HDHomerun Prime Owners Thread - Page 10

Hmm, okay, I'll check out some threads here then.

No not really.

SSD can be had for $80. Another $100 gets you 2TB drive for storage.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811162059
ASRock Z68M/USB3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $84


SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE - OEM $15.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151244



Broadway Com Corp 1243MA-BLACK Glossy black Steel ATX Mini Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811162059



Intel Core i3-2105 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I32105 $134
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115090



Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BD160B $34
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148477



Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148441



HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632 (0F12117) 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145475

TOTAL COST $499. SSD BASED. 2TB storage. And built on Z68 board with HD3000 graphics. USB3.0 and also SATA 6G. No way retail will touch this for the same price in performance.

Thanks. You think this is the one to get?

Thanks, that is pretty good. Does it make a difference between Windows 7 Home and Professional?

Does record/playback of HD shows in DVR mode peg the CPU at all, the fans blast at all?

No. Windows PRO is only needed if you need encpryption or remote back up in enterprise applications. Really no need for PRO. Home is just fine.

No- The CPU might hit 10%, Nothing close to 100%. The fans would be silent to the point of not being able to hear them from 2 feet away.

The loudest part would certainly be the normal 2TB hard drive. And that's not loud.

The Stock intel cooler is very quiet. The case fan is also very quiet.

If it is just for HTPC you could drop the CPU to a G620 for about $60 and save the cash. I only choose the i3 because your budget allowed for this.

Well spending a little more for performance is fine, even if most of the time that performance won't be tapped.

Certainly something to think about and only a few months away from Ivy Bridge too.

I choose a Z68 board so if you wanted to drop in IVY when it is out... easy as that. It might take 30 second for me to swap the CPU's assuming the screws on the side of the case were being difficult.

So...

That said- My point is no need to wait. Your better off getting a $59 G620 cpu now... which is more than enough for what your doing and very good. If you wanted to get a more powerful IVY later... it's easy to drop in a new one. You don't even need a single tool. Perhaps a single phillips screwdriver and 5 minutes of your time.

You certainly would never have this option with a retail PC based on H61.

If you wanted a cheaper motherboard that is not the newest Z68 chipset that could also save you additionally.

Like I said- The retail stuff is cheapened on the MFG side of things to increase profits or offer lower price points.

Well I'd have to move to Comcast from D* first, which I'm contemplating.

As much as I liked my Prime, if you have D* I heartily recommend the HR34. Once I got it my Prime use dropped to almost zero and I sold it. If you don't want to keep D* I understand by the HR34 has really made my life so much easier than an HTPC based system

Well D* is screwing with me so I'm looking at options. On dbstalk, there are people who've been subscribers less than half the time and are still under contract and they're getting better deals than I've been offered and I've called several times.

I can save a lot of money with a Comcast Double Play deal over the next two years over what I'm paying for D* and Uverse for Internet. Of course I'd have to spend money on equipment but I'd rather do that than pay hundreds for leased equipment.

At least I could sell things like the Tivo with Lifetime or the HDHR Prime or the upcoming Ceton DVR and Extender at some point and recoup some money.

I am not sure I know what D* is.

Link ?

DirecTV.

D* is the common abbreviation for Directv

Oh. I can't do it. I have trees. I wish I could. had if for years at my dads house.

Love DirecTV much more than comcast. I would do it instantly if it was possible and gladly pay D* more than comcast as I don't hate them as much.

How do you get directv working? You still need a dish right? If so I am out.

I'm very happy with mine, have had it for several months now and would recommend it. The only issue I had was one incident when I was re-cabling my router/switch, had to do a hard power cycle on the device to have it seen again by the 2 HTPCs I have. Other than that, no issues.

Set up can be a little flaky, but that's more 7MC than the specific product, IMO. I did my install, including going to Micro Center for the HDHRP and a stop on the way home to Verizon to pick up a CC all in a couple of hours. And that included the online activation of the CC itself, I was very surprised how easily it all went.

The Ceton seems worth consideration as well though I have no experience with it. I just liked the idea of having it as a network device, seems more flexible to me. On occasion I'll fire up my laptop and am able to stream HD channels via Media Player. A little jerky over my older wireless G setup, but it works.

I've been really happy with my HDHR Prime. Got it up and running just after the new year, and it's been going strong without any issues right up until Saturday night...
Though that was my fault, I think. I had just finished building another HTPC, and I decided to install the HDHR software so I could access the tuners via that PC as well. It appears that doing so reset my Data ID to a new #, so I then lost the ability to tune encrypted/subscription channels at all.
Lesson learned, if ain't broke, don't break it.
Sent the cableco an e-mail with new Data ID#, and they say they've got it all squared away. We'll see how things work when I get home this afternoon...

If I'm not mistaken, you MUST run an extender to be able to share those tuners and recorded material. In other words, I have a Windows 7 laptop on the same network as my HTPC, tuners and Xbox 360's but there is no way to make this laptop an extender. You can install something like Remote Potato and then access your WMC on your original PC via their software. It's not as streamlined and is a little more clunky in some aspects but it's an option. I really wish they had some sort of 'extender mode' for WMC7 machines to be able to share the same files as an Xbox.

The extender "rules" only apply to material already recorded on one of the PCs. Multiple PCs may access the tuners directly up to the three tuner limit. I have four PCs running HDHR software and independently accessing the tuners. Never had any issues losing CableCard authorization as I added the additional PCs.

is there any differences between the 2 tuner and 4 tuner models in features????

I was unable to set up any tuners on my laptop. Most of what I do would be watching recorded TV programs so having access to live tuners would do me too much good. For this reason I didn't check too much into why my laptop WMC didn't seem to jive with the rest of the network.

Interesting - I was aware of, and am bound by, the extender rules for playback of recorded copy-once content (I asked my cableco, half-jokingly, if they'd consider re-flagging everything as copy-freely for me - but as I'm their only subscriber that is using a CableCARD in anything but one of their leased cable boxes, you can imagine their response).
I wonder what I could've done to lose my Data ID#, though, if you've been able to add access for multiple PCs without issues. Y'know, when I installed the HDHomerun software on HTPC#2, it upgraded the unit's firmware in addition to installing the application software. Is it possible that firmware update caused me to lose my Data ID#?

I've also updated software/firmware a few times (most recently to the latest beta last night on two of the PCs) with no issues.

Interesting! Well, correlation =/= causation... so while I thought I "broke" it, maybe it was just a coincidence. That being said, I'll wait a while before I try fiddling with this again (hell hath no fury like a woman scorned by missing her favorite show ).

Haha.. I know that all too well. Since installing HDHR Primes on my network and using it for all of our DVRing I now have to check the scheduled recordings to see when the best time to take the network down for repairs or upgrades. It's like I'm working an IT job at home now. I'll have to get the wife submitting trouble tickets.

I just ordered a Prime and have a couple of questions.

First, is the cablecard setup 'tied' to a specific computer? Ex - if I get the prime set up, then decide to replace my HTPC, do I have to call the cable company?

Second, does the prime work at all without a cablecard? Will it tune atsc or clearqam? I've been cable free for 3 years and am going to back since my wife is having Oprah withdrawal. I hope she overcomes that after a few months and want to know if I can still use the device without a cable subscription.

The cablecard is not tied to the PC, it is tied to the HDHomerun, so you can replace the PC without bothering the cable co.

Yes, the Prime works without the cablecard and gives you ClearQAM if it is provided on your cable.

Once set up you won't need to contact your cable provider if you change your HTPC. One important thing is that some recordings are flagged in such a manner that they will only play on THAT PC only. Other than that the tuners are free in the network & are assigned as needed for recording or live TV viewing. I can't speak first hand towards the OTA question as I haven't tested it nor was I planning to use it so I didn't research it. I'll let someone else anwswer that.

Anyone had an issue come up out of the blue where the error is 'No TV Signal' ??

I got a 2nd Prime today and called the cable company to get it all set up. Went off w/o a hitch and all tuners were present. Paid $5 for Tuner Salad and ran that and it showed up to 12 tuners were possible now. Scanned in the tuners in WMC and it showed (6) tuners several times while completing this process. Aside from having to set up all my favorite channel lists and such again it all went off w/o a hitch. I then set six different shows to record and all six lights on the Primes came on and all 6 shows recorded simultaneously. Figured I was good to go. Then, several hours later I start getting a pop-up that says 'No TV signal' and such and such show can't be recorded and to check the status of the tuners and set it to record at a later time. A quick scan on the tuners from the HD software shows that two of them aren't active currently. So it appears as though my Tuner Salad fix may not have been permanent. Dunno.

I did some quick searching and saw something about a 'Background Scanner bug' came up along with a regedit fix that needed to be disabled if I ever need to scan in the tuners from WMC again for some reason. Not sure if this is my solution or not but I wanted to check with others before I start messing around with the registry. Is this my solution? If I do this will I need to scan in all of my tuners once again or run Tuner Salad prior to that?

Thanks for the help!