2025 Upgraded Digital Converter Box for TV, OWERSLYN Invisible ATSC Cabal Box with TV Tuner, DVR Recording & Playback, USB Media Player, HDMI/AV Output 1080P, Timer, Set Top Box, 2in 1 Remote

I have a smart TV that is digital only, no tuner on board so I'd been using another box to bring over the air digital broadcasts in. That thing died, so I bought this after a lot of looking and comparing. I hooked it up following the directions, and unlike some of the reviews for this I've read, I am quite pleased with the performance so far. The picture is excellent, and better than any other in the house for over the air reception. It's small, and the IR receiver is convenient to place where ever you want since you can put the actual receiver about anywhere as well. The on screen menu is easy and I really like how it tells me what the broadcast schedule is. I'd read that some have issues with setting the time, I just went to the timezone and set that, and it's worked flawlessly since. I have practically plugged it in and it works. I didn't mess with any firmware updates or anything, it's pulling in all the stations as well as or better than my other in house tuners do. I won't speak to any recording, as I don't and won't use that feature as all I wanted was the ability to get digital TV reception, and it does this flawlessly for me at least. The remote was easy to set up as well, although it did cause the soundbar to flip out a bit so you're going to want to test all that before you turn it loose on your system as I'm guessing the IR signals were the same as the soundbar save for different control signals that caused me to reset the soundbar. That's the only issue I had, and it was easily remediated with no further issues since. I went into another room to do the remote learning procedure after all that. I've had a few digital receivers for over the air reception, hands down this one so far has done better than all of them put together. Two thumbs up, we'll see how it holds up over time will be the test at this point.

I like that I can now interface my Cable service (coaxial) coming out of wall to my HDMI Port on Fire TV - picture is clearer and I have a remote that allows me to enter the number of the channel I want to watch and go to the channel without multiple clicks on the Fire tv's minimalist and terribly designed remote. That said, setup requires a bit of knowledge not in the user manual to get it set up. The instructions in the accompanying user manual are OK but not real clear on some aspects. And it is tedious to need 4 clicks to add a favorite or delete/move a channel on the channel list. The channel guide is not very useful - so you need to know the number on the channel you want to make this a usable system.

Works perfect. Easy setup. Converts Coax Antenna feed from HDTV antenna to HDMI output.

The picture quality is fine, and the electronic program guide is good. But there are so many problems.* The unit hangs every night, and the remote ceases to function. Unplug and plug it back in, it works fine.* Recording is very hit and miss. Sometimes only half a show is recorded, and multiple day recording seldom works. I think this might be related to the frequent program hangs.* When watching a recorded show, if you pause, forward or rewind, the subtitles come on. If you then turn them off, 30 seconds later they come back on. You are stuck unless you reboot and start from the beginning.* If you stop a recording, you can’t pick up where you left off - have to start over.* To record a show on the program guide, select it, press OK, set parameters, done. Great! However, pressing OK in other areas also starts recording the current show, telling you to press OK to cancel, which then starts another recording session. Unplug it, plug it back in to fix.* Hard disk specs are important. If your drive pulls more than 800 mA you need external power. Spent a week with their tech support trying to get a brand new USB powered 2 TB drive to work, but nope, pulls 1,000 mA. Had to swap in my old powered backup drive, which would connect correctly.* Setup of the drive through their menu system was confusing and inconsistent. I used to work in IT, but this was a real challenge.* Documentation was poor to non-existent. For example, didn’t tell me to record a show, you had to change a parameter from “view” to “record”. This after pressing OK to start a recording session.The return period has passed, but I’m going to give up. There are a lot of choices of devices for viewing and program guides, but I was after recording, and this one just isn’t worth the aggravation.

I concur with the majority of reviewers who’ve given the unit good ratings. I’d recently terminated my cable TV. I was looking for a device that could scan over-the-air channels and provide a menu display with program information similar to what I’d had with cable. The unit’s on-screen menu is limited to a list of channels. There is no program grid or information. However, I was impressed to discover two functions that make the unit more than worth the price. It enables the playback of mp4 files off a USB flash drive. As well, it enables the recording of off-air programs. It’s with the USB and record functions that you get nice menu displays. Although I’d noticed the two features in the item description, I didn’t think they’d actually easily work. As for OTA channel reception, upon connecting the antenna to it, I was pleased that the unit scanned as many channels as when the antenna previously was connected directly into my TV. One tip: Don’t mess with the Picture/Format function. When I clicked on “NTSC,” everything went black. I needed an analogue TV to view and restore the device. Also, as encountered by others, I could not get the date function to work. The unit is not perfect. But all in all I’m happy. I’d buy it again.