Which Broadcast TV DVR Brings in the Most Channels?

I tested four of the most popular broadcast TV DVR brands (Mediasonic Homeworx, Tablo Gen 4, AirTV, and SiliconDust HDHomeRun Flex Duo) to see which one has the best tuner. If you want to see the results, jump to the bottom of this article. Otherwise, I’ll first talk about how I tested.

My Test Method

In the past, I’ve found any testing related to broadcast TV reception to be very tricky. While you’re testing one device, a cloud could roll in and affect the testing of the next device, skewing the results. If your antenna moves even a fraction of an inch, it could affect the results as well.

The solution, I realized, is to test all of the tuners at the same time using the same antenna! I accomplished this through the use of a Channel Master CM-3214HD antenna signal splitter:

This is a passive (non-amplified) splitter that distributes the antenna signal to four devices. Note that each output has the same amount of attenuation, -7.5dB. (In my first experiments, I unwittingly used a splitter with unequal output attenuation, rendering those results useless.)

This would allow me to run channel scans on all four DVRs simultaneously using the exact same antenna signal! Furthermore, I could also tune all of the DVRs to the same channel to compare reception quality.

My Test Setup

Here are the four DVRs connected to the splitter:

Each DVR is connected to the splitter using a short RG6 coax cable. I didn’t bother attaching hard drives to most of them since I’m only testing the tuner, not recording.

The screen is required for the Mediasonic Homeworx box. The rest use apps to watch live TV or recordings.

Initial Channel Scans

I wanted to test the devices using a variety of antenna orientations to simulate weak to strong TV signals.

So, for my first test, I didn’t use a store-bought antenna; I used a paperclip as my antenna! This is an old trick; you just stick the paperclip into the center of the coax connector to form a primitive (weak) antenna.

I kicked off channel scans on each of the devices and eagerly awaited the results. They were a little anticlimactic. Each unit picked up the same five channels (here in Los Angeles, these were 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and 13.3).

For my next scan, I plugged in my trusty Mohu Leaf indoor antenna and laid it flat on a table, then ran a channel scan. I then propped up my antenna (to try to improve the reception) and ran a scan. Here are the number of channels found after those scans:

As you can see the tests were kind of inconclusive. Mediasonic did the worst in the first test but best in the second one. Note on this day, the clouds were moving in and out, contributing to the chaotic readings.

I also verified that the Tablo Gen 4 got the most channels with the internal amplifier ON, so I left it that way for the rest of my testing.

Continued Scans Over the Next Few Days

I decided to take additional readings over the next few days in a variety of weather conditions ranging from overcast to sunny, with the antenna upright and flat. Here are those results:

Some patterns seem to be emerging..

The Channel Scan Results: AirTV Wins!

Throwing out the paperclip antenna scans because those were all the same, here are the average number of channels each DVR was able to pick up during the nearly week of channel scans:

So, in my testing of the sheer number of channels found, the AirTV 2 found the most channels on average, followed by the Mediasonic Homeworx box, then the HD HomeRun Flex Duo, then Tablo Gen 4.

But wait, you might protest, this only tells the number of channels found, not the quality of station reception! What if a DVR picks up more channels but they are all pixelated with dropouts?

Picture Quality Testing

In an ideal world, I would need to check each channel that was picked up in every scan and score it for picture quality. But given that each test generates almost 400 channels, that would take way too long.

Instead, I took a sample of “flakey” channels and tuned each DVR to them to see which was best at picking up marginal channels.

I tuned all four DVRs to the same flakey channel, then sat and observed to see which one was best. This was somewhat of a subjective process, but I did my best. The channels I tested were 2.1, 7.1, 11.1, and 13.1, all popular channels in the Los Angeles area.

I simply ranked the DVRs from best to worst in each case. The average results are as follows:

So in this testing, the HDHomeRun box had the best picture quality in terms of freezing and pixelation.

But, in all cases, the channels I tested were unwatchable if you were trying to watch a show for real. So, it’s not like the HDHomeRun gave a watchable video stream while on the AirTV2 it was unwatchable. It was unwatchable on all, but slightly better on the HDHomeRun.

One thing I didn’t like about the AirTV2 is that it would eventually “give up” when tuning a flakey channel, showing this screen:

The Tablo Gen 4 would also eventually give an error screen, though not as quickly.

I prefer how the HDHomeRun and Homeworx boxes worked – they just kept trying to tune the channel forever, never giving an error screen.

Software Testing

A side effect of all of this testing is that I had to use the user interfaces of these devices over a period of time, giving me a good comparison of software quality.

As far as watching TV was concerned, the Sling app (AirTV 2) for iPhone was the most buggy for me, requiring me to restart when switching channels at times.

As far as running channel scans was concerned, the Tablo Gen 4 app for iPhone was the most buggy, often hanging when attempting to do multiple channel scans, and requiring me to exit the app and restart (one time I had to reboot my iPad to fix it).

The Homeworx on-screen interface and the HDHomeRun app were flawless during my testing with no crashes and no hangs!

Here’s a summary of software quality during my testing

The Bottom Line

OK, so what are we to make of all of this? There was no consistent winner!

I think we can say that all of these boxes are pretty close in tuner quality. Although AirTV2 did win in the number of channels found, it lost in the subjective “quality” when tuning a flaky channel and in app software quality.

If you own one of these boxes, there’s no need to go out and get a different one to get more channels. It’s unlikely that a different box will suddenly get you a lot more channels. You’ll get much better results by playing with antenna position!

If you’re looking to buy a DVR, you should consider these results along with many other, perhaps more important, features of the units. For example:

• Ability to watch recordings away from home (AirTV2 is the only one that lets you do this)
• No fees for channel guide (HDHomeRun has a fee)
• Ease of setup (HDHomeRun has minimal setup documentation)
• Ease of connecting hard drives (AirTV2 is very fussy)

And so on. For more information on all four of these DVRs, check out my detailed reviews of each one.

What Do You Think?

Are these results surprising to you? Do you have any other ideas for experiments that I could do with this setup? Let me know in the comments below! – Brian