HDHomerun Prime Owners Thread - Page 6

I just got mine installed last week... Had the TA blinking LED light problem. Turned out Charter didn't activate my TA (they didn't even have a record that they gave me one). Once they activated it (took 3 calls) it connected and everyting worked great.

I've had the HDHomerun Prime for a few months now. Everything has been running great, no problems what so ever. I've already got 1TB of tv shows recorded. It is so nice to NOT have to worry about which shows you want to delete or keep in your DVR. :-D

Well then I guess it's all working as expected, I did fire up our second computer and install the software and it too now can use the box. It did pick the second tuner while my system in here was using the first so I guess that's how it works.
Wasn't sure if you had to pick anything or do anything special to get the extras going.
Thanks, another question answered and everything seems to be working as it should. Now to decide what I want to record or season pass and how I should setup my last 2tb drive I've been saving for something like this

I swapped out the ta and now things work well. Thanks to all for the help. Now to setup all of my recordings.

After a Comcast install that fried my old modem, caused the introduction of their "gateway" that wouldn't play nice with my network, and two days of fighting with Comcast to activate my private modem everything seems to be working (probably just jinxed myself).

When this is working it's impressive. Nothing has been stable so far. I've had issues with the HDHRP disappearing from the network and the Xbox 360 gets lost at times.

Does anybody have tips for stabilizing the Xbox as an extender? I have it set to go to WMC on startup but it just isn't wife friendly yet. Is there anything else that I can do? I'm tempted to just build a HTPC for the living room so that she doesn't have to deal with the Xbox but that would just open another can of worms.

Edit: I need to add that I'm using the new Xbox 360 remote control. The only thing that I would like is a stop button. You can pause but you can't stop. Otherwise the remote control is well worth the $20.00

I've found the Xbox 360 a savior to in my setup. It introduced the usability necessary for a high WAF. The Xbox 360 extenders, HTPC, and HDHomeRun Primes are all on a Netgear ProSafe gigabit switch. One Xbox 360 is on a separate switch gigabit switch with a 100mbit link between the two.

Make sure you are on 20111128 beta and Windows 7 64-bit SP1. I was able to update to the new Xbox 360 dashboard as well. Check all your cables and try to move your HTPC equipment from the router's ports to a quality switch.

I haven't completely looked this whole thread over but does anyone know if there's a way to have media center actually name the captures properly like from the guide rather then just name , time, and capture date which is pretty useless to keep track of some of the shows I have a pass for.
I use CWEPG and I can set it to have a name and episode with date and all that which makes it much easier to sort through for new or special episodes I want to watch.
I was poking through the settings for WMC and I can't find a way to custom setup the file names but who knows where they might hide it or if it can be done as I just started using it now that it's pretty much required to access my HD subscribed stuff.

The deal is I use a media player so I convert the raw files,edit out the commercials, then watch them later with it. I don't use any of the windows stuff unless I have to and use FF for my browser and VLC and IRFANveiw for most of my photo and video type playback on the PC here.
I know the media center has a nice quick synopsis of each program recorded but the name of the files doesn't always include the episode and extras so it makes it hard to sort through later when looking at them with the media player on my shared folder.
I have poked through the recorded TV section and it is nice but like I said I never actually use it when I want to watch anything recorded. It's already been converted to MPG, edited, moved to my base shared folder, then watched later or moved to external drives with folders for all my shows and things.
Just hoping the file name could be tweaked to make it easier to tell what it is later when I don't have the media center to tell me. I've been catching all the new top gears in HD and all the file name says is Top Gear, time, and date, nothing about the episode at all which is really kinda critical when looking through a bunch of them later.

OK, thanks, I realize most folks just use the stuff that works with it and watch it on their PC or use some type of media extender but I don't have any of that here but I do have a WDTV Live and a new Pivos Aios media center, both networked into my PC and TV out here so it makes it nice to watch all my digital goodies.
They MIGHT have some sort media wall thing for either one which is probably what your talking about. I know they have something but haven't played with it as I'm trying to keep it simple for now.
I'll have to look into it more and see what I can do.

Just wanted to relay a Comcast self-install success story here - picked up the Prime from the newegg deal for $170, got a card later, then called and had it paired/activated without any hassle. Call took less than 10 minutes and every channel came in after (including HBO).

Only problem I had was that I was getting 'copying prohibited' in WMC when tuning the premium copy-once channels, initially thought this was a PlayReady issue so I deinstalled/updated that a couple of different ways (and used ResetDRM tool) but no go. Then I realized I had shark's codec pack installed from over a year ago but wasn't using it, so I deinstalled that and the protected channels worked fine afterwards. I'm sure I could've fixed this by setting something in shark's pack if I needed to, but this was easier. I use my HTPC only with extenders and they pretty well suck for anything other than live or recorded TV anyway.

I have a couple of issues I don't think are related to the Prime, but before I start a new thread, I thought I'd ask: does anyone know what thread discusses the 29/59 Frame Rate Issue (Sho, HBO, and CBS)?

Also, someone was posting recently about issues with their system they were using with the Prime: system freezing after waking from sleep. I thought it was in this thread but I can't find it.

29/59 Frame Rate Issue:
http://experts.windows.com/frms/wind...4/t/87594.aspx

OK, for anybody else like me that might want to edit and then play your captures on a media player networked into your TV I did find a way to custom configure the file name that media center uses to store all the fileshttp://www.fluxbox.co.uk/2009/11/22/change-default-media-center-recorded-tv-file-names/
I tried this and it works though I had to add the file-name string myself then edit it till it had what I wanted.
My files now have the show name and episode like I was hoping for, plus if wanted it can show exact time, date, channel and I think even network though I didn't enable all that info for my captures.
You can move the strings around so date is first, name, or whatever works for your setup too.
I tried using just spaces between the strings and that will work too, or a different character between strings to space the name and episodes.
I hope this helps anybody who might like to have things named in a way that helps them sort things like I wanted to, too bad there isn't a direct way to edit it that I know of.

I had the same experience with Cox.

So far my system seems to wake from sleep just fine, I'm using win7 ultimate 64 with 8 gig and a 6 core 1090t here. The hibernate seems to have issues as I was hoping I could leave it on 24/7and just come out of hibernation to capture shows or when I wanted to surf and do things but it seemed to shut down, then restart when I moved the mouse. It said windows had recovered from a serious error plus I had to relog in so useless for me anyways. Was hoping to save lots of juice but sleep drops my draw down to about 150 whats from about 230 like when surfing and typing like now, MUCH more when gaming I've captured quite a few shows since getting it going and I think the log only has one where it says no signal available or something so seems pretty stable so far.

Well there are a few things on the UPS that probably don't sleep so that might be part of it.
I have a 850 watt PSU, a dual core 4870 video card, and 5 hard drives and 6 burners in here too so don't know how much all of that draws when it's asleep either though the burners shouldn't draw anything when they aren't busy, I also have 2 120mm fans that continue to run sleeping or not though maybe there are some settings I could change in the bios that might help that too. I was hoping it would draw less in sleep mode but if you have any suggestions or settings I should look at I'll give it a shot. Too bad hibernate doesn't work as I had one PC that would power down the fans and everything when in full snooze mode and that would really help.

Yeah, maybe, but the power light is flashing so it's in some kind of major power saving mode, drives are powered down and all that but the fans are still running.

I'm thinking about getting this or the ceton. I want to get a tv tuners solution best integrated inside xbmc. I know il only be able to record copy freely material but that is what most of mine in my area is. I'm trying to find the best option to go with xbmc and wondering if any of you use them. My options are a xbmc/mediaportal build, an unofficial wimdows/mythtv build(xbmc also has a mythtv plugin but I don't know if its Linux only or not, or a sagetv script/build/plugin etc. I know there is a script for sure nut not about.the others. All of these work with ceton but I'm not sure about prime. I would like to find the easiest to set up, simplest to use, with the most options and best interface. Any ideas either from what I listed or something else?

Pretty much the same here once I got my PC issues sorted (Digital cable advisor/PlayReady/etc.). The one extra thing I had to do with Comcast was call 1-800-COMCAST and go through the call tree to the point where I could have the system send a "signal". None of the subscription-only channels were coming in. 15 seconds after that signal was sent everything was working.

Since then everything has been very smooth. Any issues I've been having are network related and not HDHR related. What I thought was going to be a serious hassle has turned out to be one of the easiest parts of my whole system.

Either that or it's in the S1 sleep state (and a worst case power draw scenario). Mine sleeps at 10 watts and consumes about 80 when on. Mind, that is the HTPC alone.

Mine does 230 right now when surfing but it's a pretty loaded system and like said does 150 when sleeping. I'll have to poke around the bios some more and see what it's set at but it probably is S1 if that's the typical defualt setting.
I tried a few different fan speed settings and one got a BSOD right after it tried to wake up so I set it back to default for now as BSOD every time it wakes up or some times wont cut it. Trying to get it stable and to draw less juice when sleeping. Till now I usually shut it down at night when nothing was happening that it needed to stay on.
Might have to build a dedicated HTPC soon and put it in the front room to run the Prime and media players...

OK I went into the bios and set the power options to auto rather then S1, came back in just now and power light was blinking and everything else was completely off. I moved the mouse and it immediately started spinning everything up and was back at the place I left it, BUT the MX 5000 bluetooth keyboard and MX 1000 BT mouse combo was unresponsive and I had to hit the reload button on the BT/USB thing that receives the signals from the combo package. My power draw at this point was 1 whole watt, that I could leave on 24/7 and never hurt the wallet. All I have to do now is get everything to restart properly without either BSOD or not being able to type or use my mouse.
Thanks for the ideas so far and any suggestions for me and others to get these things balanced out and stable so they can be used all the time without having everything non essential running and wasting power and money.

I'd say that using the xbox will be better for the WAF. Main advantage to extender will be access to all recorded media on the main computer (even copyonce) and being able to schedule recordings without having to use the main computer. Also this reduces the possibility that you will over burden the Prime with too many schduled recordings at a particular time! Another big advantage is if the main computer is watching something and the extender is also watching the same channel you are only using one tuner (there is quite a bit of lag between the two so it is best to limit hearing both at the same time). A second computer would use another tuner to watch the same channel. Lastly managing the channel line up on just one computer is easier than two as you can not copy the settings from one computer to another.

If the controller you have has a green button (WMC), pushing that should turn on the xbox and open the extender media center in one shot. I have the Pinnicle WMC controller (it has a stop button) and it does this but it does not turn on my TV or control the sound level. I am looking at the lesser priced Harmonies that include the green button feature as an all in one. From what I have read the WAF goes up with just one controller and is worth the cost but I have no direct expeience in the matter.

Using unmanaged giga switches seems to be the best method for networking between devices. (If you have a D-Link router you need to enable Multicast Streams within the advanced tab of router settings.) Ensuring that signal strength that the prime has is peak will increase stability (either a visit from your provider to adjust or add a signal booster just before the tuner). Many have reported seeing weak network signals on the xbox and have no interuption and have the report disappier within a few seconds, if this happens you might consider disabling the notice within xbox.

The upside of a second computer is, in my mind, simply having a back up system. I basically have it both ways mostly for testing purposes, three computers and an xbox. If I were setting up a complete new system for someone I would recommend multiple xbox's over mini computers and plasma TV's unless they want to access the internet and e mail from that station. I also find accessing things like netflix or xfinity TV from a computer to be a better way than using WMC or the xbox or TV apps.

All of this relies upon using WMC which is the only thing that allows seeing copyonce or copy never content so for TW customers and a few others with SDV it is a must but for others, like comcast or verizon, having a Linux run system with Myth bypasses WMC issues (if you do not watch Premium content channels).

I as well have gotten the weak network signal in my 360 but it did not affect livetv viewing or anything. I have a d-link dir-655 router, 2 netgear switches (unmanaged) and a signal booster on my cable line. I had not noticed the "Enable Mulitcast Streams" option in my router before but I will make sure to check that. I did find it curious that I got those warnings in my 360 but haven't seen it in quite some time. Just saw this when I was initially setting things up.

I agree that the 360 is great for WAF and is easy to use. I have it by default boot into WMC to make things easier. I have the 360 WMC remote and it works very well.

I have my xbox set to go right into live tv and we use the older white xbox remote, it also controls the tv so the volume and on/off works great. Also has a stop button. The wife has no problems using any of this and my 6 year old daughter has now surpassed me in using the guide, I hate the wmc guide.