HdHomeRun - Our Answer to QAM?!

[tmiranda]

I spoke to somebody at the cable company who seemed to know what she was talking about and was informed that they do not carry any unencrypted channels in my area but were planning to do so once some "equipment upgrades" were completed. I could not get any estimate of how long that would take. She indicated that the unencrypted channels are available in other areas so I do not think I was being lied to.

When I called and introduced myself and my reason for calling she already knew who I was. "Oh, you're the guy on XYZ street...." She remembered me because I was an alpha and beta tester for their high speed internet service. They were eager to sign me up for that because my house sits at the very end of one of their lines.

Nothing to do but wait and keep calling them once a week

[valnar]

OK, I setup my HDHomeRun with Sage on my local cable provider - WOW in Cleveland.

Works great. Instructions were fine. I'm basking in HD glory.

It was even nicer that when I went back to adjust my Favorites, Sage automatically chose the new HD channels for primetime shows that broadcast in HD. On the Favorites that could be analog or regular DTV, it chose to keep it on my analog tuners (two Hauppauge PVR-250's). Whoever wrote that logic into Sage gets my kudos. That's the way I want it. The analog recordings of standard definition shows are usually better than their DTV counterpart.

Robert

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by White94Cobra

From the debates I've read on AVS it seems it can be interpreted either way. I did read a statement that quoted some FCC reg that the digital broadcasts are to be treated the same as the anolog.

I would think the worst that could happen is that the FCC doesn't respond. They could always reply that the cable company is in-the-right and I guess that would settle it.

I think your analysis is correct. I'd just file the complaint, and optionally send the cable co a copy.

[BigMac]

After getting the HDHomerun working (Xmas present to myself along with a 50in plasma) I have found the strangest behavior only on one show. In the bayarea I get KTVU(DT) out of Oakland on Comcast and only during the noon and evening news when they give the summary of the weather (on-screen graphics) my audio stutters and there is a slight video stutter.

I have copied the mpegs file over to my test machine and when I play them through Sage (browse) they do the same thing there (not a network issue). They play without issue through MS MediaPlyer and VLC and if watched directly on my (HD) TV.

It doesn't happen on any other show I record except during the weather on KTVUDT. I've recorded sporting events and action shows (BTW they come out fantastic) and they come out without issue.

Any ideas on how to proceed from here?


Walter

[src666]

When filing a complaint, also send a copy to the local Cable franchising authority (the public utilities commission or whatever your state/locality has). These franchises are renewable every 5 years or so, and a stack of unresolved complaints doesn't help make the process any smoother.

[garyellis]

Ok..ya'll talked me into it..I ordered my HDHR today (of course being in NC, I had to pay sales tax..I hate paying sales tax over the internet..)

First question (of many)...I've seen some of you directly connect to the server via crossover cable and some go to the router..I have the option to do either and other than setup, which I realize that direct connect may be more difficult... what are the pros and cons of the different methods?

Is one preferred over the other?

Thanks,

Gary Ellis

[salsbst]

If you run through a switch, you don't need an extra network adapter on your PC.

My Gbit adapter on my server (through which I run both of the HDHR's tuners via a Gbit switch) seems to stay at or below 1% utilization, so I see no particular reason to connect directly unless you have a crappy switch.

EDIT: I replaced the word "router" with "switch", b/c I really meant switch, not router. I'm not sure where my mind was when I was typing "router".

[valnar]

If you have a home network, plug it into your switch. It's an easy decision.

However, if you only have a home router, like say.... some old Linksys router, each port may not get it's full 100Mb of bandwidth. They aren't good at sharing bandwidth amongst nodes - only getting people out to the Internet.

So if you can spare $50 for a switch to hang off your home router, it'll work better.

Robert

[jkohn]

Decided to order one of these for myself. I've been using SageTV for OTA HD and previously got the rest of my programming via satellite; but we just switched to digital cable and the epg/menu/playback functionality of the DVR the cable company gave us is extremely primitive compared to SageTV. So I hooked the cable up directly to my HDTV so see which QAM channels I'd be able to get without encryption (I'm a TWC Houston customer). Looks like pretty much the entire standard digital cable lineup plus the HD networks are available to me, the only thing not available is the non-network HD channels (ESPN, TNT, etc). Several dozen channels all told. So I think the HD Homerun should come in pretty handy, although I don't look forward to manually setting up all of those channels (ugh).

[garyellis]

RE: my earlier post on direct connect or to a router...

My HTPC has 2 gigabyte LAN connections...1 I obviously use for connection to the router and he other is not being used today...

Thus, I could use that as a direct connetion to the HDHR...

My other option is to connect to a linksys router..

already connected to the network in my home and this router are

(3) wireless notebook, (1) wired notebook, (1) HTPC , (2) VOIP phones and (2) wired MVP's...

I have a gigabyte switch attached to the router as well...

So, besides direct connect, I can attach into the router or switch.

Thanks

Gary

[salsbst]

Originally Posted by garyellis

RE: my earlier post on direct connect or to a router...

My HTPC has 2 gigabyte LAN connections...1 I obviously use for connection to the router and he other is not being used today...

Thus, I could use that as a direct connetion to the HDHR...

My other option is to connect to a linksys router..

already connected to the network in my home and this router are

(3) wireless notebook, (1) wired notebook, (1) HTPC , (2) VOIP phones and (2) wired MVP's...

I have a gigabyte switch attached to the router as well...

So, besides direct connect, I can attach into the router or switch.

Thanks

Gary

The switch would seem to be the way to go. If you experience any performance problems that you can attribute to network bandwidth either in your connected adapter on the HTPC or in the switch, then perhaps investigate a direct connection.

[valnar]

The gig switch would be best.


Now, this may not affect anyone else, but I'll throw it out there.

My particular NVidia based motherboard on my main PC has the nForce3 Gigabit LAN controller and for whatever reason, sucks really bad with streaming UDP from the HDHomeRun. I get a lot of stutters and blocks which I assume are missed packets. I've looked at everything from drivers and settings to running software/services, antivirus and firewall. Nothing helps.

My HTPC has a Marvell gigabit controller, and I have other PC's with Intel, Realtek and 3COM 10/100 NIC's. All those work fine with no stutters... except that nForce controller on my primary PC. All I do on my main PC as it relates to the HDHomeRun is upload firmware and tune via VLC to test the channels, so it's not that big a deal. However, I just recently disabled that NIC and put in an old 3COM 3C905 10/100 NIC that I had laying around. It works great, with the same services and everything else running as before. (and I really don't need gig speed on this PC)

Just an FYI to everyone out there. Most applications are TCP based, but UDP is much more finnicky. My NIC probably had this "problem" for over a year and never noticed it in regular TCP Internet applications.

-Robert

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by valnar

The gig switch would be best.


Now, this may not affect anyone else, but I'll throw it out there.

My particular NVidia based motherboard on my main PC has the nForce3 Gigabit LAN controller and for whatever reason, sucks really bad with streaming UDP from the HDHomeRun. I get a lot of stutters and blocks which I assume are missed packets. I've looked at everything from drivers and settings to running software/services, antivirus and firewall. Nothing helps.

My HTPC has a Marvell gigabit controller, and I have other PC's with Intel, Realtek and 3COM 10/100 NIC's. All those work fine with no stutters... except that nForce controller on my primary PC. All I do on my main PC as it relates to the HDHomeRun is upload firmware and tune via VLC to test the channels, so it's not that big a deal. However, I just recently disabled that NIC and put in an old 3COM 3C905 10/100 NIC that I had laying around. It works great, with the same services and everything else running as before. (and I really don't need gig speed on this PC)

Just an FYI to everyone out there. Most applications are TCP based, but UDP is much more finnicky. My NIC probably had this "problem" for over a year and never noticed it in regular TCP Internet applications.

-Robert

Valnar, you might try this fix for the nForce NIC. Several of us had this problem a while back and it resolved our issues.

[Diginerd]

Just a quick tech explanation for those who are interested...

There is a fundamental difference between TCP and UDP.

[/begin Geeky Network Talk]

TCP uses a handshake and acks (Acknowledgements) between the two communicating computers to do things such as error correcting, windowing (size of each packet) and basic all around increased reliabilty.

UDP has none of this, the transmitting computer just splats packets out onto the wire and hopes that something will be there to catch them. Drop a packet? Too bad.. This has major advantages in terms of throughput (less overhead), but obviously depends on the network being 100% reliable.

Also UDP makes sense for things like streaming media, if you drop a packet you don't want to have to retransmit as by the time you do your stream will be compromised even further.

So with UDP you have to build the error correction into the actual application and not the network protocol.

[/end Geeky Network Talk]

[valnar]

Originally Posted by jlabrue

Valnar, you might try this fix for the nForce NIC. Several of us had this problem a while back and it resolved our issues.

Didn't help. Tried everything already!

Robert

[garyellis]

Got my HDHR via UPS today...

I ran all the cables and am ready to install...but can't get my wife and daughter away from the TV...

LOL

Here's hoping it works the first time...

Gary Ellis

[naln]

Originally Posted by bhyman1

You're eaxctly right. HBO, Showtime, Discovery, etc are all 5C'ed. FOX, ABC, NBC, and PBS I can record just fine with my Fusion5 Lite.

Just wondering if somthing similar would work on the DirectTV boxes or would all the signals be encrypted- any HDTuner that can be used to record HD off a DirectTV box?

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by naln

Just wondering if somthing similar would work on the DirectTV boxes or would all the signals be encrypted- any HDTuner that can be used to record HD off a DirectTV box?

There's one and only one solution for this - and it's expensive. Look up the R5000 threads here in the hardware section.

Scott

[naln]

Originally Posted by sleonard

There's one and only one solution for this - and it's expensive. Look up the R5000 threads here in the hardware section.

Scott

Yep- saw that thread! Looks like I'll have to wait a while to get HD recordings for these

[garyellis]

Got my HDHR yesterday..Got up at 6 AM this morning and had it set up and going within about 30 minutes. The finding channels took another hour and the remaping was quick...

The instructions were absolutely perfect.

For now I am playing it through S-video from my 6200TC vdeo card. I will switch to Component as I get a couple other things changed.

2 things...The live tv is very slightly jerky..(barely noticable), but its there. And the recorded playback is the same. (I set the record to .ts)

second, I need help with screen sizes..from one channel to the next, my screen size changes. One show will have big black bars on left and right...the next will have bars all around, the next just on the top and then some come in full screen...My TV is a 4:3..

where should I start looking to figure out the small jerkiness? VLC seems to play smoother.

what do I need to try to standardize the screen sizing?

Thanks, I'm impressed with this product, so far...

Gary Ellis


I have VMR9 set ,,,don't know where to find FSE...I'm using purevideo, I have a 6200TC, Aspect is set to "fill"
AMD 3200+, 1 gb memory. And the HDHR is attached to the router.