Excellent, but not perfect HTPC control option
349784
I'd give this 4.5 stars if possible. It's a great product, perfect for HTPCs, but it has a few minor frustrations that come with it.

First of all, the Pros:

I have four HTPCs in my house, all running Windows Media Center and Plex. I had been using a cheap USB infrared sensor, which I programed into a Harmony remote on every HTPC. They worked great for a long time, but recently some of them stopped functioning properly. Two machines are Windows 7, and still work as usual and as expected. Two others run Windows 8. Both of those stopped accepting play, pause, stop, etc. They would only accept directional inputs, enter, and back. Nothing I would do would fix it permanently. FLIRC, however, runs perfectly because it appears to the computer as a keyboard, not a remote.

And the Cons/frustrations:

First of all, there is software available to program it for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I first tried to program it on my Mac, but because it shows up as a keyboard, OS X wants you to press various buttons to detect what kind of keyboard it is. Since it doesn't actually have any keys, there's no way past this little annoyance. Perhaps the product support forums have a remedy, but the point of this was ease of use, not digging through online forums to find work-arounds.

Second, there are preconfigured keyboards built into the software, from a simple directional pad (up, down, left, right, select/enter, and back), a full keyboard, and program layouts for XBMC, Amazon Fire TV, and Windows Media Center. I bought this for WMC, and went straight to that program layout. It didn't work out so well for me, the remote buttons didn't work as expected when I tried them out. HOWEVER, if you just search for Windows Media Center keyboard shortcuts, and program it with the full keyboard, it works fantastically. It can emulate any key or key combination (shift, ctrl, alt, windows + key) - it's unfortunate that this did require a little digging online for a work-around.

Overall, I'm glad I bought this, and am looking forward to receiving a second one for the other HTPC that's misbehaving. I would recommend this product as the best option for controlling an HTPC with a standard remote control.
2793405
I really like this remote.  I'm using it with JRiver media center on my HTPC and it is working very well!

Pros:
Labeled buttons.  Some media center remotes just use inscrutable pictographs on a lot of the key shortcut buttons, and if you forget what they mean, it doesn't work too well.  This one actually has text labels!

IR blaster:  I can program the remote to control the volume and power on my Receiver, and the power on my TV.  Super easy with JRiver media center and included IR blaster.

Good power/reception: No problems so far with the remote getting its signal to the receiver.

Cons:
Labels and buttons are small, so not friendly for the vision challenged.

USB cable on the receiver is too short for my setup.  I'll get a USB extension cable to handle this.

I would prefer to have a few "extra" buttons for programmable features.  As it is, I'm using the colored buttons on the bottom of the remote to do power on for my receiver and amp (labeling them with a label maker), but I suppose that means that in applications where those colored buttons may have a function (like a blu-ray movie perhaps?) I can't use them for the intended application.
2032302
I bought this item about 3 weeks ago to go with my Win 7 powered HTPC.

Pros:
- Price, Price, Price
- Trackball is smooth and fairly accurate, not jumpy
- Mouse select buttons easily pressed with index fingers, like an XBox
  controller
- Keyboard buttons are spaced and large enough to be used by
  people with "sausage fingers", much better than phone buttons
- Range is great from 10 feet, I haven't used it further away
  because of my eyesight problems.
- Has 12 Media Center Dedicated buttons that work out of the box
  (Play/Pause, Skip/FWD, Skip/RWD, Mute, Vol+, Vol-, etc)
- Arrow keys (great for traversing the TV guide within Media Center 7)
- Scroll bar for scrolling through large pages or selections quickly
- ON/OFF button on the back of the controller.
- Awesome for Web surfing outside of Media Center, which is a reason
  I wanted a Keyboard/trackball instead of a Media Center Remote control
- Uses 2 AA batteries ( I actually like the fact I don't need to keep
  plug-in in this device to a USB port for charging)
- Size ( it is roughly the size of a DVD disc when you hold
  it between your index finger/thumb)
- Sleep function to save on batteries

Cons:
- Arrow keys get kinda jumpy once in a while.
- If you haven't used a trackball mouse before, it takes some time to
  get used to it.
- If you are not aware of the device's sleep function, you might think
  the device is slow. You need to press a Keyboard key to wake up the device.
  It takes about 5 sec, to come back to life.

  If you are like me and you are looking for a device that you can replace a
  keyboard and mouse combo for Win 7 Media center, this is a great product for
  the price and as a starting point.
1855566
I had the opportunity to test WHD-200 Wireless HDMI Transmitter and Receiver only yesterday, since I was out of the country.

Result is excellent (5/5).  The HD resolution & color quality are kept in tact while the video is transmitted.  I was mentally prepared to allow for, say, 5% loss.  But it did not happen!

Only disappointment is that IR Blaster's function is not explained properly even in the 28 page User Manual.  Yes, page-15 is set apart for this.  But this is not understandable.

Somehow I learnt it by trial and error and by web-search on other TVs provided with IR Blaster.

I place two suggestions:
1. Redraft your Manual with clear illustrations for IR Blaster.
2. Send some explanatory material by email to me, which you may use in revising page 15.
1990918
I have been pursuing effective and stable solutions to watch and record TV on my PCs for at least 10 years. The HDHomeRun Prime is the major part of the solution. I am absolutely pleased with the performance. I started with ATI hybrid TV video cards. The software was unreliable and not friendly. Then I found a good, cheap TV PCI bus adapter that worked with Windows 7 Windows Media Center. That worked great until Comcast rolled out cable digital encryption and I had to use a digital adapter box. This left me with no way to change the cable box channels automatically for scheduling recordings. To handle the cable box channel switching I went through a series of USB controlled IR blasters controlled by Windows Media center. I decided to switch to a USB TV adapter dongle as I was planning to swap my desktops for laptops. I went through a few of those, but I had intermittent problems with IR blaster stability and RF cable connections. The USB TV dongles tended to overheat and the whole configuration was not very neat. The HDHomerRun solves all those problems. Get an M-Card from your cable TV provider to plug into the HDHomeRun Prime. Connect it to your Ethernet network and activate it. No cable boxes. I won't go into the possible issues with Windows 7 Windows Media Center. I am still having a problem with one of my three laptops on my network. Once W7 MCE is squared away, as with my other two laptops, watching and recording TV is effortless. Windows 8.1 Pro is another possibility that will work but I have not tried it. If you want remote control of the Windows Media Center you can get kits with a USB IR sensor and remote control to do that. Wired network configuration is recommended because three TV streams my overload a wireless router. I have one laptop that uses wireless and it is OK so far but the other two are wired. I should have gone to the HDHomeRun Prime a year ago. Now, my one laptop issue. This is a problem a lot of folks with Windows 7 have seen where Media Center setup has problems with PLAYREADY, the software that allows use of protected content. It has a lot to do with the PC hardware configuration changes. I think Windows thinks the configuration has changed since I removed the USB TV dongle and installed the HDHomeRun Prime. The absolute fix for that is an OS reload. Despite that I am very pleased with the HDHomeRun Prime.
1771556
I love the Harmony system as a do-it-yourself solution for creating a single remote that controls "it all". I bought this because the older version was "bricked" by Harmony, and so for that I drop my rating from a 5 to a 4. Incorporation of Philips Hue control is appreciated to help make lighting scenes for the home theater. Harmony reduced the number of components that can be controlled in this latest version, down to eight. This is probably not an issue for most families, but I did have to drop out one component from my home theater because of this. The fact that IR, UHF, WiFi, and BT components can all be operated from the Hub is almost magical!
2469680
I used windows 10 home on this, it works great as an HTPC, very quick.  I have only used 1080P so far, have not tried 4k yet.
2226402
With the firmware update I was able to get this thing working like a charm under ubuntu linux. Great control device for an HTPC.
2873590
Excellent, but be aware if your monitor or TV does not take HDMI 1020p,  you will not be able to see the image.  does not work at 720p
4516964
I believe it is one of the best motherboards for HTPC setup, although it has cons - nothing is perfect. It works perfectly fine for me, being connected to the family room 55" screen.

Setup: ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+, A10-7850 "Kaveri", G.Skill Ripjaws X 8 Gb DDR3-2133 (@2133-9-10-10-24-1T-1.65V), SanDisk Ultra Plus 128 Gb SSD, Antec Minuet case with 350 W PS, Kingwin KF-251-BK 2-Bay Internal Enclosure, LG GGC-H20L HD-DVD & BR reader.

Pos: it has all the "bells and whistles", no matter how you want to use this small motherboard - WiFi, SPDIF, HDMI 1.4, USB 3, SATA III, etc. IT fits almost in any ITX and larger cases, I use MATX case and it is an overkill in size for this mobo. Works perfectly good with Windows 8.1 Pro Media Center edition.
Great option is HDMI in (pass through), it is possible to connect any type of additional HDMI unit - like PS4, media player or second PC.

Cons: It is almost impossible to find a compatible APU cooler for HTPC low profile setup - I have tried different versions, including Noctua NV-LH12 and CM Gemini II. The location of memory slots is too close to the APU. The original APU cooler works fine being reversed, but when you play games, at some point it becomes to be too noisy. I have to find a higher profile case.

It is important to reverse the cooler's flow, because it blows the hot air on motherboard components - already heated resistors and power MOSFETs.
I reversed the air flow and attached small heat sinks to the resistors and MOSFETs, now everything works fine - heat is removed out of the motherboard instead of overheating it, but under heavy load the setup is still noisy. It is silent if one doesn't play games though.

TI NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets) is just an old outdated budget op amp, which has nothing to do with the sound quality - i.e. people replacing it in CD players always mention great improvements. Unexperienced design engineers continue to use it due to the low level of distortions - in the datasheet.
It sound OK, but not good - I believe due to low level high harmonics (good measurements, but one can hear the difference, especially comparing with known good sounding OPA627 or AD797 op amps).
There are plenty of modern substitutes like OPA1612 or older (but still OK) OPA2134, it is obvious that ASRock design engineers have no experience with high end audio. Supposedly it should be a socket to replace op amps (as it is advertised on the early pictures), but I received the motherboard with soldered NE5532.
Such as I either use HDMI or SPDIF for audio connections, it doesn't really matter.

The last thing - the soldering quality is quite low comparing for example with perfect MSI's soldering quality - it is satisfactory for class 2 products but will fail class 3 IPC-A-610 requirements. Such as this product is not used in class 3 units, this is not an issue though.
4471329
HDHOMERun is a must have for any HTPC owner for simplifying the setup even further by not having to put expensive PCI or PCIe based TV tuner cards in the HTPC that you build. This tiny little device can be tucked away and connected to your wired network or wireless N (Dual band 300MBps ) and have immediate access to two HD ATSC/QAM  based tuner by your HTPC and or any other PC that needs access to the TV tuners - Love it.

Keeping HTPC cool is primary concern for most users. Keeping tons of TV tuners out of the PC does help to reduce the power consumption little bit and also keeps the HTPC cooler. This device consumes insignificant power and does that job perfectly.

The Signal strength maintained by these two tuners are pretty consistent in the upper 80+ range and in my tests I found that it had very good Multipath rejection in the area that I live.

If you live in a metropolitan area where you might have very tall buildings and very strong local channels, multipath is the major cause for most ATSC based tuners to drop connection even though you have strong signals and cause pix-elation. Unlike the discontinued Analog signals Multipath does not cause ghost-like displaced images on the screen as seen with TV's with rabbit ears in the early days, though the term "ghost" is still used to describe multipath.

PROS:
[+] Very small and low power consumption
[+] Dual Tuners in a compact package
[+] Decent enough gain and very good 'GHOST' Multipath rejection
[+] Drivers and software works very well with Windows 7 MCE
[+] Multiple PC's can access the tuner (Tuners can be used only by one PC at a time)
[+] Includes COAX cable and Ethernet cables and good quality hardware build.

CONS:
[-] Wish they had different inputs for Clear QAM and 8VSB ATSC digital television standard.
[-] Requires additional software download (Microsoft .NET 4.0)

If you have cable service for Internet Access (Not for TV) you may get lucky to find few unscrambled clear QAM channels which this device is able to get via the two QAM tuner interfaces. But the CON mentioned above does make it difficult to wire the device to your rooftop antenna at the same time for local ATSC over the air channels.

Other than this one glaring issue the tuner performed flawlessly on Windows 7 MCE environment on multiple PC just fine. I am not going to take away any stars in the rating for the CONs mentioned above as they are relatively insignificant if you learn to live with it.

Summary: Good Purchase. Highly recommended.
2524560
My overall feature usage of these switches is limited so I can't say that everything works perfectly, but I will share what I do know.  Feel free to comment if you feel otherwise.

With limited non-enterprise funds, I purchased the 8-port version of this switch and its bigger brother 24-port version (amazingly inexpensive at the time).  After 2 years, these switches have not let me down.  The web interface can be flaky at times (image caching, and especially under Chrome), and the LAG (aggregation/trunking) UI flow could be less confusing, but the stuff just works.  Get the management static IP setup and then toss that proprietary CD software - you will never need it again.

I run the 24-port in my basement, with 2 Win7 Pro servers (40TB 3Ware RAID6 in each) connected via 2-port LAG and a 2-port (50') Cat6 link to the 8-port switch in my living room, for HTPC.  By the way, I have run 4-port LAG as well, it does work on these devices, but with Win7 limits (read on) there is no real need for me and 4gbps links.

Limits imposed by MS, cause Windows 7 Pro (and Ultimate I assume) to limit NIC throughput to 1gbps between any TWO Windows 7 machines (Server 2008 will not), so I no longer get more than 1gbps (900mbps real-world) between any two machines, but in the past when running on XP Pro I used to get almost 2gbps (1.8gbps real-world) between XP machines (very impressive).  But any two machines can push a 3rd machine to hit near 2gbps (the info on this limitation seem hidden at MS, but I have proved this time and time again).  Just accept it.  So any two clients can push 1gbps to the one aggregated NIC in a server (3rd machine), making the aggregation still quite useful on Win7-only networks.  I certainly do miss 2gbps RoboCopy sessions, but not bad enough to buy Server 2008.  I will not do Linux, as I value my time.  :)  I do wish that Fr**NAS and ZFS were reliable.  Maybe someday - a fantasy so far.

I tend to use the Int*l 2-port adapters with the ports aggregated (Int*l drivers so get this configuration right).  The motherboard NIC chips tend to be a pain to configure in LAG - the marketing all talks/lies about it, but the real-world instructions just don't exist for Windows (you will spend forever looking for the drivers and config data) - Linux is sometimes kinder to those cheap NICs - just great that a motherboard NIC can support LAG/aggregation/trunking, but consumers cant really accomplish it, no drivers.

In my opinion (25-year software developer, not a net eng) you will not find a better value in a managed consumer Gbit switch.  I have had a few older NG products die on me (LS and DL much worse), and I have cursed a few NG WNICs (all WNICs stink), but these smart switches have been impressive to date - I hope my luck continues.  I'd love to see a smaller 5-port version, with web interface, but probably no market for that.

I have no stake in this manufacturer, but just wanted to share my positive experience with these switches.

Happy Packets
2976306
I bought this primarily because I wasn't happy with all the universal remote solutions for an HTPC. I wanted to make a really simple one that just allowed me to browse OpenELEC menus, and be able to power it up and down. That feature really helps distinguish an HTPC from being just a regular computer.

Worked great with my test setup. Only gave it 4 stars because I decided to go with a Micca Speck (for now), and don't use it regularly.
2912971
I bought this receiver based on the advice given in several threads on the XBMC websites's forums.  So far, I've not been disappointed.

The HP 5188-1667 is a well build piece of hardware - an obvious improvement over many of the competitor's "dongle" type solutions.  The 5188-1667 also comes with a very generously sized USB cable, to ensure good placement no matter what your cabling situation.

I'm using the 5188-1667 with Windows 7 (x64), along with XBMC, and this was truly a plug-and-play installation.  Once plugged in, it "just worked", with no additional tweaking required.  As for performance, so far, I've been very pleased.  The IR receiver is very responsive, and the range is very good.  There's a small red LED on the front of the 5188-1667 that lights up when an IR signal is received, helping you know that your signal was seen by the receiver.

Ultimately, I plan to pair the 5188-1667 with my Logitech Harmony One universal remote.  I've not had time to attempt this yet, but once I do, I'll update this review as warranted.

As it stands, I'd have no reservations in recommending this product to anyone in the market for a solid, dependable IR receiver.
1227993
THIS WILL NOT BE A LONG REVIEW, SHORT AND SWEET!

RECEIVED THE HAUPPAUGE 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 TUNER BOARD ON NOV 29, 2011.

INSTALLED IN MY HOMEBREW HTPC (MORE ON THIS LATER). I DOWNLOADED THE NECESSARY DRIVERS FROM THE HAUPPAUGE WEBSITE (YOU SHOULD ALWAYS DO THIS WITH ANY PRODUCT TO GET THE LATEST SOFTWARE). I THOUGHT, SO FAR, SO GOOD! WELL I SPENT CLOSE TO 4 HOURS TRYING TO GET IT TO WORK WITH WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER. I FINALLY GOT TO A POINT, THAT, IF I TUNED A CHANNEL AND SHUTDOWN WMC, I COULD, THEN, RE-START WMC AND THE STATION WOULD WORK, HOWEVER, IF I TRIED TO CHANGE CHANNELS IT WOULD JUST HANG AND GO BLANK. NOT A DESIRABLE FEATURE. I'M GUESSING IT'S SOME SOFTWARE I HAVE ON MY HTPC THAT'S CAUSING THE PROBLEM, BUT, I WASN'T GOING TO START OVER WITH A FRESH INSTALL OF WINDOWS 7 (IT WAS INSTALLED 3/10/2011, SO IT'S PRETTY NEW) AS THIS WOULD BE VERY TIME CONSUMING.

I DOWNLOADED THE WINTV APP FROM THE WEB, INSTALLED IT (INSTALLATION WAS A BREEZE) AND IT HAS WORKED PERFECTLY EVER SINCE! IT SCANNED ALL OF MY CABLE CHANNELS AND PRESENTED ALL OF THEM TO ME, I MADE SOME EDITS ("UNKNOWN" CHANNELS WERE DELETED AS THEY DIDN'T WORK ANYWAY) AND I'M HAPPY WITH THE END RESULT. THE WINTV SOFTWARE RECOGNIZED MY EXISTING USB IR RECEIVER AND IS WORKING WITH IT. I LIKE THE WAY THE WINTV SOFTWARE WORKS, IT'S MORE STRAIGHT FORWARD THAN NEGOTIATING THE WMC MENU SYSTEM. YOU ALSO GET A LINK FOR TITAN-TV'S VERSION OF A "TV GUIDE", THAT, DISPLAYS THE SHOW INFORMATION IN A CLEAR AND CONCISE FASHION.

MY HTPC (SO FAR):
ROSEWILL DESTROYER ATX MID-TOWER CASE
ASUS MOBO M4A785-M MICRO-ATX
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 BLACK 3.4GHz (Quad)
8GB TOTAL DDR2 MEMORY: (4GB CORSAIR MEMORY [2x2GB, DDR2] + 4GB ADATA MEMORY [2x2GB, DDR2])
GIGABYTE GV-N450OC2-1GI GEFORCE GTS 450 VIDEO (Fermi)
WESTERN DIGITAL 3.5 500GB CAVIAR BLUE (WD5000AAKS) - System
HITACHI Deskstar 3.5" 1TB HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) - Storage
ePOWER TVPA550 550W ATX POWER SUPPLY
SAMSUNG BLU-RAY DRIVE SH-B123L
SAMSUNG 22X DVD BURNER
COOLER MASTER HYPER N520 CPU COOLER
CONNECTLAND CL-HD-MROF (Mobile HDD Rack)
WINDOWS 7 PRO 64-BIT
HAUPPAUGE 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 TUNER BOARD

REMOTES:
Rosewill Windows Vista Certified Media Center Infrared Remote Control RRC-126
Rii 2.4GHz Mini Wireless Keyboard & Touchpad

MY HTPC IS NOW COMPLETE (FOR NOW LOL), I CAN STREAM ANYTHING ON THE WEB (HULU, NETFLIX, YOUTUBE, ETC.) TO MY TV AND WITH THE ADDITION OF THIS TUNER CARD, I CAN NOW WATCH AND RECORD SHOWS, TOO!
1064431
I  picked one of these up to use as a HTPC. I am a Linux 'die-hard' and all my machines run Linux. I thought I'd give this a try. I runs very well. I run a Plex server w/a external WD hard drive connected via USB and it runs well. I have installed Kodi also and have had no issues with that either. I have run Hulu and Amazon videos with no problem. I noticed a slight 'skip' on Netflix from time to time, but that may be an issue of too high a resolution when streaming. No overheat issues as of yet. As soon as I got it, I upgraded to Windows 10 and have not had any issues with that at this time.
For the price on this PC, you cant go wrong !
4052086
Purchased this to make a media client. Installing libreElec which is a bare bones pi install with media functionality. It worked right away with test media.

720 streams good over wifi, 1080p doesn't stream smooth at all.

I moved the 1080p media to a usb drive and it played without issue plugged directly into the pi.

I plan to run a wire and try the ethernet interface to see if 1080 with stream without issue.

I combined this unit with a case, heatsinks, and a fan. It plays 1080p without issue from the usb drive.

4 stars because the wifi interface doesn't stream without issue. Otherwise it works great!