HDHR v4 coming soon

[wayner]

In comes two new network tuners, the HDHR4-US and the HDHR4-CC. Both offer hardware transcoding for "digital-to-digital conversion of high-bandwidth MPEG2 streams to bandwidth-friendly H.264." The primary difference between the two new models is one has a CableCARD slot for recording four HD premium channels at once, and the other has dual clear QAM or ATSC tuners -- there is also a third unit, HDHR4-DT2, for Europe and Australia. The number of DLNA Digital Media Players (DMP) that support H.264 is far more vast and the codec is far more efficient. This basically means you'll have access to your favorite live content on more devices and in more places, and use less bandwidth while enjoying it. These new ones should be available starting in "mid-2013" with no mention of price in the releases below.

There has been a lot more discussion on the HDHR Prime but there is a new OTA version coming as well.

I wonder if this means that you may be able to store recorded TV files as H.264 to save disk space, if you so desire.

[Fuzzy]

I'd be more interested in how they are doing the copy protection on the H.264 side, and if 7MC is going to even work with it.

[wayner]

Why would their be copy protection for OTA?

edit - When I said the the HDHR v4 I was only referring to the QAM/OTA tuner or what SD is now calling HDHR4-US. I am surprised that the CableCard unit is called the HDHR4-CC since is this really the fourth edition of that device?

[Fuzzy]

it's called the HDHR4-CC because the previous model was called the HDHR3-CC.. :-) Honestly, I don't see a benefit of the OTA device to sagetv users over the previous models. For starters, it's not really even clear if the transcoding is used for non-DLNA transactions (like to a SageTV Server). Now, if it made is to that the recordings could have compliant copy protection that could be made to play back on other PC's via a directshow pipeline, THEN it would be of use to sage... but I doubt that will be the case.

[Fuzzy]

As for DLNA playback of the HDHR4-US - I am really not seeing a point. In most cases, these will be used to 'stream' unencrypted ATSC or ClearQAM recordings to media playback boxes that are connected (or built into) TV's that already have ATSC or ClearQAM tuners built in.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'd be more interested in how they are doing the copy protection on the H.264 side, and if 7MC is going to even work with it.

They're using DTCP-IP (AFAIK) for the protected DLNA streaming.

[Fuzzy]

right, for the streaming, I was more questioning on how they are interfacing with 7MC - which is why I'm thinking they probably aren't transcoding for the 7MC (or sagetv for that matter) usage. The odds of 7MC supporting H.264 in a cablelabs compliant container at this point is not highly likely.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'd be more interested in how they are doing the copy protection on the H.264 side, and if 7MC is going to even work with it.

I'd be more interested to hear if they've finally produced a tuner that's anywhere near as good as my 8 year old LG based tuners for multipath..

And, of course, it would be nice to know if the version of the HDHR lib that the SageTV server's HDHR lib is statically linked with can talk to the new device.


Drew

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by drewg

I'd be more interested to hear if they've finally produced a tuner that's anywhere near as good as my 8 year old LG based tuners for multipath..

And, of course, it would be nice to know if the version of the HDHR lib that the SageTV server's HDHR lib is statically linked with can talk to the new device.


Drew

I think Sage is using standard BDA calls for the HDHR's, so it should work fine with any BDA tuner.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I think Sage is using standard BDA calls for the HDHR's, so it should work fine with any BDA tuner.

That does not help on linux, where they took the normal HDHR library & statically linked it into a dynamic library that is loaded as part of the SageTV JNI. Though there *is* a shim driver that will turn it into a standard DVB device...

Also, there must be some extra control path to determine the recording type (pass through mpeg2, bitrate for mpeg2 -> H.264 transcode). It would be great if those were settable via some web interface for "legacy" products..

Drew

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

right, for the streaming, I was more questioning on how they are interfacing with 7MC - which is why I'm thinking they probably aren't transcoding for the 7MC (or sagetv for that matter) usage. The odds of 7MC supporting H.264 in a cablelabs compliant container at this point is not highly likely.

I think WTV/H.264 work just fine in WMC, I believe some cable systems are using H.264 right now that work in WMC with regular CC tuners.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

As for DLNA playback of the HDHR4-US - I am really not seeing a point. In most cases, these will be used to 'stream' unencrypted ATSC or ClearQAM recordings to media playback boxes that are connected (or built into) TV's that already have ATSC or ClearQAM tuners built in.

Won't the DLNA playback work with pretty much any device that is a DLNA client? If so then couldn't you use it to stream the MPEG-2 signal from the HDHR to your phone, iPad, etc which won't be connected to a TV with an ATSC tuner. And it could also facilitate getting live TV to a location where you don't have an RG-6 cable running from your antenna, assuming that you need a large rooftop antenna to pull in your OTA.

And assuming an upload speed greater than 19Mbps you could also use it to placeshift your OTA signal.

[btrcp2000]

I am barely understanding most of this thread, so here's my dumb question:

Does the mention of DLNA give us even the faintest hope that sage may be able to work with premium cable channels that are encrypted?

[PLUCKYHD]

Don't see the benefit of a 4 tuner OTA? I sure do having two seperate hdhomeruns now. As for the transcoding I can all but guarantee it will be limited to copy freely content.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by wayner

Won't the DLNA playback work with pretty much any device that is a DLNA client? .

no it's limited to DTCP-IP approved devices which right now is only the ps3. Well for copy protected content at least

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

no it's limited to DTCP-IP approved devices which right now is only the ps3. Well for copy protected content at least

I said I didn't see the benefit of the DLNA for OTA content. Not the 4-tuner form factor. Sure, 4 tuners is nice, but at some point, I don't like the all-eggs in one basket aspect of it, and would much prefer 2 2-tuner models.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I said I didn't see the benefit of the DLNA for OTA content. Not the 4-tuner form factor. Sure, 4 tuners is nice, but at some point, I don't like the all-eggs in one basket aspect of it, and would much prefer 2 2-tuner models.

Ya DLNA for 4 OTA is pointless I agree. But it will be a non CC model. To me just one less splitter I have to use

[Fuzzy]

It's still split internally, so the same ~3.5dB drop per split.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

It's still split internally, so the same ~3.5dB drop per split.

Oh ya I know but I don't have to see the cable mess

[drewg]

According to Jason, they are using a new demod in the OTA model. So there is the chance that this might be the first HDHR that works well in the face of bad multi-path.
See http://www.silicondust.com/forum/vie...?p=82507#82507

I just hope that I can somehow get it working with sage.

Drew