Roku users are getting another way to watch live television with the help of their favorite streaming devices: Silicondust, maker of the HDHomerun TV tuners, has released a beta version of its HDHomerun app for Roku TVs and streaming devices.
“We need to start out by saying this is very much a beta product,” the company explained in a blog post this week. As such, the app won’t have some of the more advanced features available on other platforms, including access to the HDHomeRun DVR.
And since the app is in beta, it also isn’t being included in Roku’s channel store for the time being. Instead, users will have to install it with a dedicated code, a procedure that is being explained in detail on HDHomerun’s blog.
SiliconDust is one of a number of companies benefitting from the growing popularity of both streaming and over-the-air broadcast television. Its networked TV tuners give cord cutters a chance to complement their online video subscriptions with free broadcast TV from networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
In its early days, SiliconDust primarily focused on live television viewing. More recently, the company has been adding software- and hardware based DVR functionality to its products.
This includes a new all-in-one DVR dubbed the HDHomerun Scribe, which offers 1TB of recording space with up to 4 tuners, as well as a networked drive with 2TB of recording space dubbed the HDHomerun Servio that can be used to add DVR functionality to existing tuners. Both devices became available for pre-order this month.
Networked DVRs like those made by SiliconDust have long been the domain of smaller startups. This changed when Amazon introduced its own DVR solution last year. The company’s Fire TV Recast works similar to DVRs made by SiliconDust and Tablo, but can only be accessed with Fire TV devices.
