Macos Hdhomerun Signal Strength App

SiliconDust has discontinued Hdhomerun Signal Meter - at least on google play store. Don't know about IOS. Has anyone found a good alternative? Signal Strength should be between +/- 9dBvM but is best near zero cable industry standard is +/-12 and I have found with the prime it should be better than 85% on this page. Strong signal affects tuner changing speeds and can relate to a host of issues and causes. A signal strength of +15dBmV can do damage to tuner if left on for extended time.

Check the signal strength using the following command: hdhomerunconfig FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/status. 4) Select the program number. Hdhomerunconfig FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/streaminfo. Hdhomerunconfig FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/program. 5) Launch VLC and open network stream From the command line: vlc udp://@:1234. From the GUI: Launch VLC File - Open.

Today we will review the best external HDTV network tuners on the market today. External HDTV network tuners have been around for several years now and have grown in favor over traditional television tuners because of the maximum flexibility the provide. Companies like SiliconDust, Tablo and Hauppauge have been leaders in this market for years. Let’s take a look at the best they have to offer so that you can make an educated choice on which one best suits your needs.

I happen to have an HDHomerun tuner I wasn’t using, so I hooked it up to my antenna and downloaded an app called Signal GH ($2.99) to read the signal strength coming from the towers on my phone. With a WiFi scanner Mac devices can analyze signal strength and reliability with ease. When your device knows WiFi signal strength Mac lets you switch signals easily; and a WiFi scanner tells you in real time if something changes with an internet connection. Best WiFi Analyzers for macOS. ‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about WiFi Strength Indicator. Download WiFi Strength Indicator for macOS 10.9 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. ‎WiFi Strength Indicator provides a menu bar item that indicates the signal strength of your current WiFi connection. I purchased an HDHomeRun Connect earlier today from Micro Center and have been trying to get it to work with my home network. I'm able to access the streams but the signal cuts in and out (picture is pixelated and choppy, some stations will go to 'audio only' even though the HDHR Config says signal strength is good - 70-85% or so).

Why Buy External HDTV Network Tuners

Before we jump right in and look at some of the top external HDTV network tuners on the market right now, let’s discuss some strong reasons why they should be at the center of any serious Cord Cutters setup.

Maximum Installation Flexibility

Buy buying external HDTV network tuners you untether your HDTV OTA Antenna from your television set location completely. What do I mean? I mean that by going with external HDTV network tuners you no longer need to be concerned with how far your antenna run is from your television set or splitter.

Since we know that cable length will affect signal quality, it is generally better to keep your cable runs as short as possible. For more best practices be sure to check out my article 7 Ways To Boost Your HDTV Antenna Signal!

By purchasing external HDTV network tuners you can position your tuner box or boxes (in my case anyway) in a convenient location in order to minimize the distance between the tuner and your antenna. If you look at the image below, my tuners are actually stored in my upstairs closet tucked neatly out of site.

My antenna cables run through my attic and come down through the ceiling in my closet area. This keeps my antenna cable runs as short as possible and eliminates the cabling “eye-sore”.

You can see that I have two SiliconDust HDHomeRun EXTEND network tuners which are a personal favorite of mine. Each one of these tuners has two tuners built into it. This means I can bring in one antenna signal and that signal is shared across two tuners. What this will allow me to do is watch two completely different channels from one shared antenna signal. Pretty cool!

Multiple HDTV Tuners Built In

You may be asking, why does he have two of these? That’s a fair question, so let me explain. I have two directional antenna mounted atop a 10 foot mast off my pergola. One of them points toward my American broadcast towers and the other points at my Canadian broadcast towers (yes I live close to the US/Canada border).

By having two of these external HDTV network tuners, there is no need to motorize or move my antennas. One antenna (US) comes into the one tuner box and the other antenna (Canada) goes into the other tuner box.

Because both of these tuners are “dual tuners” I effectively have a total of 4 HDTV tuners in my setup. Of course, because the antennas point in different directions they don’t pickup exactly the same channels, however, there is significant overlap due to my location.

If you would like to get yourself one of these tuners, I highly recommend purchasing one from Amazon using the link here. The SiliconDust HDHomeRun EXTEND gets my top spot for external HDTV network tuners!

Of course having one, two, three or even four tuners is not unique to the HDHomeRun alone. Many of the top external HDTV network tuners on the market have multiple tuners built in. The Tablo 4-Tuner OTA DVR is another top performer and claims the number two spot on my list.

Before we list even more reasons why you should buy external HDTV network tuners for your OTA Antenna setup, let’s recap my top two picks so far.

Wired and Wireless Streaming Options

This is another reason you should be buying external HDTV network tuners for your new OTA Antenna setup. The ability to receive your antenna signal and then distribute them over your wired or WIFI networks is nothing short of awesome!

That’s right, by purchasing an external network tuner you are no longer constrained to watching television in just one place. By purchasing one of the tuners listed above, you can stream your OTA antenna signal to one or more televisions (via an Android or similar media streaming box like the NVIDIA SHIELD TV), tablets, smartphones, you name it.

Basically any smart device that is compatible with their system. Here is a list of some of the compatible streaming devices that will work with these external HDTV network tuners:

Windows 32 bit or 64 bit Laptop’s or PC’s
Mac OS X 10.11 and higher
iPhone/iPad 10.3.3 or higher
Android 4.4.2 and higher (NVIDIA Shield TV)
Xbox One

Third-Party Signal Strength Apps

This is an often overlooked advantage to purchasing external HDTV network tuners. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to go up on a roof to adjust or fine tune my TV antenna. Without external HDTV network tuners in your setup this task requires two people (or a lot of up and down a ladder for one person!).

One person at your TV looking at the builtin signal meter and another person on the roof adjusting the antenna. This is usually followed by the two people yelling at each other…HOW’S THAT? and the other person yelling A LITTLE MORE…A LITTLE MORE STILL…TOO FAR GO BACK! I think you get the picture.

The benefit of external HDTV network tuners is that most of them will have third-party signal meter support. I personally use Hdhomerun Signal Meter which is a free app downloadable from the Google Playstore. This little app has been a life saver on several occasions for me whether at my own house or family members houses.

It will automatically find you HDHomeRun EXTEND devices and allows you to tune different channels on your device right from the app. Check out the screenshot from my phone of this app in action!

You can see it measures Signal Strength, SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) Quality and Symbol Quality. It also gives you the data rates it’s currently transmitting at and will allow you to tune in a station right from your phone. This is a great feature and all in your back pocket on your roof…can’t do that with your builtin TV tuner!

Dedicated HDTV Tuner Hardware

The last advantage I will state that should give you more than enough reasons to buy external HDTV network tuners for your OTA Antenna setup is that fact that it is dedicated hardware. When you buy a television set you’re not buying it because of the tuner hardware in the TV (in most cases anyway).

Backyard baseball 1997 free download full version. You’re buying a TV because you want to have a crisp, high quality picture that will deliver 1080p or pristine 4K video. The TV tuner hardware that is builtin to the television set probably doesn’t even get a thought.

As a result most TV manufacturers will put little investment into the tuner hardware that is builtin to these television sets. Companies like Silicon Dust, Tablo TV and Hauppauge, this is all they do! They are in the business of building tuner hardware, therefore, this hardware will be built with better quality components, within tighter specifications and as a result will yield better and more reliable picture quality.

I’ve mentioned Hauppauge twice now in this article but have not presented any tuner options for you from this company. Hauppauge is a company that is targeting the PC market and as a result build more USB and traditional PCI (internal) type tuner cards, however, they do offer a tuner box similar to those list above.

If you are in the market for this type of tuner hardware let me recommend two external devices that I have personally used with excellent results. All the devices listed below are available on Amazon.

Hauppauge 1660 Broadway TV Wi-Fi Network TV Tuner

Final Thoughts

Well there you have it, some solid reasons why external HDTV network tuners should be a part of any serious Cord Cutters HDTV OTA Antenna setup. For a complete overview of my current setup be sure to check out my article on The Best HDTV Antenna Setup Right Now!

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some of my other articles today:

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out my Top 10 Antenna Picks for this year and leave me a comment!

Good omens radio drama download. The Antenna Guy!

Getting your antenna pointed in the right direction for a Silicon Dust HDHomerun tuner isn't too big of a chore if you have an Android phone and a little patience.

I'm assuming you have an HDHomerun tuner plugged into your network.

First, figure out what kind of antenna you need. AntennaWeb is a great resource for this. Provide your street address and zip code and it'll tell you how far away TV stations are from your house and which direction you need to point your antenna.

Hdhomerun Signal Strength App

I went a little overkill and bough the DB4e antenna from Antenna's Direct.

Next, figure out how you'll mount your antenna. For me, I found a broken shower curtain rod that I used for a mounting pole in a scrap piece of lumber. I then attached the scrap piece to the joists in the attic.

Using the degree values from AntennaWeb, point your antenna in the right direction. There's a great free Compass app available in the Android store. Point the top of your phone in a direction and it'll tell you which direction in degrees you are pointing in the bottom left corner.
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Use the HDHomeRun Setup application on your computer to scan for channels. This can be found under the Digital Antenna tab. After you hit scan, you'll see all the channels your antenna can tune.

To watch a channel, click on one of the hyperlinks. If the quality is less than desired, adjust the antenna. If the antenna is far away from your computer (like mine), there's another awesome free Android app that can check signal strength: HDHomerun Signal Strength.

Macos Hdhomerun Signal Strength App Android

Macos Hdhomerun Signal Strength App Setup

Hopefully, with just a couple of adjustments using the Compass and Signal Strength apps, you'll reach optimal tuning. This was a big help for me and my antenna mount in the attic. Here it is after just an hour or so of mounting and adjusting.

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