HDHR ATSC 3.0 tuner

[wayner]

It looks like Silicondust is doing a Kickstarter campaign for an ATSC 3.1 version of the HDHR Quatro.

Estimated delivery is July 2020.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...9dc3-425186693

[phelme]

yep, came here to post about it. $199.

[wayner]

So now the question is - do you have a local station broadcasting in ATSC 3.0?

This is from Wikipedia:

As part of the ATSC 3.0 trials by Pearl, Univision's KFPH-CD in Phoenix was converted to an ATSC 3.0 station on April 9, 2018, which will be shared by Univision and several other broadcasters. Univision and Sinclair Broadcast Group are also planning a trial in Dallas, which will utilize spectrum vacated by KSTR-DT and KTXD-TV to test ATSC 3.0 transmission using a single-frequency network.[57][58]

[KeithAbbott]

It's very disappointing to me that SiliconDust is using their resources to develop other products/services, yet is still ignoring getting the HDHomeRun Prime 6 (that they announced over two years ago) to market.

I'm not saying they should ignore ATSC 3.0, but maybe honor their past commitments before making new ones. For the average consumer, you would need to 1) live in one of the pilot cities, 2) own a TV set that is capable of 4K, and 3) be in a position to use an antenna. I do own at least one TV that is 4K capable, but it is not my primary television, and I have no plans to replace my primary television which is only around five years old.

Sorry for the rant, but I currently have two 3-tuner Primes, and am having inconsistencies tuning channels. Certain channels will tune on one of the Primes, and not on the other. I've spent more time than I care to mention with the Charter phone support, onsite technicians, etc. trying to get to the bottom of the problem with no joy. Moving to a single Prime 6 device would likely resolve the problem. Let me tell you, WAF is low when she is not able to consistently tune in a show that she wants to watch, because SageTV happened to pick a tuner on the other device.

[KryptoNyte]

That is strange, Keith. I had that same system setup and ran flawlessly for about 5 years (it took some serious work with firmware problems over the first year, but after that it was great).

It is disappointing to not see anything happening with the Prime 6-tuner model, but I think they see the writing on the wall that cablecard tuners are entirely dependent on what direction the cable companies go with their media, but the OTA tuners are a tried and true product for them.

[KryptoNyte]

I suppose there will be some interesting logic in how to use that strange mix of tuners. Not sure how Sage will deal with that, unless it just sees (2) ATSC 1 tuners and (2) ATSC 3 tuners, and that's it.

[KryptoNyte]

Wow. They doubled their original goal on day one of the campaign.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by wayner

So now the question is - do you have a local station broadcasting in ATSC 3.0?

This article is a year old, wonder if there is some kind of timeline.

https://www.atsc.org/news/coming-soo...hing-atsc-3-0/

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

That is strange, Keith. I had that same system setup and ran flawlessly for about 5 years (it took some serious work with firmware problems over the first year, but after that it was great).

I pretty sure I could resolve the issue by following Charter’s advice: replace my “foreign“ devices with their tried and true set-top boxes.

Finding someone at Charter who knows anything about CableCard is hard enough; finding one that also knows about HDHomeRun devices is just about impossible.

[KryptoNyte]

Oh hey, here's a fancy map.

https://www.atsc.org/nextgen-tv/deployments/

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

I pretty sure I could resolve the issue by following Charter’s advice: replace my “foreign“ devices with their tried and true set-top boxes.

Finding someone at Charter who knows anything about CableCard is hard enough; finding one that also knows about HDHomeRun devices is just about impossible.

Ha! Of course, the good old foreign device routine. I usually started the conversation by telling them I had a Tivo, until I got to someone who knew what was going on.

Seriously, though, do you think one of the Prime's might be faulty?

[phelme]

I think a bunch of our locals are being "repacked" on May 1st. No idea though when any stations are actually going ATSC 3.0, but we are supposedly in the first wave to do so.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Ha! Of course, the good old foreign device routine. I usually started the conversation by telling them I had a Tivo, until I got to someone who knew what was going on.

Seriously, though, do you think one of the Prime's might be faulty?

It's possible, although it seems unlikely that one of the Primes would be faulty for only some channels but not others. My guess is that one or both of the cablecards does not have the correct channel-mapping pushed to it. But connecting with someone who has enough in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of cablecard is difficult. Some of the providers used to have special 800 support numbers that got you to cablecard "experts", but I think Charter discontinued that and now all of their employees are supposedly trained in cablecard. I also do wonder if the problem could be in one of my SDV tuning adapters, which might account for the somewhat random nature of the problem.

I do like your idea of telling them I have a Tivo, I may try that next time I have to call.

[wayner]

No love for Buffalo which is the US city that the Toronto area gets its OTA. Buffalo is a strange market as technically it is small. But Buffalo stations can be received in Toronto which is the third largest market in North America. Hopefully they start broadcasting soon and I will get one of these.

Hopefully it will work in SageTV!

[hufnagel]

came here to talk about this, mostly to try and figure out if getting the box now is better than later, especially if it goes up in price. (cheap bastard.)

Other question is, how are people doing roll-your-own set top boxes that support HEVC/x.265 natively? my HD300's will become problematic in that area soon I suspect. I guess transcode could be the answer, but isn't it better to avoid that as much as possible?

[wayner]

I think the best option is the Nvidia Shield. The main options are AndroidTV boxes - Nvidia Shield and MiBox. I think you can also sideload to the FireTV.

Those are the main options. Other than that you could try a lower end Windows PC and run the SageTV Win client.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

It's very disappointing to me that SiliconDust is using their resources to develop other products/services, yet is still ignoring getting the HDHomeRun Prime 6 (that they announced over two years ago) to market.

I see SD is saying they're still working on the Prime6, which I find somewhat surprising. It seems like a product that would be DOA without DVR software supporting DRMed channels. The copy-freely customer base has been shrinking more and more.

Focusing on ATSC tuners seems like their best bet to stay afloat a bit longer.