HDHomeRun - Dual ATSC or QAM to Ethernet Box - Page 12

"You mean there are times that there is more than 1 tv show worth recording at the same time? " Yes-just look at Thursday/Friday prime time shows. UB,GA,S,GW,N,LV,etc...

Not sure if I've asked this b4.
Can anyone recommend a high quality cable splitter, or at least a source to purchase one? I don't want to use a Radio Shack unit. I have had enough problems with my cable PVR without adding to them.

Also, is there yet an HDHomerun faq explaining how to set it up, what is known to work and not work?

What is the difference between a hub and a switch?

Check Monoprice. I got a couple from there and may pick up a couple more.

Make sure you have a router.

Getting QAM up and running is too much of hassle right now. I'm hoping that we'll have an update for the use of both tuners in WMC. Even without QAM capability that's a great feat.

Basically, a switch makes a connection directly between two ports and the other ports do not see the traffic. A hub sends the signal to all ports. A switch will allow a full 100MB connection between two devices which is ideal with the HDHR - the computer that is recording the program gets the data, and none of the computers on the network see it.

See here for a definition http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_differe..._a_router.html

Thanks. So can the switch be used in conjunction with a hub? I've got 5 PCs(including the HTPC), a S3 TiVo and the HDHR hooked to the 16 port Dlink hub currently, which is connected to the DSL modem. Where would I put the switch?

Yes, the switch can co-exist with the hub. Take one of the hub ports and connect to any switch port. Then connect the HDHR and HTPC computer into the switch ports. It doesnt hurt to put other computers into the switch, but you can start with above.

You can also just replace the hub with an 8/16 port switch if you want.

From the sounds of your setup, the DSL modem is also a router? It is acting as the DHCP server for your network? Or is your hub actually a router? Easiest way to tell is if it has a single WAN port and multiple LAN ports.

The modem is also the router, it's a 2Wire 1000SW,

http://auctions.yahoo.com/i:2Wire%20...outer:97144678
Yahoo! Auctions - 2Wire HomePortal 1000SW ADSL Modem / Router auction in Like New condition

to make it really basic, switches work more effeciently than hubs. they ultimately are the same device, but switches work better. for specifics look up the definition of collision domains.

My Dlink 24 port 10/100 is a switch, Currently I have my Wireless router, 2 printers, 3 computers, and a ATA Voip adapter connected to it. When I connected the HDHR to it directly I got terrible stutter and macroblocking making the picture unusable.

The only change I made was to connect the HTPC to a linksys 5 port switch, connected the HDHR to the same linksys switch and then uplinked that to the Dlink switch. All of my stuttering and macroblocking disappeared.

Heck, I don't even know if you can BUY hubs any more??? Or if they are still sold, certainly no one should buy a hub given how cheap switches have become...

ya im not recommending a hub, get a switch 100% of the time, just wanting to explain everything.

and i got my hdhr 2 days ago and got it setup. im watching john q right now in HD. love it! i just wish i can map the hdhr to the normal channels the my ota tuner uses.

We have more analog channels now than we ever had( 60). We also have access to digital cable with a lot of hd channels. Bandwidth must not be a problem yet on our system. I guess it depends on how many more hd channels start showing up.

The thought of installing all those stb's must give cable installers nightmares. The thought of buying all those stb's and paying installers to install them must give cable owners nightmares. The thought of paying another 2 dollars a month will give grandma nightmares.

I should ask the local cable guys what they plan on doing. For now, I'll stick to my original thought- analog cable will be here for a while.

Brand new 8 port gigabit switches can be had for $69 at a local CompUSA. Do not waste you time using a hub; just throw it away. Even a cheapie 4 port 10/100 switch will give better performance and they're around $20 retail.

You'd be better off just chucking the hub and using a new 8 port switch.

Dual QAM support working in MCE. download the newest drivers from silicondust.

works perfectly for me. recorded 2 shows simulataneously in MCE. add in being able to use my hdtv wonder and i got 3 atsc tuners.

my only problem is my signal seems to be 2 weak to split. if anyone could recommend an amp for my cable line id appreciate!!

I use this amp for my digital cable:

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-48409.../dp/B000066E6Y

Are you using XP or Vista? I"m using Vista and Media Center won't recognize either one of the tuners.

speaking of amplifiers and such i get my hdhomerun tomorrow and need a splitter to add the hdhomerun to my media closet. right now it powers 2 devices and uses 2 lines (cable modem and dual tuner tv card in my htpc but only needs one line) but since the hdhomerun will need 2 lines for itself im going to need to get a new splitter tomorrow. I was thinking a ratshack one would do the job for now? Is there any other splitter I can get locally that I should look at instead? Ive never looked at splitters from a quality perspective but ive never really need to before now (worried splitting my cable signal 4 times vs 2 would cause extra problems)

I use the same motorola signal booster connecting at the main entry into the house. Then I use regular radioshack splitters all over the place. With the signal booster, I've been able to split my signal at least to 13 devices to various degrees.

then i should be good with the standard ratshack ones.... i have a dedicated line branched off from the rest of the cable network for my media closet (from the outside drop). Becuase of the cable modem mainly but Ive got a cheapo one on there atm (since its only a 2 way split) but one of my locals is fuzzy and it pretty much has to be the cheapo splitter i have in there now (which is why i want to replace it anyways)

Buy one from Radio Shack or a GE Digital Splitter from your local Home Depot, research on the net and buy a quality one from a net retailer of your choice... return the local one..

I know, I'm a bastard.......

Make sure your using the newest driver ( the beta 5 as I write this)

I'll update my HTPCs (running MCE 2005) today and report back. This is great news!

Dual Tuners with the newest BDA Driver (Beta 5) and GBPVR working great...;

I'm using mce. i was having some issues last night getting the qam remap to work, but i got it all straightened out now. Dual QAM in HD is beautiful.

Also I didn't need a amp, just a higher rated splitter. i had a 5-900MHz splitter and someone said the QAM channels are at the higher end of the spectrum and that i'd need a 950-1000MHz splitter. i bought a 2-1000MHz splitter from walmart for 9 bucks and that did the trick. here's the steps i took to get it all to work properly:

Update to the newest firmware and drivers.
Run the HDHR manager and click install now to install both tuners in MCE
Download the QAM remap utility and do a channel scan.
Remove the channels you don't want and save the hdhomerun_bda.remap file
Setup TV and add the HDHR tuners and update the guide
Add the DTV channels in MCE (this is where i messed up before)
Watch TV

I've been thinking about upgrading to Vista but the only thing it'd add is a performance hit to my system.

I'm sure this has been mentioned but if so I missed it.
With HD Homerun and MCE do we still need an analogue tuner to get MCE to recognize HD Homerun?

Yes, MCE2005 requires an analog tuner even if you don't use it. Just slap on a cheapie and then configure MCE to not use any channels from it. I put a Hauppauge USB2 just for that purpose.

I hear vista mce doesnt need an analog tuner.

I'm running Vista on a laptop with only the hdhomerun. No analog.

There are several ways to set up PoE for devices that don't support it natively. Mainly by injecting power at the source and splitting it back out again the target device. Requires nothing special from either end of the connection. I suppose it could be considered useful to put the HDHR as close as possible to the antenna instead of incurring some signal loss due to cabling. Ethernet supports up to 100 meters, and fibre converters even farther (don't know about UDP and latency though).