the function screens. What it does not discuss is the little details about how each of them work, the nested functions, or just how to remove the storage device without fricking up the machine set ups. SETUPS: The main one here is setting the TIME. You must set the time zone. There are other optional functions like DAYLIGHT SAVINGS enabled/disabled. Since it DOES NOT allow manually changing the time, if <DAYLIGHT SAVINGS> is not enabled all your programmed recordings will be off an hour, and you get the wrong program. All the other functions you better tread lightly through and know exactly what you intend to do, and how it works. Fortunately, once you get the hang of the <EXIT> function you can inspect each of them without screwing the machine up. If you MUTE the sound, then go into some nested setup routines, the MUTE function is disabled. Conversely, you CANNOT MUTE the sound while inside a nested function. No matter what you are doing within the setup menus, you cannot access the usual PLAY/RECORD functions while inside a function setup. MOST ANNOYING. The manual does NOT state that once you program a record list, it will start at the appointed programmed time, EVEN THOUGH THE DISPLAY SHOWS THE LAST CHANNEL BEING VIEWED,or, THE MACHINE IS POWERED off. The display will NOT show the record channel during record. So you have NO idea what it is recording, outside of your own good memory. The files written to the storage device have the channel's NAME, but NOT their channel number. This is asinine. Hardly anyone knows what the station name is. They remember the channel number. EX:, locally cartoons appear on channel 9-2 at 6AM. But the file name during record is ME-TV, plus a 6 digit date code and programmed time code. I don't give a crap about what the station's broadcast name is. Only what channel number broadcasts a certain program. IF you manually start recording, you MUST be around to turn it back off. Once it begins recording the only control over the machine while doing so is to stop the recording, or go into "Time Shift" which is a nightmare trying to figure out what it does and how to get in and out without shutting the whole thing down One day I came home and found the machine recording. It was not set up to do so at that time of day. Inspecting the HDD I found in excess of 6 hours of recording. The file size was huge-over a hundred gigabytes. I had lots of fun converting the machine's .MTS format to one a video editor would work with to see if there was anything salvageable. To this day, I have no clue how it got set to record. Nor have I been able to deduce why it skipped a programmed 2AM record session. The previous hour's session recorded just fine. But when it got done with that one it did not move to the next channel to record that program as set in the record list. I am using a 500GB 2½" HDD. It did not recognize the SSD storage I had. Occasionally when I navigate from examining the HDD files and back to program functions the machine hangs up and the only solution to regain control is remove the power plug. Most annoying. Also, the program function does NOT incorporate day to day programming. One time or daily, which means I get programs over the weekend recorded I don't want (station's weekend programming changes) and have to figure out by how the files are named which ones to delete. I tried shutting down using the front power button and removing the HDD to copy off to my mass storage files I want to keep. This obviates having a huge long list compelling me to scroll through with the remote to review or delete. Shut down did not work as expected. After leaving the device turned off without the HDD connected over the weekend, it loses track of its program sequence and drops for some unknown reason programs set up in the record list. I'm thinking the only way to separate the HDD over the weekend to prevent unwanted recordings is to remove the power plug. The remote button sequence still remains a mystery. On screen instructions do not entirely match what state the DVR is in. Sometimes pressing the <EXIT> button is required, other times pressing the <STOP> button first is required before pressing the <EXIT> button. This is not explicit in the on screen button MENU. You can't be in one function and press the <EPG> to learn what the station program list is for the day. You MUST back out of that nested tree of functions first. Very user unfriendly. IF YOU ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO ENTER A PASSWORD INTO THIS MACHINE, MAKE SURE IT IS INDELIBLY WRITTEN DOWN SOMEWHERE, WELL LABELED AND RETRIEVABLE. The fine print in the SKIMPY instruction manual states that if you forget what the password is it must be returned to the factory to be reset. Apparently the <RESET> function to default in <SETTINGS> does not allow the user to go back to ground zero. THIS IS THE STUPIDEST IDEA I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED IN ANY ELECTRONIC APPLIANCE. I spent my professional career designing and mfr'ing electronic devices. Never did such an idea enter the staff's heads. I've yet to observe what happens when the utility power is lost or cycles. Our neighborhood has a tendency to blow power line fuses and leave at least a dozen homes without power. We live o the edge of tornado alley and so the power sometimes does weird stuff--occasionally bad things to some of my old PCs.

I usually don't rate a product made in China 5 stars but I do love this digital converter box. Mediasonic is an American company I believe. If you want to cut the cable and to be able to record local TV and don't want to pay a monthly fee (makes sense if you are looking at cutting the cable) and don't want to pay a lot for the recorder (also makes sense) then this is the item you want. Set up is intuitive and went well (would have been a little easier if I had known the converter is set to channel 4 out of the box for use on an old TV using the RF1 cable). I also have it connected to a new TV via the supplied HDML cable. I love the old school interface; it is easy to understand and use. And I have found that the feature that shows you the signal strength is indeed very useful and easy to use. It doesn't come with a storage device which is necessary for recording. Mediasonic does not recommend using a flash drive, though it looks like from YouTube videos and comments that some people do use them. I had an Iomega SSD drive laying around and it is working great. I copied the files that were on it then I used the converter to format it after attaching it. I actually like that I can remove the storage device. I can put movies, pictures, or music on it to play on the TV. And I can go in the other direction too; my wife has me use American Idol recordings to create MP3s for her music player. That will now be easier as I can plug the Iomega into the computer and use Audacity to create her MP3s. Know that it can only record 1 program at a time. That isn't a problem for us. There is a 15-20 second gap between the recordings of my wife's Young And The Restless and The Bold And The Beautiful which follows it. I haven't tried the "Loop Through" function that allows you to watch one station while recording another but I anticipate that will work easily. Similarly I haven't yet tried the feature that allows you to pause and rewind and then fast forward with live TV. Only sort of related; for cable cutters now looking for antennas; if you are within 10 miles of most of your broadcasters like me, or maybe even within 30 miles, with no big hills in the way, then I suggest also getting the simplest least expensive antenna. The $11 Phillips antenna works fine for me. They are just pieces of metal attached to a cord. Check out The Antenna Man's YouTube channel for a lot more detail on that, and a review of this converter box.

I use for recording OTA TV, been doing this for years. This is a replacement for an old one that is showing its age. Some functions are confusing to access, such as deleting something recorded earlier. There is nothing about this in the instructions, which are only so-so. And nothing on-screen either. Some models tell you on-screen what to do. Finally figured it out; hope I can do it a second time. Otherwise, for me, who does not have cable or streamed TV, I enjoy that I can record programs.

My 15 year old LG M237WD 23" Flatron Monitor/HDTV finally died on me leaving me in a strange new world where you can no longer find a new, low-cost Monitor/HDTV with a built-in antenna input and tuner. Today you need a monitor with 2 HDMI inputs and a separate HDTV tuner with antenna input to do the job. The question today is which ones do the best job at the lowest price? After extensive online research, I decided on the AOC 24B2H2 24" LCD Monitor and the Mediasonic HOMEWORX HW250STB Convertor Box/Tuner. In short, I am extremely happy with the choices I've made. Before you make your decisions, I highly recommend you download and read the online user manuals available by searching for them online. In particular, you need the online AOC user manual to properly describe and utilize the the 5 tiny buttons on the bottom edge of the screen used to power on and access monitor settings. The paper guide included with the AOC monitor does NOT describe how how to use these buttons. The HOMEWORX manual omits fully describing how to prepare for, record, and playback TV programs on a USB flash drive. If you are computer savvy, formatting, recording, playback and deletion of TV programs is easy to figure out. If not savvy, you may need to ask HOMEWORX for help. The AOC monitor is very easy to set up. You just need to insert the neck at the bottom of the screen into the base. The screen can be tilted from 20° up to -5° down. You plug in your 1 or 2 HDMI cables from the HOMEWORX tuner and your computer, the power cord, and your speaker or earphone 3.5mm connector cable, and you're done! The HDMI button under the bottom screen edge allows you to easily switch between the tuner and your computer. Audio is automatically switched between devices with the HDMI button. On Windows 10, a 24B2H2 Intel(R) Display Audio interface is automatically installed by the AOC monitor and becomes the Default Playback Device. I have an audio cable running from my computer to my speakers in addition to the HDMI cable. If needed, I can switch the Default Playback Device back to Realtek High Definition Audio to enable me to record audio using Audacity software, which I use to record stock market Earnings Webcasts. (Note: Audacity requires a wire connection between the Realtek audio output and input to enable recording audio off the Internet.) The AOC display itself is excellent, strong clean colors and high definition. The screen is matted, NOT glossy as incorrectly listed by Amazon. The HOMEWORX tuner has a handy easy to use large remote control along with manual control bottons on the tuner itself. In addition to the HDMI port, it also has RCA jacks and can act as a HDTV converter box for an old analog TV or as audio output for a stereo amplifier. It has a USB-A port for a USB flash drive or other form of storage drive. When not turned on, the HOMEWORX digital display acts as a clock showing the time of day. Signal reception by the HOMEWORX is excellent. This has the best reception of any HDTV tuner I've used so far, and I receive stations I could not receive before so long as the weather and temperature inversions permit.

It works great, I got 23 channels even though I didn't raise the antenna but it's just near the window, very easy to use, once you install it it will show you the language selection and then it will automatically search for channels and the channel storage will end automatically, you just need two AAA batteries for the remote control, everything is great and the picture is clear and the sound is clear and the remote works quickly, I'm happy because I got my old TV back again and I'm drinking my coffee and watching TV as if I'm living in the eighties the good old days, thanks to this seller and the manufacturer, I'm very happy I recommend buying it immediately it's very cheap

Failed after 6 weeks: the unit no longer responded to the remote control. Replacing the remote did not resolve the problem, The failure was in the unit itself. The manufacturer's customer service promised to send a replacement unit but after three months of repeated emails with customer service they never sent the replacement. They do not honour their 1 year warrantee. It is now 3 months since I first filed the complaint.

Bought this converter so I could use an old c. 1998 tube TV in place of a modern flat screen that died, and in most respects it is not as cheap and nasty as I expected. It uses the same antenna setup as the old TV and receives all the same stations as the old TV did - some with signal as low as 40% are a bit glitchy but completely watchable. One very distant station, that only came in about 20% of the time on the old TV doesn't come in at all with this converter but I can hardly fault it for that. Otherwise it's pretty solid. The case is metal, which is nice. It runs warm but there are vent slots so I don't expect it to overheat. The menu system is fairly intuitive if you've ever set up a digital TV before. I did have to consult the manual once to find the default password for the parental controls. I was pleasantly surprised to find the RF output can be switched between a pass-through of the antenna signal and a ch3/ch4 modulated down-converted signal so this can be used even with small TVs without AV inputs. It also has an HDMI output so it can be used as a second tuner on modern TVs or with monitors that have no tuner built in. It would be nice if it had an S-Video output since my TV doesn't have component inputs, but the composite output works okay and the picture is bright and clear. The weak point in all this is the remote. It's a lightweight, generic plastic remote and it's not universal meaning while it runs the converter box just fine, it can't be programmed to also control the TV. I need to keep the TV remote around to handle functions like power and input select. The converter has its own volume and mute functions but since I'm also using other devices on other inputs with this TV I need to use the TV volume and mute functions as well and it's really a bit more complicated than it needs to be. The other thing about the remote - and this is a bizarre coincidence that I can't really blame anyone for - is that it uses the same codes as an Android TV box I purchased in 2017 in Europe. So both devices respond in different ways as I press the buttons. Truly strange. I have had to cover the front of the Android box with black tape so the InfraRed remote signal is blocked. I use a bluetooth remote with it anyway. What are the odds of that? Weird weird. I like the LED channel display on the front of the converter. It reminds me of the old Zenith TV I had when I was a kid that always showed the channel number on a similar display. I haven't tried any of the PVR functions because I don't have a drive to hook up, but when I do I will update this review if there are any serious issues. All in all would I buy it again? Yes, yes I would.

This converter box works and it tunes ATSC channels as advertised. I can use my old TV and watch OTA broadcasts. Electronic program guide from the OTA channels are nice too. There is also a signal strength detector built in. My video shows the channel list, EPG, and the channel info screens from the user interface. You can remove or skip channels and add favorites using Program Edit menu. Password is 000000

On the odd chance that you're using a drive that was originally internal (i.e., "naked" drive), be aware that this device cannot create partitions. It can only format. I almost returned it until I figured this out. Most people will use an external drive, so no problems there, since these are usually pre-partitioned and pre-formatted. However, if you find that the drive disappears after every time you power off the device, connect it to a computer and partition it there, then reconnect to the PVR and format. Otherwise, it works as you would expect. Like others have stated, it can be a bit sluggish when changing channels or switching to USB from tuner. To set the timer, I usually go to the channel I want to record, then press EPG to call up the guide. It only shows 12 hours. I don't know if this is a limitation of the device or from OTA data. However, you can set the date/time manually. If you set it via EPG, it is not "smart", in that it doesn't know when the program actually starts and/or ends. I usually manually adjust the timer so it starts 5 min early, and since I record sports, I set an extra 30-60 min in case the game goes over(time). The PVR will turn on when it is supposed to and turn off when the recording is done. A couple of gripes: LED display is really bright, and I wish there were a USB port on the back, so a "permanent" hard drive sits out of the way. PVR gets pretty hot, so make sure it has room to breathe. 3-stars because there's nothing special about it, but there's nothing really bad about it. I would recommend it for casual use, but you may want something better if you do a lot of recording.