The answer to my OTA prayers
So I’m no newbie to DTV, having entered into the hobby 20 yrs ago when running EyeTV (by El Gato) on a MacBook Pro (dongle had its own small antenna and inserted into laptop by a USB dongle. I’ve also owned RCA880 DVR, a basic TS recorder which allowed users to import unencrypted video files from USB flash storage for editing.
Long story short: I bought a 4-tuner Tablo about 6 months ago, and since I live in a fringe reception area behind a hill that’s 30 miles away from the towers (so no line of sight: did I mention I’m also indoors?), I’ve struggled to orient my antenna (VHF/UHF Winegard 7694) to pick up any useful reflected signals.
I used my old Sony Bravia to monitor antenna signal strength (it updates in real time) as I changed orientation and placed parasitic rods, but it was incredibly time consuming, esp since the Tablo device doesn’t offer real-time signal analysis metrics. Despite the difficulty and somewhat flying blind, I was able to pull in 109 virtual channels, but constantly looking for a better approach (I’d lose channels if someone sneezed: it was THAT brittle living on a digital cliff).
So my 6 mo old Tablo hard-broke a few days ago (not user-repairable) and since I had new UHF and VHF antennae arriving the next day, I made a difficult decision to look at other available alternatives, and pulled the trigger on HD HomeRun 4k.
The fact Silicon Dust (makers of HomeRun) allows devs to access to such info is a YUGE advantage, as it allows tech-savvy users to make difficult tasks much easier (eg I’ve found I had to use pre-amps in series after finding one alone didn’t cut it, and this app quantified my gut assessment (most users live in urban areas 5 miles away from tower, and incorrectly assume they need more power, when they actually need better alignment and orientation to make the most of the strong signals in their neighborhood by using an app like Signal GH).
At only $2.99, this app is money well-spent.
Long story short: I bought a 4-tuner Tablo about 6 months ago, and since I live in a fringe reception area behind a hill that’s 30 miles away from the towers (so no line of sight: did I mention I’m also indoors?), I’ve struggled to orient my antenna (VHF/UHF Winegard 7694) to pick up any useful reflected signals.
I used my old Sony Bravia to monitor antenna signal strength (it updates in real time) as I changed orientation and placed parasitic rods, but it was incredibly time consuming, esp since the Tablo device doesn’t offer real-time signal analysis metrics. Despite the difficulty and somewhat flying blind, I was able to pull in 109 virtual channels, but constantly looking for a better approach (I’d lose channels if someone sneezed: it was THAT brittle living on a digital cliff).
So my 6 mo old Tablo hard-broke a few days ago (not user-repairable) and since I had new UHF and VHF antennae arriving the next day, I made a difficult decision to look at other available alternatives, and pulled the trigger on HD HomeRun 4k.
The fact Silicon Dust (makers of HomeRun) allows devs to access to such info is a YUGE advantage, as it allows tech-savvy users to make difficult tasks much easier (eg I’ve found I had to use pre-amps in series after finding one alone didn’t cut it, and this app quantified my gut assessment (most users live in urban areas 5 miles away from tower, and incorrectly assume they need more power, when they actually need better alignment and orientation to make the most of the strong signals in their neighborhood by using an app like Signal GH).
At only $2.99, this app is money well-spent.
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No longer works
I’m having a problem with the app connecting to a HDHR Quatro. It used to work, but no longer does. It sees the HDHR, but won’t do a scan and quickly disconnects. There are no issues connecting to it via its web page or Plex. The problem exists using this app on iPhone, iPad, and AppleTV. Unfortunately there is contact information for developer support. Disappointed.
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Incredibly useful
I had been grinding through optimization of my antenna setup using spreadsheets and hdhomerun_config when I discovered this app. Wow! Incredibly comprehensive data represented visually in real time. The ideal tool for what I want to do at a very reasonable price. Great app. Highly recommended!
Superb diagnostic tool
I rarely spend the time to write a review, but this is the app that convinced me to spend the time. I was trying to use the HDHomeRun-supplied tools to tune the antenna and test reception and just found it totally inadequate. I read some online forms of people having similar issues and they recommended this software. I couldn’t be happier. It gave me everything that I needed in a quick simple easy to use interface that I needed to optimize my reception
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What happened to Canadian Channels?
First off I love this app.
I use it all the time to check my signal strength for my OTA antenna, but when I first got it the map showed Canadian stations so I was able to use it to point my antenna better. Now, after the last update (I want to say) the Canadian stations aren’t on the map. This is a feature that I hope comes back. Had to knock of a star for that.
I use it all the time to check my signal strength for my OTA antenna, but when I first got it the map showed Canadian stations so I was able to use it to point my antenna better. Now, after the last update (I want to say) the Canadian stations aren’t on the map. This is a feature that I hope comes back. Had to knock of a star for that.
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