I am basically wondering what my options are to minimally get it to where it needs to be to work as a DVR w/ KODI and basic HTPC. Going to be using Basic Cable no Box but will have 175 channels through coaxial. What do i need to add to my computer to get it to work? Thanks for all the Help!!
Cool that you get that many unencrypted channels
For setup you can add a HDHomerun Dual (2 tuners) or HDHomerun Prime (3 tuners) to your network and plug the coaxial from the wall into whichever one you go with
Notes on your scenario
- Unencrypted QAM has been phased out by other cable companies (depending on whether they feel like it)
- Both the Dual and the prime can receive/tune unencrypted QAM
- The dual can also tune OTA but not cablecard
- The prime can tune cablecard but not OTA
- In the future your cable company may go cablecard as a requirement, so it's more sensible for you to just get the prime
Also, from the above notes, the Dual is usually $40+ and you can also find the Prime for $80+ so it's not too much more expensive. Definitely go with one or the other silicondust tuner though
After you choose that, it's pretty straightforward. Install the hdhomerun software on your W7 machine and let it scan for channels. Then run the Live TV setup in WMC. It should find all the same channels. If there are some you don't want or know that don't work you can disable them back at the HDHomerun channel scan, and they won't ever even appear in WMC.
After that, since you are unencrypted I'd recommend installing ServerWMC. Then for all your other "clients" around the house use Kodi or Mediabrowser. Kodi is still a little further along than most mediabrowser clients on the "PVR" interface
A nifty feature either way will be to install and run MyChannelLogosXL (worth buying if you don't have it). It will populate your program guide in WMC with channel logos. It has an auto feature that works pretty well for most stations. The nifty part is that ServerWMC will pull these channel logos to all of your clients, so you'll have logos in Kodi and Mediabrowser as well. At the moment, only the roku and web clients for mediabrowser appear to have program guides.
Most in this forum will recommend going wmc+extenders and I still recommend going ServerWMC+Kodi/Mediabrowser
We've debated it ad nauseum. If live tv is the top (only) priority I concede that extenders are the way to go, but they do have some playback short comings (for ripped media, not TV) compared to Kodi which is more what is most important to me. One thing I'll say is that ServerWMC architecturally seems less resource intensive than extenders. It's virtually just doing multiple recordings and dumping the wtv buffer to .ts which the clients are streaming (the exception being mediabrowser which also transcodes that ts file ~ which will take more power). Lots of boxes could do 3x recordings though, but I'm not sure if all the boxes that could do 3 recordings could handle 3 WMC extenders. An extender session uses more resources (I believe) than just remuxing 3 active recordings to ts. That's something I've never thought of and we've definitely never compared head to head around here