Mohu has the unusual distinction of being a company that’s actually kind of well known for making TV antennas. The Mohu Leaf is one of the more popular indoor HDTV antennas, and the company also has a few other indoor and outdoor antennas to its name.
But Mohu is getting ready to move beyond the antenna with a new box that you can plug into your TV to seamlessly switch between broadcast TV and internet videos.
Update:Â Mohu has launched its Kickstarter campaign for Mohu Channels.
It’s called Mohu Channels, and according to GigaOm, Mohu plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the product soon, offering early adopters the chance to get one for as little as $79.
At first glance, the device would appear to be a lot like an Apple TV, Roku, or Google TV device. It’s a small box that connects to the internet via Ethernet or WiFi and which lets you stream internet video from services such as Netflix while using a wireless remote control.
But Mohu Channels has a feature that few competitors do: you can connect a Mohu Leaf (or a different antenna) to handle over-the-air television. Instead of flipping between input signals on your TV, you can use one box to handle broadcast and online media.
Users will see an on-screen program guide for live broadcasts, or they can flip to Netflix or other online video with the press of a button. The remote control also has a QWERTY keyboard which you can use to surf the web to find online videos from other sites.
Unfortunately there’s one thing that keeps me from considering Mohu Channels as a replacement for my home theater PC: It doesn’t appear to offer DVR functionality.
Leaked specs show that box measures about 4.8″ x 2.6″ x 1.4″ and weighs 3.5 ounces. It has a 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor and uses about 6 watts of power.
Mohu Channels features a USB port, 10/100 Ethernet, HDMI, RF and IR ports, and it can handle a range of audio and video formats including H.264, RealVideo, WMV, MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, and OGG.
Sounds similar to these extant devices:
https://www.cnx-software.com/2014/02/14/android-tv-box-with-satellite-dvb-s2-support-sells-for-93/
Its pricey, but Tivo is still the best for an OTA DVR solution. I use it. I wish Tivo would get its act together with streaming though … Netflix and Pandora and MLB TV are fine, but it doesn’t support Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Having been burned twice by unreliable hardware and buggy firmware from 2 boxes I bought new from Tivo, I welcome any Tivo competitors. I wish Tivo would go away as a company.
Sadly, Philips/Magnavox has similarly burned me several times with its shoddy DVRs. I’ve tried other software, but keep coming back to Juice for Internet downloads.