HDHomeRun Scribe Quatro and Servio review: Great video quality, but clunky software

For cord-cutters, organising an over-the-air DVR that delivers the very best image high quality on a number of televisions has by no means been simple or low-cost. That leaves a wide-open alternative for Silicon Dust’s HDHomeRun Scribe DVR and its sibling, the HDHomeRun Servio.

TiVo’s Bolt OTA, as an example, requires expensive add-on bins to observe on a number of televisions, whereas such roll-your-own options as Plex DVR and Channels DVR require cobbling collectively TV tuners and server {hardware} from disparate distributors. Networked tuners such because the Tablo Quad, in the meantime, usually don’t play over-the-air channels of their native broadcast high quality, limiting their enchantment to videophiles.

SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun Scribe and Servio DVRs lastly examine the precise price and high quality bins, recording over-the-air channels at full high quality and streaming the video to different units (together with Roku gamers, Fire TV Sticks, and extra) linked to TVs all through the house. The {hardware} can be fairly priced, beginning at $200 for all the things however the antenna, as is the DVR service at $35 per 12 months, with one 12 months of service included. Setup is easy as well.

The downside, as at all times, is HDHomeRun’s software program, which has improved during the last 18 months, however continues to be tougher to work with and has fewer options than different over-the-air DVRs. Whether the Scribe and Servio are best for you depend upon how a lot of that clunkiness you’re keen to tolerate.

HDHomeRun DVR: Scribe vs. Servio

Unlike HDHomeRun’s Connect and Extend tuners, the HDHomeRun Scribe doesn’t require you to provide your personal storage or server {hardware}. Instead, the recording engine, TV tuner, and 1TB of storage are all constructed into one field. You want solely present an over-the-air antenna, which will be an indoor or out of doors mannequin.

Setup is virtually plug-and-play as effectively. After screwing in an antenna, plugging within the energy adapter, and connecting the field to your router with an ethernet cable, you’ll be able to go to the my.hdhomerun website to complete the setup. SiliconDust sells two variations of the Scribe: The $200 Duo can play and/or document as much as two channels at a time, and the $250 Quatro can play and/or document as much as 4 channels simulltaneously.

Compared to the Scribe, the $150 HDHomeRun Servio is extra of an improve for people who already personal a separate HDHomeRun Connect or Extend tuner. As such, it consists of the recording engine and 1TB of storage, however there’s no provision to plug in an antenna as a result of it doesn’t host a tuner.

Unlike a TiVo or cable DVR, HDHomeRun doesn’t output video on to your tv. Once you’ve arrange the {hardware}, you have to stream dwell and recorded TV to the HDHomeRun app, which is offered for Amazon Fire TV units, Android TV, Roku gamers and lots of good TVs, Xbox One consoles, Windows, iOS, and Android cellular. The most notable omissions listed here are Apple TV, Chromecast, LG WebOS TVs, and Samsung good TVs.

There are some caveats with this setup, although: While each the Scribe and the Servio can stream to different units round the home over Wi-Fi, you have to join the DVR bins themselves to your router over a wired ethernet connection. If your router is in a basement closet or different location the place you’ll be able to’t arrange an antenna and get good reception, and also you don’t have ethernet strung to that location (otherwise you don’t wish to), this resolution might be a non-starter. (ethernet switches are low-cost, however pulling ethernet cable via your partitions is a comparatively easy and cheap DIY undertaking that doesn’t require an electrician, as a result of it’s low voltage; but it surely’s not a undertaking everyone seems to be all in favour of taking over.)

You’ll additionally want a robust Wi-Fi community to stream video. Because HDHomeRun serves uncompressed video within the MPEG-2 format, every stream can demand as much as 20Mbps of your Wi-Fi community’s bandwidth. Using the HDHomeRun Servio with an Extend tuner can cut back the bandwidth necessities by transcoding the MPEG-2 video to a compressed H.264 stream, however that’ll price you about $330 for each units collectively—rather more than the $200 Scribe Duo by itself.

Provided you may have sufficient ethernet ports and bandwidth, nonetheless, HDHomeRun’s system is as stable as they arrive. I’ve run into no points recording or watching dwell TV over the previous couple weeks with the Scribe and Servio, the image high quality is on par with direct antenna enter, and the system helps 5.1 encompass sound as effectively.

The {hardware} can be expandable, so if you happen to want extra tuners or further storage, you’ll be able to simply plug one other HDHomeRun tuner (with its personal antenna) or Servio into your router. Case in level: Partway via my analysis, I unplugged my very own HDHomeRun Extend tuner and linked the Scribe as a substitute, working it alongside the Servio I’d already been testing. HDHomeRun acknowledged the brand new {hardware} and added it to my DVR pool with out lacking a beat.

Still-clunky software program

Software, by SiliconDust’s own admission, has traditionally been HDHomeRun’s weak level, which is why I’ve usually used the {hardware} along side third-party DVR software program, together with Plex and Channels DVR. Those aren’t choices with the Scribe or Servio, that are solely designed to run HDHomeRun’s personal recording service.

So can HDHomeRun’s DVR software program stand by itself? That depends upon your characteristic expectations and tolerance for interface annoyances.

For dwell TV, HDHomeRun nonetheless makes use of a novel programming information (which it calls “SliceView”) as an alternative of a conventional grid. Programs seem in a strip alongside the precise aspect of the web page, and scrolling proper pops out an outline and future listings for no matter channel is presently highlighted. This does have the benefit of minimizing how a lot data blocks the display whilst you channel surf, but it surely requires much more clicking to see what’s arising subsequent, and visually it’s a giant adjustment coming from most different TV guides.

Elsewhere, the HDHomeRun interface will be cryptic or inconsistent. There’s no visible preview or perhaps a readout of playback time while you quick ahead or rewind via a program. That means it’s onerous to know what you’re skipping via when a business break comes up. And if you happen to watch a recording that’s nonetheless in progress, there’s no immediate to observe dwell as an alternative of from the start, like most DVRs supply.

Getting to the DVR menu additionally isn’t apparent—you may have hit somewhat bullet level button within the playback management menu—and creating team-based sports activities recordings is a complicated course of. (HDHomeRun reveals all occasions from a given league below one web page, and to filter particular person groups, you have to counterintuitively hit an “All Teams” button. Doing so creates a group recording with out additional prompts or affirmation.)

On high of all that, HDHomeRun’s apps are simply form of ugly, with a lime inexperienced coloration scheme and a bubbly background sample that might have a look at house on late 1990s desktop PC. Previously-announced plans so as to add animations, transition results, and film trailers haven’t come to fruition both, additional reinforcing the apps’ outdated really feel.

HDHomeRun’s interface isn’t all unhealthy, although. The “Discover” tab is useful for locating factor to document, letting you flick through cowl artwork for upcoming films, reveals, or sports activities. The recording menu additionally segments packages into TV reveals, films, and sports activities, and you’ll kind every program’s recordings by title, episode quantity, or air date. Once you get the dangle of it, it might begin to really feel considerably environment friendly.

Missing options

Perhaps the larger problem is that whereas HDHomeRun nonetheless has to refine its fundamental interface, different over-the-air DVRs are leaping additional forward on options.

Automatic ad-skipping, as an example, is now obtainable from TiVo, Tablo, Plex DVR, and Channels DVR. Those DVRs additionally supply out-of-home viewing on cellular units (and in some circumstances, on streaming gamers), as does Amazon’s Fire TV Recast. HDHomeRun gives neither of these options.

Meanwhile, HDHomeRun’s Roku app is in beta, and it reveals. To entry recordings, you have to first set up beta firmware on the Scribe or Servio through a Windows or Mac app, and even then, you’ll be able to’t use the Roku app to handle or create new recordings. The Roku app additionally has a distinct interface from different platforms, which will be jarring if you happen to additionally use a Fire TV or different units round the home.

HDHomeRun’s recording choices are on the sparse aspect as effectively. You can save particular person episodes, keep away from recording reruns, and set buffer instances at the start and finish of a recording, however that’s it. There’s no handbook recording on a schedule, no approach to auto-delete greater than a sure variety of older episodes, and no approach to document solely from particular channels.

HDHomeRun doesn’t even present a correct recording schedule to weed out potential conflicts, nor does it provide you with a listing of recordings to cancel while you create a battle. The finest you are able to do is reshuffle packages within the “Tasks” menu and hope for the perfect. Compared to different merchandise, this simply doesn’t really feel like a whole over-the-air DVR resolution.

If it feels like I’m being harsh, it’s solely as a result of SiliconDust has the bones of one thing nice on its fingers with the HDHomeRun Scribe and Servio. There’s an actual want for a whole-home, over-the-air DVR that’s cheap, simple to setup, suitable with a variety of streaming units, and able to preserving broadcasts at their unique high quality. Both merchandise ship on all of these counts. Because the {hardware} is so good, it’s all of the extra irritating that the software program isn’t.

Sticklers for video high quality may discover worth within the Scribe and Servio anyway. But as earlier than, there’s nonetheless a robust case for rolling your personal DVR with an HDHomeRun Connect or Extend tuner, separate media server {hardware}, and third-party software program—even when that introduces its personal set of complications.