I have an 8 bay antenna on a tower, so I get great reception on my TV.
When I tried to use one of the USB dongles I had my antenna connected to it.
As I mentioned, I found the software (there has to be some form of software, even the item you mention from TD had software) to be not very good. Recordings were not as good as I would have expected (I got better PQ from shows I just downloaded from torrent sites) And I found the whole process not intuitive. A good OTA DVR box should be something my wife should be able to use.
Apple TV probably has one of the best interfaces, Roku is good, and, although it borders on old school, even the WD live is still simple to navigate.
The OTA USB dongles I tried were not even close to being in the same league as the above items. And this day and age there should be no reason why it wouldn't have been as easy to operate, other than poor UI design.