HDML-Cloner Box Turbo, Next-Generation 1080p hdmi Capture Device and Mini Video Capture Box. Schedule capturing with New Hi-Speed Communication Port. 16GB Flash Drive Included.

First, my application was not recording games, rather video -- specifically copying movies and shows off my DirecTV DVR. I've been looking for a solution for a couple years now and have tried other (eg (Haup....) boxes. This works, and while it's not perfect, I am VERY happy.The Good: It records HDMI. Most solutions do not. Simply connected my DirecTV receiver (HDMI) to the "Box" and then pass *the included* HDMI cable to my TV. Press "PLAY" on the DTV remote and press the "RECORD" on the BOX. Done.The Bad... There's no timer. You must press REC again to stop. For gamers, I suspect this is a non-issue, but I'd like to set it up to copy and go to bed. I've done that, and it works, but ended up with a VERY large video file. Since I'm working with a 3 TB HD, not really a major problem. Just takes longer to copy the file to my laptop where I then edit the first minute or 2 and the last 'X' minutes to net-out the video.Again, none of this is major, it's just not as smooth as it could be.I am on my second unit. As others have said, their Customer Service is OUTSTANDING. The company is based in China and every thing is via Email -- so there's a 24hr lag, but I got *useful* responses EVERY time.My first unit was bad and they *immediately* offered a replacement and paid the shipping costs for my return (and shipped the replacement for free !) . THEY followed up asking if I'd shipped the unit.... I did not need to chase them ! Additionally they shipped the replacement as soon as I sent them a tracking number, which was exceptional.The replacement arrived and when I tried, the DirecTV receiver shut down as the (paraphrase) "Connected device does not support copy protection".I thought I had a new software build that would not allow me to do the 1 thing I wanted -- record the movies/TV shows that I wanted.An email to Customer Service and 24hrs later I had a "Do this..." (long key-press-reset)FIXED.Also, on my original unit I tried multiple storage devices. USB thumb drive (included with the purchase), my own (8Gb) and several USB HD's (including a 240Gb SSD). I had mixed results and believe a POWERED USB drive works better than an 'unpowered'. The 2Gb thumb-drive worked, but the 240GB SSD did not. The unpowered (read as requiring the BOX to power my drive) drives (several different sizes and manufacturers) did not. The 2TB powered work the best. I believe POWERED is the key element, although I haven't tested with the replacement BOX I received (just haven't tried). I suspect the USB powre out-put 'out' may be on the edge of underpowered. (just IMHO)Again, the company is based in China, but their manual is in *ENGLISH* as was there email correspondence. I *highlighted* 'ENGLISH' as their instruction manual was fairly complete and clear, and the emails were as well. For me, a unique experience with a China based company.The BOX is not perfect. On occasion it won't recognized the re-attached HD.My pattern was: I would record a movie and then disconnect from the BOX and connect to my laptop. Copy off the file and then re-attach to the BOX to copy another movie..(copied the video file to my laptop for editing and then re-attach to the BOX to record another video.)A LONG (5+ sec.) key press of the REC button resets the unit (I think) and it's good to go.I had been looking for something that would work with my SnapStream BTV. This does not. It doesn't need to. As long as you're willing to press "start" and "stop" (or have a large (eg 60GB) file, it works REALLY well. A little post recording editing (Wondershare !) and I'm done, and frankly it's as easy to edit a 8Gb file as it is a 50Gb file. I'f I did have a DVR, recording a 3am movie would be a pain -- the BOX cannot record the 3am movie (automatically) as there's no timer/tuner control, but I use the Recorder function of the DTV and the PLAY to off-load onto the Box and my HD.HD quality recording for under $100-- Wow !Finally, I work with Technology for a major tech company (not the BOX manufacturer ! :-) )So I understand (and appreciate) good documentation, GREAT support and especially a well made product.This is a lengthy review and hopefully useful as I am a happy customer.If you're looking for a solution to offload your DVR, this is it !Added 1 month later...Still working well but I am still only able to use the 2Tb powered drive. Going on the road and I'd like to take something smaller. Picked up an 128Gb Sd card and USB adapter, and it also has difficulty working, but...What I have found is:1. with the USB drive plugged in, unplug the power from the box.2. Holing down the Rec. button, plug the power back in and continue holding.3. After a short boot-up, the LED will switch to Green. keep holding until it goes Blue, then release.I will the unit did a better job working with USB drives, and I haven't tested my other drives, but I thought I'd add this as it seems to fix my problem and I know others are having it as well. Good luck.

product operates perfectly & customer service is via email is excellent.I purchased this product in late December 2015. It arrived just over 2 weeks later. I connected the HDMI-Cloner utilizing an hdmi splitter, although this is not necessary. I placed it between my Onkyo AV unit and my Samsung TV. It is connected to one side of the splitter, and the other side is connected between the Onkyo and the TV. This way the TV signal goes directly to the TV and the splitter sends the same TV signal to the HDMI-cloner. After I made sure the 16Gb drive that shipped with the cloner was formatted in NTFS, I inserted the it into the cloner. I plugged in the power supply that was included.I followed the instructions which said after power on to wait until the flashing led turned solid blue or green. In my case, after power on, the led alternately flashed blue and green, however the alternate flashing never stopped. I went ahead and held down the "record" button for about 5 seconds until the led turned solid blue, and released the button. At that point I started the video I had paused on the TV, and pressed the cloner "record" button briefly. The light started blinking blue, indicating it was recording. I recorded about 10 minutes and then briefly pressed the cloner record button again. The led started alternate flashing for a few seconds (indicating it was copying the internal buffer to the 16Gb drive. The led then turned solid blue, indicating the drive could be removed.I put the 16Gb drive in my windows 10 PC and the recording (stored in MP4 format in a single file) played perfectly. I could not see or hear any difference from what played on the TV. I recorded several more videos about 5-10 minutes in length. All were stored in single files, and played perfectly. I then recorded a video about 1 hour and 40 minutes (it was stored in a single file). It too played perfectly. I have determined that the recordings use about 4.4Gb per hour in 1080p/1080i.My experience is that the cloner works for what it is intended, and is fairly simple to use. It does require manual starting and stopping, so you cannot leave it unattended.Next, some comments on customer service. I noticed that the recorded file dates on the USB drive were December 2013. I sent an email to cloner alliance, and they replied same day. They told me to download a text file "rtc_setup.txt" from this link:http://www.cloner-alliance.com/files/rtc_setup.txtand to edit it to have the correct time and date (how to do this is below). Then place the text file on the usb drive and insert it in the cloner. When the cloner is powered on, the cloner will see the text file and update the time and date.Next, I emailed them to find out how I could see the firmware version that was installed. Again, they replied same day and told me that the unit they shipped me had the latest firmware.Next I emailed and asked a question about one of the ports on the cloner. It is labeled "IR" on the cloner. They again replied same day and told me the port is actually a "mic" input port.So, I find customer service is prompt and quite responsive on every one of my questions.All of this happened in the first 2 days of use. As I use the cloner more, I will post anything of interest.PS: This device can be found cheaper from other companies on Ebay. However, after much reading of customer comments in various places (not just ebay and amazon), I am not sure the other units are of same quality build, nor do they seem to provide very good customer service. So if you opt for one of the cheaper units that appear to be identical, be careful to fully research.I meant to comment on the cloner-helper software.My cloner came with version 1.3 on the included USB drive. It did not work on windows 10 for me. It gave an error every time I tried to merge two files into one. I downloaded version 1.5 from alliance web site and it worked perfectly merging files. I have not used cloner-helper for any thing else.The instructions for updating the date and time are below: To change recorded file's time, proceed as follows:1.Copy the file "rtc_setup.txt" to USB flash drive or external hard disk.2.Open the file "rtc_setup.txt", the file will be displayed as below:/:2014 -----------------indicated the recorded file's year./:7 -----------------indicated the recorded file's month./:31 -----------------indicated the recorded file's date./:11 -----------------indicated the recorded file's hour./:00 -----------------indicated the recorded file's minute./:00 -----------------indicated the recorded file's second./:0 -----------------indicated the recorded file's number.3. Modify the file according to your local time and then save the changed file to your USB flash drive or external hard disk.4.Connect the USB flash drive or external hard disk to HDMI-Cloner Box.5.Plug the power supply, then press "power on" of HDMI-Cloner Box. the changed time has been written in the process of working.Note: HDMI-Cloner Box's time will be adjusted automatically without Power Supply interrupted.

Simple to use and works quite well. Professional service and great customer support 👍🏻.

It works very well and seems like it can use any output storage device really (even external hard drives - seems like there is no major size limit to plug in). I would give it a 4.5/5 stars though as there are a couple of things that it doesn't do perfectly as desired.1. it doesn't strip HDML from TV setup boxes.2. and it might need a powered HDMI splitter sometimes in order to work with whatever setup you're using.Other than those two things, once it gets going, it works pretty well.

I bought this device mainly in order to capture programmes saved on the hard disk of a Sky box. These saved programmes have accumulated and are occupying valuable disk space. This device enables me to copy the programmes as mp4 files to a USB memory stick and thence copy to a computer where they can be further saved to the computer hard drive or SD cards or wherever. SD cards are very compact and handy portable devices, and modern smart TVs can read them.This device works as it says and does all this. The accompanying software is simple and easy to use. The trimming feature is useful to remove unwanted bits from the beginning or the end of the files. Don't be put off by the fact that the device records programmes onto the memory stick as separate files of approx size each 2 Gb (about 25 min duration). The software combines these into a single file and is a doddle to use.The instructions could do with being a little more detailed. I had some difficulty coaxing this device into life on the first use, but after that it has been just fine. Warning: if you save to standard SDHC cards, which use FAT32 format, the maximum file size is 4 GB, though the total capacity of the card can be up to 32 GB. Most read devices skip from one file to the next. If you want to save larger files you will need to look to larger-capacity cards such as SDXC, subject to compatibility with equipment.

I purchased the Cloner Alliance box to capture some files I had recorded on a set top box.After some familiarisation with the controls it seems to work quite well.It takes a while to get used to the single multicoloured LED to which describe the current modes, other than thatit worked as I'd hoped.The unit does get hot but this doesn't seem to affect operation.Video pass through is any issue as the unit needs to be always on otherwise there's no signal, the alternative is tohave a bridge connector which is what I've done.The manual is ok but it could have included more details on the preferred USB device.So all things considered including the price it's a thumbs UP from me.

Out of the box, it failed because of HDCP. This was fixed with a "smart" HDMI 2-way splitter that did deal with the HDCP issue properly. Secondly, it replaced the audio with a loud "click, click, click" throughout the recording. It did this with 2 different USB drives, both formatted as NTFS. Next, I checked the firmware against the manufacturer's latest version. Same version, but I re-flashed it anyhow. That got rid of the clicking and it now clones from my DVR with good audio and video.Pros: - Works as advertised (sort of, needs some technical expertise to set it up) - Produces a clone as good as the DVR has recorded - Simple to use, Push a button to record, push it again to stop - Good compression. 30 min = 1.7 GB - Output plays back on Win-10, Mac OS X and LinuxCons: - Hard to set up and doesn't deal with HDCP - Runs too hot, as other reviewers have said - Looks to be cheaply made - Little to no documentationBottom line: Don't buy this unless you have some computer expertise and are comfortable with flashing firmware. If that's not a show stopper, then it does the job and is dirt simple to use. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of more expensive devices of this sort, but if all you want to do is capture HD, it is probably all you need (and something like a smart HDMI splitter to get around the HDCP issue.)UPDATE: After a few days the loud clicking returned, replacing the audio. I returned it and ordered another model. I didn't want to waste any more time trying to debug whatever is wrong. It should have worked out of the box.