HDHR vs. HDHR3 OTA Performance

[cumak]

Has anyone used both, an HDHR and an HDHR3 to receive OTA? Can you comment on any differences in received signal quality? I've seen several comments around the web indicating that the HDHR3 might have better receive sensitivity, but I was hoping someone here with personal experience could chime in.

I ditched Comcast over the summer when they raised rates again, and my OTA performance has been pretty good until recently. I'm not sure what changed, perhaps just a seasonal change? Anyway, I just upgraded my antenna and that made a noticeable improvement, but it's still not perfect. Next I'd like to upgrade my HDHR, if it's reasonable to expect better performance with the HDHR3.

Thanks,
Mark

[PiX64]

I just switched both of my hdhr for hdhr 3s... Woot had a deal last week. So far I have seen great improvement. I no longer need a signal booster and all channels are 90% or greater signal strength. Even channels that with a booster before were in the. 75 ish range are now above 90 no booster just a single splitter.

[mayamaniac]

I would've thought the original HDHR would have better signals since there are two separate inputs for each tuner, instead of the HDHR3's single input that the two tuners share.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I would've thought the original HDHR would have better signals since there are two separate inputs for each tuner, instead of the HDHR3's single input that the two tuners share.

Maybe the internal splitter is very low loss, and people remarking on better sensitivity were using higher-loss splitters previously?

At any rate, sensitivity has never been my HDHR issue. For me, it has always been about the HDHR having poor multipath rejection (trees, airplanes, etc) as compared to modern LG and Samsung based tuners. My understanding is that the HDHR3 chipset contains a minor upgrade from the one used in the HDHR2, and provides no real improvements for multipath rejection. I'd love to be wrong, since the HDHR3 is the best deal for a dual-port tuner, and my best LG tuner just died..

Drew

[cumak]

Originally Posted by PiX64

So far I have seen great improvement. I no longer need a signal booster and all channels are 90% or greater signal strength. Even channels that with a booster before were in the. 75 ish range are now above 90 no booster just a single splitter.

PiX64 - thanks for your feedback, this is encouraging. Not to split hairs, but did the "signal quality" indicator (SNR) increase along with the signal strength? Signal strength can be misleading, but if signal quality improved then it's pretty conclusive that the receiver has been improved.

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I would've thought the original HDHR would have better signals since there are two separate inputs for each tuner, instead of the HDHR3's single input that the two tuners share.

In my case I have a splitter in front of the HDHR to use both inputs. This is probably the same configuration as the HDHR3, except they have built the splitter into the box. If I only used one input on the HDHR, cabled straight to the antenna, then I could expect to see an improvement. However, with the external splitter it should be a wash (all other things being equal, of course).

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by cumak

PiX64 - thanks for your feedback, this is encouraging. Not to split hairs, but did the "signal quality" indicator (SNR) increase along with the signal strength? Signal strength can be misleading, but if signal quality improved then it's pretty conclusive that the receiver has been improved.



In my case I have a splitter in front of the HDHR to use both inputs. This is probably the same configuration as the HDHR3, except they have built the splitter into the box. If I only used one input on the HDHR, cabled straight to the antenna, then I could expect to see an improvement. However, with the external splitter it should be a wash (all other things being equal, of course).

In my case, yes the signal quality also improved alone with the signal strength.

[Carlton Bale]

I have two HDHR1s that have a problem with ATSC turning of VHF stations (RF Channel 9 especially.) I have a big Channel Master 3020 in the attic and I'm 20 miles away from the transmitters, so I think multi-path is the issue.

Should I upgrade to the HDHR3 or would a different USB turner be a better solution? I need at least 3 tuners total.

Thanks for the help.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Carlton Bale

I have two HDHR1s that have a problem with ATSC turning of VHF stations (RF Channel 9 especially.) I have a big Channel Master 3020 in the attic and I'm 20 miles away from the transmitters, so I think multi-path is the issue.

Should I upgrade to the HDHR3 or would a different USB turner be a better solution? I need at least 3 tuners total.

Thanks for the help.

Go with a USB tuner. In addition to multipath, HDHR seems especially prone to VHF interference. I had a Kworld UB435-Q that was the best tuner I've ever used. It died after 3 years or so..

Drew

[cumak]

Originally Posted by Carlton Bale

I'm 20 miles away from the transmitters, so I think multi-path is the issue.

It could be multipath, but it could also be a weaker signal due to lower transmit power or less elevation of the VHF transmitters. 20 miles is close, unless you are shadowed by hills like I am.

If you haven't done so already, head over to TV Fool and pull up a report for your address.

http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?opti...id=13&Itemid=1

Compare the VHF channels that you're having trouble with to your good UHF channels. In particular, look at the noise margin column. If the VHF channels have similar NM to the UHF, then there's a good chance it's the tuner.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by Carlton Bale

I have two HDHR1s that have a problem with ATSC turning of VHF stations (RF Channel 9 especially.) I have a big Channel Master 3020 in the attic and I'm 20 miles away from the transmitters, so I think multi-path is the issue.

Should I upgrade to the HDHR3 or would a different USB turner be a better solution? I need at least 3 tuners total.

Thanks for the help.

what balun are you using? does it receive both uhf and vhf? I got mine from radioshack, and it accepts both UHF and VHF. Depending on wherer you are located though and the proximity from the transmitters, you may not be able to receive both on the same balun. Check out this thread: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48146

[Carlton Bale]

All of the towers in my area are located in the same general area. I don't think the balun is the issue; it's the one provided by ChannelMaster for the UHF/VHF antenna.

Here's what it looks like when trying to tune one of the the VHF stations:
http://youtu.be/4txPNVWINcQ

Here are the stations locations, there is very little difference in signal strength:


This is the antenna I have; I get 100% signal strength on other stations the same distance away: http://www.channelmaster.com/HD_tele...tenna_s/47.htm

[patja]

I never had an HDHR previous gen product. I tried an HDHR3 and found it reported excellent signal quality, higher than 95 with no fluctuation. I thought it would be a great tuner for my ESXI Sage VM since it requires no USB or PCI passthrough.

I had to scrap it though as it produced recordings that had frequent breakups where part of the picture would show green blocks. Never had this problem with Hauppauge, ATI, or DVICO tuners. Never ever. Very disappointing from a new generation tuner device.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by patja

I thought [HDHR3] would be a great tuner for my ESXI Sage VM since it requires no USB or PCI passthrough.

I had to scrap it though as it produced recordings that had frequent breakups

While I'm not one to defend the HDHR's reception, signal quality above 95 w/o fluctuation, combined with your use of ESX makes me think that your breakups may have been caused by a network issue. The HDHR sends packets to the host via UDP, which is not very resilient to the hiccups inherent in virtual networking.

If you still have it, and are interested in getting it working, their support can look at your logs to try to pinpoint the issue. Or you can use the command line hdhomerun_config ..... save ... to manually record something & watch for network errors.

Drew

[Taddeusz]

I've discovered that the HDHR is very sensitive to network and even hard drive controller buffering. I am using QAM but after quite a lot of testing I am finally getting recordings without errors. I discovered that I was getting a lot of "overload" errors. After adjusting some settings on my network card things improved but I was still occasionally getting those errors. Then I put in a spare SATA controller I had sitting around and all of a sudden I get none of those errors. It actually led me to discover that my HDHR3 was giving me receiving errors while my older HDHR was not and I sent it in under warranty. For about 3 weeks now I've had recordings without any errors. It's been wonderful!

[Carlton Bale]

I solved my VHF reception error. It was a simple fix: properly connect the VHF half of the antenna to the balun mounting posts. I've struggled with VHF reception for about 7 years and it was due to missing an assembly step. I'll blame it on it being a giant antenna in an awkward attic location during a July heatwave.