Box Pro, 1080p@60fps Video Recorder, DVR with HDMI Capture, Playback on TV. RCA/YPbPr/VGA to Digital Converter. Schedule Recording. No PC Required.

2021 update ive bought another one. Yes another one. These little boxes accept line in inputs from everything. I uad to jave another one. This little box has processed 5000 recprdings so far. And is still humming along at warp speed. Really impressive. This is tue only model out of all tue game recorders out tuere to have multiple line hook ups. Of you have old dvds vhs vhs c laser discs ect. You can process them all. Worth your time. This little box is. Software can be wonky but effective. Use sandisk thumb drives 32gb to 116gb best response to recordings. Thos will record from all game systems as well. Though you may have to tweak your consoles settings depending on what you have. Customer service is in it for the long haul too. They actually have humans. Can take a day or 2 to respond but its a human.... 2019 review Okay I had to order a second box as the first one was somewhat defective.. The USB port was very loose. So Getting a replacement for it. Helpful Solution to this problem. Buy an added angled USB Extender And hook up your USB stick to that. USB sticks can be kind of heavy on the port It managed to record one tv Program and Game capture before it failed to do anything.. The picture Quality is nothing short of spectacular... Amazon has left and Right switchable angled Cables to aid in your quest for perfection.. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W56VLLY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2IME0Z5O2LH6Y&psc=1 This device so far performs well But it does have Its Quirks.. First Recording in NTFS Mode can be problematic. Your likely better off In FAT32 mode. Cloner box provides software via download from its web portal.. This will allow you to assemble your recordings nearly issue free. and they also offer Burning software to burn to disc. My issue is no ability to title your projects unless you use a PC to do it. Its a thing they are most likely working on to add in the future. The remote that comes with the unit does not have batteries with it. those are AAA in size so be sure you have some on hand. as you will need the remote almost immediately upon first use. Be sure to format your thumb drive to NTFS or FAT 32 Fat 32 being your better option.. And make sure your USB stick or drive does not exceed 2 Terabytes But make sure the USB is larger than 32 Gigabytes As most recordings will be large. You are recording in HD format MP4 video. You can lower your bit rate to make files smaller. This device does require that you have a bit of Know how to set it up. But a little bit of internet reading allows you to easily understand Bit rates and Formats for video. Not that hard to do. Make sure you read up on those as the instructions could be a little bit more descriptive. that come with the product. Cloner box does have an online instruction manual and how to section that is very easy to understand. That will allow you to save the PDF to your PC for future review. Suggestion also For a very good picture use the component in of this box or HDMI port in. But you can not record HDCP protected content via HDMI. You can however do so Using a work around Or The component YPbPr Connection. You can also use the HDMI out on your preferred device into a converter which lowers it to YPbPr which is still 1080p resolution. You will need a converter for that but that method does not transport the HDCP signal to the Cloner box. or any recorder for that matter. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F6URXYY/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A3GE4HK1J73CN8&psc=1 Amazon has a huge array of converters so they are easy to find. You will find the picture quality is really good regardless.. until HDCP is eliminated this is the method you have to use to copy HDCP protect content.. Advisable if you are trying to copy Blue ray discs ect. Convert your signal down then back up to HDMI via a second converter. Though your image will be better via just the component Direct connection.. Now that we have this out of the way. The unit itself is very small and very light.. All connections except the USB port are on the back of the device. The USB port is on the right side of the unit. Though it looks well constructed That USB port is in a very bad spot and the heavier your USA stick is the more it will weigh down on that port. The suggestion above solves this issue easily With an angled connector. All other ports were solid. But your PC Connector cable is way too short. I recommend an upgrade to this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0143K4ZSK/ref=twister_B07CBVG4L8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 This will be a 10 FT cable. Reason being is the provided cable is really short. And really thin.. If your pc is far away from the cloner box and most peoples PCs are you will need the length to use the record to PC feature.. Its basically a long phone charger cable. Make sure its USB data capable. The MIC recording feature also works really well to capture your own audio over gameplay for recordings. All in all this is a good purchase once you figure out how to get it to do what you want it to do. And Cloner alliance has very good customer support. They can help you solve a lot of problems. Note this will be some culture shock to those users used to DVD recorders. its a bit more complex but for the picture quality its worth the time. to upgrade to this format. Im sure future releases of boxes will have newer features and smoother operation. I myself will be keeping my eye open on Cloner Box They are the top of the line when it comes to capture boxes.. What I would like to see added to cloner boxes in the Future.. Longer cables for PC connections. An angled USB connector for the USB port.. Titling ability via the Remote.. But you can do this Via Your pc later its just an added annoyance The box itself could be about an inch or 2 larger to space out your connectors as they are really close on the back of the box. Also I would like to see smaller Formats added as most or large format recordings that are very high Gigabyte size More of a 300 to 700 Megabyte range. That would lower image quality But it would also allow Space saving for phones and Tablets.. Other than this the box is a great addition to a mediaphiles Equipment.. I hope this helps some of you to have a good experience with this device

I initially purchased the HDML Cloner Box (non Pro) because of the good Amazon reviews. I was looking for an HD DVR device and the HDML Cloner Box reviews said that it would record virtually anything across an HDMI connection with excellent video quality. I ran into the common issue of the “blank screen” after hooking up the Cloner Box and went the manufacturer web site (Cloner-Alliance) for help and found the “Pro” model with Remote Control, Timer Recordings, and Instant Playback. The Pro being a new product had no reviews on Amazon so I didn’t see it on first pass. After testing the Cloner Box and seeing for myself that recorded everything I tried (CATV, Blue Ray, PC Stream) with Excellent Quality, I instantly purchased the Pro Model and arranged to return the Box version. The blank screen on the Box version was resolved by pressing the 1080/720 button for 5 seconds (you do the same with the Input button on the Pro). In addition to wanting an HD DVR, I also am in the process of moving my owned DVDs and Blue Rays to MP4 files for my Home Theater Server. I have another software solution for moving my Blue-Ray movies to MP4, but the Cloner Box can do that too. I have found using the Cloner Box for the “Extras” is nice because I have to view them to choose which one to copy and it is easier on the Cloner than the software solution. I LOVE the HDML Cloner Box Pro. Similar to the non-Pro Box, it records EVERYTHING coming across the HDMI port with EXCELLENT Video quality. The Remote functionality is fantastic. I have yet to test the Timer recording, but understand how it works. The Pro also allows you to Record on the PC through a 2nd Mini-USB port using their HDML-Cloner Pro Helper Application. The PC recording functions worked perfectly, giving you a mirror image of the HDMI stream on the PC (with a slight delay) and full recording control (with the addition of a Pause that you do not get on the USB Drive recordings). The recordings on the PC were as perfect as the ones on the USB flash drive. I can see one advantage of the PC recording is that you can record without having an HD monitor handy. I’m going to test recording from my DSLR Camera where that functionality will come in handy. The Cloner Box Pro Also has a Mic AND Headphone Jack (Mic Jack also on the Box), adding a headphone monitoring capability I currently do not have on the DSLR. The PRO also allows you to control the volume of the HDMI stream and Mic to get a perfect mix. One thing I noticed is my initial recordings had low volume (the Box recordings were slightly louder than the original program). I had to adjust the HDMI volume higher (controlled via remote) to get my recorded volumes back to “normal.” The file sizes on the recorded videos are very large. Cloner-Alliance obviously made a decision to provide the best possible MP4 video quality and did not try to over-compress the video. I’m seeing that the Pro files are about 2G per half hour of video. You can choose between 1080 or 720 recording quality, but the file size does not change a whole lot. The Pro also has a 2G file size limit so it creates a new file every 2G (or 30 minutes). Cloner-Alliance recently removed that restriction on the Box version and is promising new Pro firmware soon that removes that restriction. I had a problem trying to record baseball games where the recording stopped after 1 hour and it appeared the Pro had trouble creating that 3rd file after filling 2 2G files. Cloner-Alliance support was excellent and suggested a different USB flash drive. That appears to have been the problem. Since changing flash drives I have been able to record two 2 hour movies without issue. After the All-Star break I will try baseball again. Cloner-Alliance also provides another software application “MP4-Cloner” which allows you to “Trim” “Combine” “Convert” and “Burn” (to Disk). The Trim and Combine function do not re-compress the video so they work very fast, and do not diminish the quality. “Trim” allows you to remove extra things that are recorded at the beginning or end of the file (lead-in and recordings after the program had ended). Trim on a 30 min 2G file only took a few minutes. Combine allows you to combine the 2G MP4 files together into one file. The last 1.5 hour movie that I combined only took about 10 minutes to complete. “Convert” allows you to convert the native MP4 streams into other formats, although what I used it for was to reduce the 6G movie file down to 3G by decreasing the BPS setting. “Convert” does re-compress the video so it takes a bit longer. The video quality of the 3G file was still very good. The Pro also allows you to record from various other input types: VGA, RGB, and standard AV signals. This is accomplished by a provided cable with those various plugs that feed into a multi-purpose plug (reusing a 2nd HDMI-looking physical connector). Of course I purchased the Cloner-Box to get away from an older RGB recorder so I don’t see using anything other than HDMI. If you’re looking for a device that will record Full HD Video from your Game Console, Cable TV Box, PC Streams, or Blu-Ray Player, the Cloner Box and Cloner Box Pro is the device you have been looking for.

I had issues with the unit properly performing when formatting my Sandisk 256 GB 3.0 USB drive to NTFS. Yes....you get one large file but it's not worth the issues and features you lose on the unit. I had to format the drive with FAT32. The unit then corrected all the issues I experienced which if it hadn't it would have been returned. Issues which were: 1. FFWD and RWD feature of my recordings did not work. RWD gave "not supported" message and FFWD just gave choppy forward movement at no accelerated pace. 2. Encountered audio/video lip sync issues. (Still occurring but not as severe) 3. Resume playback feature didn't work. FAT32 format fixed all the above. My main motive of using this unit is to record streaming content off my Roku to FFWD through all the commercials. The FAT32 format produced and split about 2 GB files in Medium bitrate recording which was just about a 30 minute file recorded at 1080p. The cool thing is the unit jumps right to the next file thats recorded if it's say splitting up a program you were in the middle of recording. Pretty much uninterrupted playback. I was concerned you had to go back to the unit menu and select the next file and then continue to play the program you were watching that was split but it does this on its own. I don't see too much difference if at all between the medium and high bit rate recording setting so I'm leaving in medium to avoid the file splits to be somewhat less. I've tested the unit a week so far and had to work through their chat tech support to sort through some of these items I experienced but so far so good. They were helpful. My biggest gripe so far is that the unit does not have recording output of DD 5.1 or DTS Surround. For the cost of this unit it should have it. Tech support says they didn't ave any plans as of now to support these audio formats in a firmware update. Perhaps the hardware in this unit can't support. That's the only shortfall I see for this unit and hope they can update it at some point to include. Otherwise at this point even though you may be receiving a 5.1 audio format into the unit to record, it only pushes out stereo sound. I would have given 5 stars if not for this detail. Another gripe is I wish you can label the recording in the menu so you know what you have recorded per specific file. You have to pretty much let the video preview to get an idea of what you recorded which is hard when you really start filling up the library on the USB drive. I'm not using this device to audit the clips on a PC. I'm pretty much just using for direct playback. Heat the unit produces is another concern as some other reviewers stated but they will stand behind the product and cover for 2 years. Anything goes wrong they will replace no questions asked. I'm a pretty big A/V enthusiast that knows his stuff and pretty impressed with this thing so far with what it can do. Also having a splitter to bypass the HDCP is a must have if your connecting strictly with HDMI cables.

This works great. records to a USB in mp4 format. The cons are: the remote is very thin and light, be gentile with it. I was first recording an hour and half movie at 9 gb of memory. OUCH, then dropped down to 3 gb of memory and still great resolution. Be sure and register it and get the programs so you can edit and connect the individual recordings into one movie.

Why I hated the ColonerAlliance Pro Box. This review will take up every character they allow me. First the good. The price is ok, not unreasonable for what "it is suppose to do" Unfortunately to get to that point can be a challenge. It's packed well, very well. The unit itself is small, but not too small and is non intrusive when sitting on a shelf or on another device, as mine was. Ports are well placed nothing to complain about there. The remote. It's small, but gets the job done. It is light weight and has that cheap plastic feeling, no weight to it at all. the remote worked fine, but there is no outward on and off button. In the FAQ they tell it has a hidden one, they tell you to press a certain button for a few seconds to turn off and then a certain number of seconds to turn back on. l never tried it but it would seem the designers were lazy not to have a separate button dedicated to turn on and off the device. Which brings me to another issue. When not powered on, there is no thruput. That means that your TV has no picture from whatever device you are getting your programming from. If it aint on, you aint going to see no picture. It would have been simple to design a passthrough feature into the device. As far as using. The interface menu is all text. It partly transparent. The Text itself is grayish and very difficult to read even though there is kinda a black background. I might have had a better experience if the remote for the pro box didn't keep operating my streaming device. (Vsee Box Elite). Press the up button nothing happened on the Pro box hit it again and it moves, but on my Vsee Box my volume goes up! Press the ok button to enter a menu option, the VSee Box turns off..WTF. Now for the worst of the worst. After it was on for a couple minutes the video and sound was no longer sync. My usual fix is to unplug the VSee box and reboot. that did not cure the issue, I then unplug the ColonerAlliance Pro Box waited 30 seconds and started back up. nope, didn't work, I then unplugged both waited 30 seconds and plugged both back in, NOPE again! I had to unplug both, remove all HDMI CABLES then reboot both boxes to get it to re-sync. This happened the FIRST TIME right out of the box, within 3 minutes. Later that night, same issue, I went through the each step like before and it would not re-sync until every box was unplugged and all the HDMI cables were out. (got me why?). Each day this would happen at least two times. I finally started unplugging everything and each time it happened and that worked, but should I really have to unplug everything. I understand streaming boxes un-sync at times, but issue happened too often My last issue with the box was the size of the file it records in, mp4. I set it up for 1080 and good quality. Nothing worse than recording a good quality video to get a worse looking video. I could have stayed with a VCR if I wanted that. A 30 minutes file will run about 3.5 GB in size. That comes to 7GB per hour. I will admit the video quality was good, I could see a slight decrease in quality but it may have also been a lower setting that what my TV was putting out no complaint really there. But it made transferring and editing this size file a bit of a pain. When I recorded using MKV the files are around 100 mb for a 30 minute recording, depending of course on the quality of what I’m recording. Even a high definition 1080P 45 minutes show in MKV runs around 500 mb, much less space and the quality is still there. Many players now days play MKV. We should have had to ability to recored in our preferred format. In fact my Mac had issues with this version of MP4. The last thing is the "Scheduling". unless you are using this on a DVR from Dish or Direct. Where you can schedule a recording then match the time in the ClonerAlliance Box Pro What's the purpose of a scheduler. I stream that means I have to go to an app, manually search for the show, open the show play it and then record the show at the same time. Since in streaming very few things run on a "live" schedule and you open a app to a channel and automatically plays and records at the same time a scheduler is worthless. Now in todays programing world, I sure some smart program can figure out how a end user can set things up so this box can peek inside an app see what available and schedule programing for now or for in the future, over multiple apps, even if. they can only do one recording in a app at a time would be better than sitting while this thing is recording, either watching or rewatching a video you just want to have for future viewing. Not worth my time, not worth my effort.

As it appears that my HDML Cloner Box is defective, I'm leaving this review with an interim rating. I did get to test the device before catastrophic failure, whereby although the Cloner Box would act up and the menu would alternate between being fast and sluggish, the recordings did not have any anomalies. At the time, HDMI, composite, and component inputs worked fine. I will test the VGA inputs when I receive the replacement. FILESYSTEM PREFERENCE Do note that I am biased against using FAT32 for anything as large as digital video. I am converting over 50 VHS tapes and DVR-DVDs to the thumb drive, and the last thing I want to do is spend time digging through a huge number of 4GB files to see which of them belong to which video and then stitch them all together, and then transfer them back to the thumb-drive. It is just an extra step that consumes time that I don't have. Therefore I feel strongly that any NTFS issues should be tackled immediately, and/or ExFAT should be an alternative to FAT32. THUMB-DRIVES I tested both standalone and PC recording. I tested using the following thumbdrives, both in FAT32 and NTFS file systems for each: (1) Older generation 16GB SanDisk Cruzer USB 2.0 @ ~14-16 MB/s tested write speed (1) Newer generation 16GB SanDisk Cruzer USB 2.0 @ ~18-22 MB/s tested write speed (1) Very old 2GB Verbatim USB 2.0 @ ~5 MB/s tested write speed (1) Brand-new Lexar S75 256GB USB 3.0 @ ~60 MB/s tested write speed for USB 3.0. The Cloner Box accepted all of the above thumb-drives and recorded to them without problem. I expected problems with the 256 GB drive and the older, slower Verbatim, but experienced none. NTFS FILESYSTEM Some reviewers have had issues with using the NTFS file system whereby recorded files and/or the filesystem became corrupted. While I did not experience that, I did experience a problem where the onboard file browser could not see the files it recorded on any of the thumb-drives when pressing the 'playback' button. However, it did record them without corrupting the files or filesystem. I have not yet read any reviews stating that other people had the exact same problems with the onboard file-browser with NTFS. I will test it again when I receive a replacement. FAT32 FILESYSTEM I didn't experience any problems at all. The file browser did not have a problem seeing the files. CAVEAT initially, I wanted to start transferring old VHS tapes and DVR-DVDs straight to thumb-drive while monitoring the recordings on my PC, so that I could continue working on my PC while babysitting them. Unfortunately, it appears that once the Cloner Box is connected to a computer via USB, it will not record to thumb-drive; pressing the 'record'button on the remote effectively does nothing. Instead, you must use the Helper software to record to a local hard drive. Since I want these recordings portable, this just causes another extra step whereby I have to transfer titanic files onto the thumb-drive. PROS -Has all of the inputs I need for both new and old devices. -All recordings in 1080P-30 and 720P-60 were fantastic. -The HDML-Cloner Pro Helper software has great features and is easy to use. -The remote is well designed and contains the buttons that are expected/needed. -The device recognizes the difference between different inputs, including interlacing and frame rate. -The device is small and easy to place. CONS -For those of us with only one HDMI, this device does not have pass-through. It must remain on at all times and it gets warm. -The onboard menu selection for video quality doesn't offer the full range of stream sizes that the PC software does. -The remote must be pointed directly at the device's infrared window. -Though the clock survives unplugging, video creation time metadata says your video was created on January 1st... 1970. -Doesn't utilize ExFAT instead of FAT32. WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE -Device requires pass-through so we don't have to leave it on. -It should probably have a ventilated case, as it does get quite warm. -I would like to have all of the same options in the onboard menu as I do in the Helper software. -I would like to have a choice of recording destination when connected to a PC. -Add ExFAT support. It lacks the limitations of FAT32 and reportedly has less overhead than NTFS. CURRENT PROBLEM It appears that my early troubles with the Cloner Box were warning signs that something was wrong, as the box initially did not want to recognize a signal. I updated the firmware, but was told by Cloner Alliance via email that mine should not require the update. However, after re-flashing the firmware, it recognized the input. Today marks the third recording session and about 1.5 hours total with the device. It has begun to overlay older video data over new frames, occasional frame looping, and the video frame itself jumps up and down. For example, when a person scratches their nose once in the original video, the recording and the preview show a loop of them scratching their nose about seven or eight times. Then as they walk away, part of them stays in the frame and then disappears. It does this from a cold start, so I know that the device is not overheating. It is apparent in the recordings as well as the preview window when using the Helper software. I tried recording to PC as well as a thumb drive, but there was no difference. As the reviews are generally quite good for this device, I feel a bit more secure in believing that this is just a fluke, and not indicative of a poor design. I will update my review at some future date when I can be sure that the replacement Cloner Box Pro is working as expected.

The main reason I purchased the Cloner Box Pro was to record some online videos for my daughter in our next road trips. I had a mix feeling at first because the built-in firmware didn't work with my SanDisk 256G USB3 stick in the first 2 days, but there was no other easy solution within affordable budget. Yet very soon, I received excellent support from Julia in their customer support department. This changed the whole picture completely. Out of the box, the "old" firmware was able to record the videos (out from my laptop if that is important) into my NTFS formatted 256G USB. However, after the recording, the NTFS partition would not be accessible again in Windows 10. By plugging it back into the Cloner Box Pro, or even my home QNAP NAS, I could see the files. But not under Windows 10. I tried to format the USB with another Windows 10 laptop and did few recordings again. But I got the same results. I was very frustrated after close to 48 hours of trial-and-error. If it was another item, I would have already make a return request. Lucky I didn't. Instead, I contacted their tech support by email, and Julia got back to me within 12 hours. Then in the next 2 days, we exchange few other emails. And most important, Julia has been very patient trying to understand my issues. She sent me few other beta firmware, which didn't work until the 3rd one. This made me to believe that, even the item was not prefect (at least not working with my 256G USB) but the company was really behind their products. While I am writing this review, I have done over 30 hours of recordings in the last 4-5 days. Julia did even send me a follow up email 2 days ago to make sure my issues were truly solved. I am so surprised and glad for this level of tech support and customer service from a Chinese company. In the US, people usually stay away from items that were made in China. I can honestly tell you I am one of them. But this experience with ClonerAlliance really changes my mind. There is still hope. I have been shopping at Amazon since 2002, and I have been Prime member for around 5-6 years. This is one of the very few times I make a happy review. While I am 100% happy with the support & service, I believe the product still have room to improve. Below are few points I would recommend the company to spend some time on. - Having schedule recording feature is good. However, everytime the power was removed, the date / time would go back to 2016 May. It looks like the item doesn't have a CMOS BIOS to maintain the time. Instead, it relies on the OS. - The schedule recording feature is good to record programs that with a preset program schedule (and a reliable clock). But it would be even more useful to have a feature to auto stop the recording after certain hours / minutes. For example, after I started the recording, it would be much easier for me if I could set it to stop after 45 mins. For now, I will need to either setup a timer on my phone to remind myself, or I have to go back to my bedroom to check the TV once a while. It happened few times that I left the room and forgot about the recording. And the files were so big due to the extra hours of idle screen. I believe this could be easily implemented. Even without the "auto-stop" feature, I am still very happy with this device. So I am giving it a 5-stars. Special thanks for Julia. Now I could have a relatively easy trip with my terrible twos. Few other tips for others. - It does work with my FireTV, and should work with all other HDMI output video sources. This device is just a simple "video recorder." - The output format is MP4. In case you need to do some simple edition, you don't need to buy any professional software. In Windows, I use Movie Maker. It came with Windows 7 but now Windows 10. In Windows 10, you could Google "Live Essentials 2012 Windows 10." Movie Marker is part of the package. - All my recording was on 720p. The unit was kind of hot after 3-4 hours straight recording. You may want to let it cool down for a while.

Bought a Box Pro to replace my old VHS/DVD setup that finally bit the dust (and they stopped making new VHS recorders around 2014). Box Pro works great so far (see notes below) and I am able to record off my cable box as well as my Roku device. The Box Pro provides different input ports so I have both devices connected to the Box Pro simultaneously and use the Box Pro remote control to select the port/device I want to record from. Playback works as advertised and Box Pro provides two different playback resolutions. The company also provides digital editing SW that come free with the device ....I downloaded the SW but have not had time to use it yet. Things to be aware of: > You definitely need get a high quality flash drive or HD....Had an issue with an inexpensive flash drive but bought a Toshiba HD as recommended & so far no issues > User manual is cursory & needs to provide more detail > Box Pro can only Fast Forward at 10x in playback so 'zooming' through commercials is slower that I was able to do with VHS (a case where digital is not better than old school) >Playback always starts from the beginning so if you want to take a break during playback, you have to leave the Box Pro in the stopped screen mode....this means you can't record anything else until you jump back to the main menu (WHICH RESETS ALL PLAYBACKS TO START FROM THEIR BEGINNING...WHICH MEANS YOU LOSE YOUR PLACE).... in other words, you won't be able to return to watching a movie where you left off once to leave the 'stopped screen'...Note that the 10x 'fast forward' is ''lethargic' ... for example it takes 'multiple' minutes to get back to where you left off even if you remember where you left off (say you were 1 hour in to a movie)....This 'feature' also means you can't playback/save your place on multiple recorded sessions either....Box Pro only allows you to stop a single playback at a time.......I never had this issue with VHS, using multiple tapes but I guess this is progress!? Bottom line, I am happy with my purchase and it is worth the price.... thought it can be improved (I sent these suggestion in to the Box Pro customer service and they said they would pass them on to development).....We shall see