New HD-2100V DVR/ Converter Box with 16GB Memory Stick

We use this DVR / Converter box on a daily basis and are very satisfied with it. It gives us problem-free service all the time.

It was pretty simple to hook up. The instructions were in very small print and had to use a magnifying glass to read them. That said it does not have any instructions on how to do recording. I had to figure that out myself. Over all it is ok for the price.

First of all the owner's manual is virtually useless. Print is so small it is barely readable with a magnifying glass. Does not provide any set up instructions. Will not record with the 16GB flash drive they provide. You need at least a 1TB external hard drive and they cost another $70, more than the DVR. Fast forward is pathetic about 4 frames per second, takes forever to zap commercials and sometimes during flashback the unit locks up and goes blank and you have to reboot. The vendor I bought it from, AntennaDeals.com, never returned my numerous requests for a replacement! Do not do any business with them!

I really wanted this item to be a reliable product as it has the features I've been looking for. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment. I bought 4 of these from another vendor as I wanted to be able to record over-the-air TV broadcasts to USB thumb drives. But due to buggy firmware, they are very unreliable. Why do so many of the items manufactured these days fail miserably in meeting customer expectations and requirements?Pros:The TV Tuner performs well enough.The video quality of recorded HD broadcasts is goodWhen it works, it works pretty well.Cons:1. The firmware is buggy.2. Like a computer, it will lock-up occasionally and you will miss scheduled recordings. And you will need to re-boot it to restore it to working order.3. Won't let you schedule recordings sometimes because it erroneously thinks it conflicts with another scheduled recording (again due to buggy firmware)4. Scheduled programming function is buggy. For instance, any recording that starts before midnight and runs past midnight will never terminate and the unit will continue to record until it runs out of space on the attached hard drive or flash drive.5. The unit responds sluggishly from commands issued from the remote control, probably due to the CPU that powers it being under-powered.6. You have to navigate through 4 levels of menus just to check how much space is left on a flash drive.7. Playback of recorded videos on the unit is not well implemented or user friendly.8 Within the first month of owning these, 2 of the 4 units I purchased started experiencing intermittent color sync problems. This problem seems to be hardware related rather than firmware related.9. The manual provides a url for getting support from the manufacturer, but when I visited the web site looking for firmware updates to solve the record scheduling problems I've encountered, there was no support of that kind provided.10. Recorded video format is of the ".mts" format, which might be a problem for some playback devices. The user should be able to select the recording video format to insure compatibility with his other playback devices. In my case, I have to convert the ".mts" video files to ".mpg" format to play them on other devices. This is a huge inconvenience.

WORK GREAT BUT TV GUIDE NO, TOO MANY CHANNELS DO NOT APPEAR THEIR PROGRAMMING

We already have HD antenna reception which is clear. When we hooked up the converter box the reception was distorted.

This was a total waste of money. I am familiar with audio visual technology but could not set the time zone for recording nor the time for recording properly.. Other larger USB thumb memories were not compatible so could not increase memory for recording and 16gb is not enough. The schedule of shows was a simple listing and not complete. Eventually, while trying to play a recording it locked and even after unplugging the power, the HDMI and the USB, I could not get any response. I had to disconnect it completely to watch TV again. This device was terrible. I am trying to get a refund but donlt hold out much hope.

This is a cheap unit. You get what you pay for. It skips and pixilates (or as they mosaics) on play back. They say it is poor signal so I put a signal booster on but the same problems. I would recommend a more expensive unit to experiment with.