HDHomerun Slow to Tune

[Electronicbuff]

I'm having slow tuning issues only on my HDHomerun tuner.

When SageTV tunes to a Digital QAM channel (assigned to the HDHomerun) I often see on the screen "No Signal" for a while. If I sit back and wait, sometimes up to 20 seconds, the HDHomerun eventually displays the broadcast. The longest delays are found on the music station broadcasts (up to 20 sec), in comparison to a typical TV program delay (2-5 seconds). I've lived with the delay issue since I began using sage over a year ago but figured someone may know a trick or two to resolve this issue.

Why am I experiencing what I believe to be a long delay for tuning in a QAM broadcast on the HDHomerun?

For standard definition I use a Hauppauge PVR500 tuner which tunes in the broadcast virtually instantaneously.

Am I expecting too much from the HDhomerun?

If this is just a characteristic of the HDHomerun what tuner would you recommend I use that would tune in QAM broadcasts faster?

[carlgar]

I think it is normal. I have also noticed that it takes a while for the music channels to come up but I have not timed it. I seldom watch the music channels live so I have not been concerned about it. I thought it was related to the video that does not change much on the music channels.

[gplasky]

The music channels are not a true video stream. It's a slideshow. So that's why the HDHR tunes the way it does on those channels. You're expecting too much if you expect the performance to be on par with a PVR500. That is tuning an analog signal. You're going to get a picture of something whether it has a good signal or not. (It may be static but it's a picture). For digital tuners it all or nothing. It takes time to lock on the signal and to actually, I guess, handshake with the signal to make sure it is clearQAM and tunable.

Gerry

[jasonl]

It's simply because of how digital broadcasts work. Complete video frames are only transmitted every 1/4 to 3 seconds, with the rest of the frames actually stored as the difference between that complete frame and itself. This means that the decoder has to wait for a full frame before it can start decoding. Music channels can go 10 seconds or more between complete frames because they don't change much. The HDHomeRun will normally lock on a signal and begin streaming in less than a second, but the data being streamed can't be used by the decoder until it reaches that complete frame.

Jason
Silicondust Support

[Electronicbuff]

Is there a faster digital tuner than the HDhomerun for Sagetv available?

I have a catv box that decodes and it only takes a 1/2 second or so to display video. My HDHR is much much slower in comparison. Now that everything is HD this leads me to believe a faster tuner card may be available now as well.