Cuando los dispositivos más comunes de una casa dejan de ser las televisiones para convertirse en los ordenadores sin duda hay que replantearse el mercado de la televisión enfocado a las cajas tontas de toda la vida. Por eso, cada vez se recurre más a adaptar la televisión tal cual a los demás dispositivos por medio de aparatos como con el Avermedia Homefree AVPlus, que permite hacer streaming de una señal de televisión a través de la red local de nuestra casa hasta a 2 ordenadores simultáneamente.
The Avermedia Homefree AVPlus is a device that obtains the signal directly from the television antenna and then broadcasts it through the local network of our home, both by WiFi and by cable (as long as we have a WiFi router) and its main feature is its compatibility with the iPad through an application available for free in the App Store (Also with Windows computers).
To make it work we must connect it to a television antenna and also to a router using a network cable (RJ45) and we can configure it from the iPad application itself or from the AverTv 6 program, available for Windows (I have tested it in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and it works perfectly, but it is also compatible with Windows XP). On the iPad, channel tuning is done completely automatically and is very intuitive, much more than on the PC, which gives the impression of being a program that is a few years old and can scare the most beginner users because of all the menus it has.
En PC la reproducción es fluida desde el primer momento, pero en iPad tarda unos segundos en sincronizarse audio y vídeo. Aparte de eso, la ventaja que proporciona el PC es que permite reproducir los canales HD, que en el iPad no se ven, así como ordenar los canales, una acción que incomprensiblemente no se puede hacer desde la App de iPad. Otras características como el Timeshift, las grabaciones o el teletexto tampoco están disponibles en la versión de iPad.
One of the main doubts I had when I started using the device was whether it would consume a lot of bandwidth on my home’s local network continuously, that is, whether it would broadcast the network television signal non-stop. The answer is no. The HomeFree AVPlus only broadcasts when it detects a connected client, so it should not have a negative impact on our connection when we are streaming to another device in the house or transmitting files.
Apart from an antenna input and output, it also has an AV input and output, to connect, for example, a DVD player or a decoder.
In short, the Avermedia Homefree AVPlus is a gadget that fulfills its function of transferring television to all the devices in our home. It can be criticized for not having a Mac version, but otherwise it works correctly. It is small and inconspicuous, so it can be placed anywhere without problem. Many of the shortcomings that I mention in this review are mainly due to the software, nothing that cannot be solved by releasing updates.
In favor
- Allows you to watch television on the iPad without complications.
- The PC application supports 1080p DTT.
- The Windows client has an outdated appearance.
Against
- Is it not available for Mac? (See footnote)
- After the application crashes, you have to wait a bit for the device to work again.
- On the iPad you cannot sort the channels.
Updated: The program HomeFree Player for Mac is available in the Mac App Store, although I have not been able to test it yet and I do not know if it is compatible (I assume so, because in appearance it is the same as the iPad version).