Mine was before the free USB stick version. So don't know the quality of later models. I keep my STB on 24hrs a day for recording purpose and till now no issues. No hanging. In the beginning there was PQ issue in SD channels but after Harmonic transcoder implementation no issues.
Hero STB is good in electronics. PQ of HD is very good. AQ is very good. PQ of SD was bad in the beginning but now I am used to it. I am not saying it's very good but my old Huawei circuit was fried while I was watching TV, so I personally don't feel Hero (Jabil circuit version) is that bad as people say.
I was changing channels and suddenly - No signal error. ADTV technician checked and said power circuit is burnt...
BTW Hero box has no Ethernet port. So internet is only possible by wifi dongle. Also no manual button. So cannot do anything without remote.