The idea of being able to tune TV on my phone was very attractive. I worked very hard to make this tuner work (details below), but the bottom line is at the end it tuned 0 channels no matter what I tried.
Here what I have tried
1) I received the product for testing and review. The first version of the product I received required to download an app from the manufacture's web site in China. I am a software engineer, I have a lot of experience in web security. One thing I would never do is a download an Android app from any place other than GooglePlay or Amazon. I contacted the vendor and told him that until his app undergoes a security scan in GooglePlay his application is not suited for an American audience. The seller agreed to do so.
2) While he was working on getting his application into GooglePlay store I have tried a large number of apps designed for ATSC Pad TV. I have tried more than a dozen application on two different phones. One phone has the latest version of Android (6.1.1), the other phone has 4.4.2 Android. According to documentation the dongle supports both OS versions. None of the of the apps on either of the phones detected the presence of the dongle, generating an error "No device found".
3) When the seller notified me that the app is now available from Google Play I tried it. The seller uploaded two versions of the app, one is meant for USA and one for international market. They look identical, so my first try was with an internal app, it did not list USA as an option and tuned no channels when I tried other countries. Then I tried the second app, it had USA option was listed listed in the drop down. The dongle was detected and the wizard went through the motions of scanning for channels but tuned in 0 channels. I have tried the wizard in several different locations not only at home in hopes to find a better reception, but was not successful.
As you see I spent quite a bit of time trying to make this work... but with no luck.
I received PadTV from the vendor for testing and review. Unfortunately, there is nothing positive that I can say about it other than the vendor was responsive and was able to release his application to GooglePlay when I requested it.
You can find "UHURU ATSC HD TV Tuner" on Amazon via this link
Ali Julia review
