HDHomeRun - Dual ATSC or QAM to Ethernet Box - Page 61

That really is awesome news! Sorry Ceton but looks like SiliconDust will get my dough.

Yes. I'm assuming you're running MediaPortal 1.1 Beta with Win7? If so, you need to install the latest SVN to make it work correctly.

IMO, the MediaPortal team got caught with their pants down for windows7 support. They still have quite a few bugs to work out before the new version is as stable as MP1.0.1/2 was.

Now if they were coming out with one that supported satellite, I'd be in seventh heaven and pre-order one as soon as I could!

I would probably made the same decision, especially if the HDHR device is still an external device. SiliconDust has had very good software through the years, where Ceton is unknown. I wouldn't want to make another mistake like I did when I bought a Fusion card. Nice card but horrible software (at the time over 2 years ago--I have no idea whether they ever got their act together).

Boy do these things come with some crappy wall warts. Both of my HDHomerun units have destroyed their wall warts. I got a free replacement wall wart for the first one, now the one from the second unit is acting up.

I'm still using the original wall warts with both my Gen 1 and Gen 2 units. My Gen 1 has been running since 2003/4.

I'm still using the original as well, I think they sent me a replacement once but I've yet to use it.

Any news on the CableCARD version of the HDHR? I stopped getting email updates from the Silicon Dust thread I was following and haven't checked over there in awhile.

I just got back from vacation so I haven't checked in the last week or so but the last I heard from my sources is that they are still on track for the April beta.

My original HDHR wall wart is still working (knocking on wood). But I've had so many problems with wall warts for various devices dying that I hate them with a passion.

BUT, I HAVE A DREAM!

With USB3.0 offering higher power output, I'm hoping that we'll see all these devices that currently use wall warts switch to using USB3.0 to get their power (even if all they need is power).

Then I'd like to see surge suppressor/power strips include lots of USB3.0 power-only jacks in addition to the regular 120vac jacks (IOW something similar to the way we already have USB2.0 power-only cigarette lighter adapters for cars).

That way these companies won't have to try to squeeze every fraction of a penny out of the cost of their wall-wart. Instead they can just include a cheapo USB3.0 cable.

Both of my HDHomerun units are now using D-Link AF1205-B 5V 2.0A power adapters. I think that's what Silicondust sent out as a replacement. I bought another one from ebay for my 2nd unit (since it wasn't eligible for a free replacement) and just received it.

The adapter I just replaced had very peculiar behavior. It wouldn't power my other HDHomerun, but the unit it was plugged into worked fine with the exception of one particular channel. When I tried to tune our local CBS affiliate the signal quality would bounce up and down and the symbol quality would drop out about once a second. I swapped the power adapters and then CBS would come in perfectly. The new D-Link adapter works fine with it as well.

Just got this and was pretty impressed. I was even more impressed to learn my xBox could "extend" Win MCE onto my HDTV so that I wouldn't have to figure out how to connect my desktop to it. I'm surprisingly satisfied, especially since I spent less than I thought I'd need to.

Question, is there a way to connect to my home network even though I'm not at home so I can access the HDHomeRun tuner?

If you are trying to to watch video from the HDHomerun over the Internet, your home connection's upload and your current location's download speeds would have to be 15Mbps or more for HD channels.

Hmm... doubtful that would work since I'm on my sprint cell tethering. Oh well. I guess I'll have to keep my crappy one rabbit ear antenna w/ my usb HD tuner with me. Thanks

He could if the feeds get transcoded to something with much lower bitrate. I used to do it on GB-PVR.

No problem. But to answer your question (for academic purposes), you would need a VPN tunnel to your home networks since the HDHomerun and the computer accessing it would have to be on the same subnet.

You could however set up a machine at home to access the HDHomerun and use VLC to transcode the video to a lower bitrate that could then be accessed from outside via port forwarding on your router. The rabbit ears are simpler though.

Yup, we were crossposting. GBPVR's web interface would do it as well.

Ear, but yeah. I thought if I could use the signal from home then I wouldn't have to worry about a stupid antenna or connecting the tuner, but this is easier atm. Anyway, Thanks.

Or just use a Slingbox.

Thought about it but it seems more like an expensive headache.

Well... first real test of this set up and it failed miserably... The recording studders everywhere. I have a feeling it's my sorry ass internet more than my 6-10 yr old desktop (Pent. D) I'm using...

Nani,

I thought I would move this from the MyHD MDP-130 thread to this thread.

I got two new HDHRs today. Both are 1015XXX. The SD software updated the firmware on the first one before I checked. The second one had the 20080427 firmware before I upgraded.

I compared one of the new 1015XXX HDHRs with my older 1013XXX HDHR, and they appear to be identical. According to my Kill-A-Watt meter, power usage for both is 2W when no tuners are streaming and 4W when one tuner streaming. I did not check the power with two tuners streaming since I borrowed the antenna cable from the old one to connect the new one at the same time.

I checked KGO, KNTV, KPIX, KQED, KTVU, and KBCW. The readings for all three bars in the HDHomeRun Config app were nearly identical. If anything, the 1013XXX had a percent or two higher signal strength on a few stations. However, I have seen similar differences between two tuners in the same HDHR box.

-Dave

Hi,

It sounds like the 1015 is close to my 1013 in reception, so no big jump in reception. Sadly the Fusion7 Dual would remain my best tuner even through it cannot be used for captures. Bummer!!
-------------------------------

The roof is OFF already.

I just checked and the old roof appears to have no effect on reception at all.

I checked using the rotten tuner in my HDTV, the 1013 HDHR and the Fusion7 Dual tuner which aborted several times during the channel scan finally requiring a computer reset after which I gave up.

KMTP was still missing except on the Fusion7 Dual so as I am not using it for captures I have no way to capture KMTP. No big loss as KCSM-Mhz is showing "In Focus". YEA!!!

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Back to my main question, using two routers, the main 1G one for connection to my HTPC and a second one for the two HDHR tuners with it being connected to the main router.

A simple diagram, the settings on the two routers and other things to do that are necessary for it to work are what I am looking for.

TIA

SHF

Why not plug everything into the 1G router? Are you out of LAN ports, or to you want to combine the HDHR LAN ports for a long LAN cable run?

Which router do you use to bring the internet into your network?

Typically, you only want one router on your network, and then you want to use switches for the other network distribution devices. However, most routers can be used as a switch. Just disable the DHCP server of the router you want to use as a switch, and then use the LAN ports on the router, but don't plug anything unto the WAN port.

-Dave

Hi,

Adding a second HDHR would fill up all the ports on the 1G router so if another port is needed there would be none available. But that would be the initial configuration and yes the 1G router would bring the Internet into my network and would be the only one with the 2G and 5G radios on. I see no usefulness of having a second router's radio on. A long LAN cable run might be in the future to where I wish to put a second HTPC but currently no antenna connection is possible there.

The speed of the 5G radio would in effect allow another fast port but not a good idea to me.
--------------------------------
Main Wireless router:

1. DHCP server ON
2. Internet connection
3. 2G Radio on (Network Printer Server and other laptops)
4. 5G Radio on (Main Laptop only currently)

Port1 = Network Attached Storage (NAS)
Port2 = (Spare for long LAN run to additional HTPC Computer)
Port3 = HTPC (Computer has no wireless)
port4 = Connection to second router

--------------------------------

Secondary router

1. DHCP server OFF
2. NO Internet Connection
3. 2G Radio OFF

Port1 = Connection to main router
Port2 = HDHR #1
Port3 = HDHR #2
Port 4 = Spare
--------------------------------

Note: Old wireless router may be replaced with a 1G router with no radio if more speed is needed. The speed needs of the four HDHR tuners might force this but I do not see this happening, not too many HD programs need to be recorded at the same time.

Questions:

Can the Internet connection (WAN Port) on the secondary router be used for any purpose?

I assume that no manual configuration of network settings need be done.

I just discovered a second 1G port on my HTPC, how would DHCP be done if I plugged the secondary router into that port? Would the result still be one network with access to all devices still possible? (HDHR on secondary router to HTPC to main router to wireless 5G radio on main laptop work?

SHF

If you buy anything, you should buy a gigabit switch, not another router. The D-Link gigabit switches have high ratings at Newegg, are pretty inexpensive, and use very little power. I have the 8-port model, and it draws only 2 watts with 7 ports active. By the way, the refurbished 5-port model for only $14.99 looks like an exceptional deal.


Probably not in your configuration. I have seen people connect the WAN port to an upstream LAN port and do double NAT. However, this port is really designed to replicate a single upstream port to multiple downstream ports using NAT. Also, I don't think it will pass UDP packets used by the HDHR (but I could be wrong).


Using the second NIC port on your PC, you can connect an HDHR directly to your PC without a router. SiliconDust has a post about this. I have tested this on a PC with two NICs, with the first NIC connected to a router in a conventional way and the second NIC connected to an HDHR. It worked great. It would probably also work great if you connected a switch (or router used as a switch) to the second port and plugged in both HDHRs. This method has the advantage of not using the bandwidth of the first NIC. There is no possibility of other network traffic interfering with HDHR recordings (but I have never had a problem with this anyway). The other advantage is that your HDHRs are not dependent on having a working DHCP server, which may be an issue if your router ever crashes. Of course, the disadvantage is that the HDHRs are on a private network only accessible to the PC, and cannot by seen by other PCs. Setting it up this way will not bridge the two networks, but there might be a way to do that if you want to.

-Dave

Nani, I second both of these suggestions. Another advantage of hanging the HDHR(s) directly from the PC's NIC is that it then doesn't matter whether or not your main LAN gear is powered on during recordings. I.e., the HTPC plus HDHR(s) comprise an autonomous PVR.

By the way, I just noticed that the refurbed 5-port router for $14.99 + $3.99 Shipping has a lifetime warranty. The new version of the same router for $29.95 + free shipping has a three year warranty. I have never had a switch fail, so it is probably not a big deal. However, it looks like D-Link is really standing behind their refurbed switches. It is pretty common for refurbed products to only have a 90 day warranty.

-Dave

Hi,

Putting any HDHR on the second HTPC NIC with or without a router is a non starter.

That would block any use of the HDHR(s) by my Laptop and any other computer on my network. So the second NIC is close to worthless AFAIK.

The only remaining question is the conformation that just plugging everything in will allow everything to be set up automatically by the DHCP server on the main wireless router.

Thanks for all the great information from all.

Now off to "San Francisco, CA - OTA" to cry, my new roof is on and I get close to nothing using any of my 7 tuners.

SHF

The much simpler solution is to just use another network switch. It's very likely that your low-end 5 port router doesn't have as much network bandwidth as you might think. But then again it's not like your PCs are going to max out the gigE connections anyway, the HDHR certainly won't. So just daisy-chain another switch off the router. Perhaps consider segregating the high-traffic devices onto it.

You could configure your HTPC to act as another router. It could also be configured to pass DHCP requests back over to the other NIC and router. Or it could be configured to offer up a series of addresses not offered on the main router, and then only on the second NIC. With that setup you'd configure your NICs as bridged not as a router. But it's honestly just a lot less hassle to add another switch.