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

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.

High quality tuner. The signal quality meter (press INFO button twice while watching a channel) helps determine the best antenna position for precise placement. Remote sensor works well. Unit is responsive.Takes a bit of time to power up (about a minute) but once it’s running it works well. Didn’t test the DVR functionality as I don’t need that. I noticed the power plug was a little difficult to plug in/out of an outlet, not sure why.Overall a good product and the price is a little high for what you get (~$40) but if the product lasts a year or more it’s well worth the cost.

I like this product. I still have a working older version of it that I bought several years ago. I decided to update because I thought the larger remote would be nice. It is a big plus. The tuner in these is strong, no internet needed, no subscription required and the dvr feature works great. A quality simple product.

This box is so much easier to use than the other one I tried (JZ....) It records as it should and has button to allow you to recall last channel. Also, it much easier to view what you have scheduled to record. Overall a much better product and expierence.

Hooked it up using my current antenna to my TV via coax connection and did not get any response except a message indicating no antenna. Tried connecting through HDMI port but got a message indicating no signal. The only way I could tell it was getting power (no indicator light) was by attaching a USD drive (could hear it spin up). Tried another HDMI port and same thing. Let sit for 15-20 minutes and screen went blank. Got the same blank screen when switch to alternate HDMI port. Could not do anything using controls on unit or remote. Finally unplugged it and plugged it back in. Got a boot message on box. Ran through start and tried to configure PVR function. Could not access it from the menu (same with with some of the other options). Let it run for about an hour, shut it off and it rebooted on start up. Nothing changed, tried it again and the screen was dark and I could not power it up. Same as before and could hear my USB drive spinning. Only to get it back was to unplug and plug it back in. Went through boot sequence again, got same as before, PVR and some other functions were not available. I have had it for 5 hours, tried contacting support (nonexistent), then repackaged and sending back. I tried giving it a zero star rating but had to give a 1 star (which it doesn't deserve) in order to post this.

I got this to replace a failed TV tuner on my Smart TV. I does the job, and works. It's nice that it has a record TV function to USB drive. I suggest you get a flash based external SSD for best performance with it's own external power, but not required. TV guide layout is a bit bad. Instead of a horizontal left to right layout showing multiple channels per row like a normal guide, you get a vertical list layout and it only shows one channel at a time. The picture quality is bad, and the menu doesn't have much adjustment settings. It looked overly bright and washed out. I ended up replacing motherboard of TV to fix my tuner and I returned this product.