Opinions on HDHomeRun?

I

Ian Manning

Member
I was wondering if any HDR-Fox T2 owners had tried the HDHomeRun unit for networked DVR facilities (as an alternative to the Humax)? I know it's not a like-for-like replacement, but coupled with a decent TV Android box it looks like a good product. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with the bugginess of my Humax (with custom firmware) - mainly missed recordings and crashes every couple of days - and would like to try something that might be a bit more robust.
 
Hi. I have the quad tuners which are sometimes available for under £100. From Amazon
I use the tvheadend backend software to download all the tv data and do all the recordings. There are Nas and windows and Linux versions of the software with easy ish setup
There are viewing clients on iOS and android and you can use kodi as well if using an android box on your tv. Or side load onto a fire tv stick
There are also paid for viewers on fire tv
Some TVs also have apps u can use
I use TVHClient for iOS. A excellent free front end which can even cast a programme to a chrome cast device as well as set up recording and view the epg and watch tv on the iOS screen
For viewing only HDHomeRun have software as well, they have a susbscription for recording which I have not tried
Plex also works although I seem to get to many failed recordings. I need to investigate why. Plus u need to subscribe for this as well
There are many other free and paid for front and back end software u can use as well
Final bonus for me is I can log into my home based VPN from anywhere in the world and watch uk tv
I think they are brilliant. Take a bit of work compared to a dumb box but worth it for the versatility
 
erne said:
Hi. I have the quad tuners which are sometimes available for under £100. From Amazon
I use the tvheadend backend software to download all the tv data and do all the recordings. There are Nas and windows and Linux versions of the software with easy ish setup
There are viewing clients on iOS and android and you can use kodi as well if using an android box on your tv. Or side load onto a fire tv stick
There are also paid for viewers on fire tv
Some TVs also have apps u can use
I use TVHClient for iOS. A excellent free front end which can even cast a programme to a chrome cast device as well as set up recording and view the epg and watch tv on the iOS screen
For viewing only HDHomeRun have software as well, they have a susbscription for recording which I have not tried
Plex also works although I seem to get to many failed recordings. I need to investigate why. Plus u need to subscribe for this as well
There are many other free and paid for front and back end software u can use as well
Final bonus for me is I can log into my home based VPN from anywhere in the world and watch uk tv
I think they are brilliant. Take a bit of work compared to a dumb box but worth it for the versatility
Click to expand...
Is there anything you miss about the T2? i.e. things that the T2 can do, but this setup can't?

It seems like the HDHomeRun box performs a very simple function - like a TV capture card but interfacing via the LAN rather than USB. So all of the content processing (recording, scheduling, playback) needs to be done by a separate box. Is that a fair assessment of what it is/what it does?
 
Yes, you need a computer running as well to do all the clever stuff - but it can be a lightweight computer and it doesn't need to be near the TV aerial lead or have a user interface (just log into it from an app or browser on another device).
 
The T2 is a one box solution, hooked up to a TV with the super added functionality of the modded software
For ease of use and immediacy its fantastic it’s hard to beat it
The HDHomeRun is purely a lan connected TV tuner. You need other devices/apps to interact with the thing to make it do its magic. I have a cheap mini pc which cost me £89 of eBay complete with hard drive and windows 10. This does all the recordings and heavy lifting. And has to be on all the time
Not quite the one box solution but I find It works great for my needs
 
I've just trawled through the reviews on Amazon and one reviewer observed that the HDHomeRun doesn't support subtitles. Do you know if that's true? Probably not a big issue for many, but we use them quite frequently, particularly for some US drama series.
 
Subtitles are supported as far as I can see. The subtitles are in the transport stream and you just need to select the subtitle version of the audio part of the stream when watching
Works fine on plex and the TvhClient for iOS I use
 
Agreed. It is up to the client to support subtitles, there's no reason they would be stripped out of the network stream. If the client software doesn't make them available to the user, use different software.
 
Just to see what happens I have set up and am currently recording 28 (update/edit should read 18) different programs using TVHeadend
It’s only using 6 of the 8 tuners so must be using the mux stream and capturing shows from the stream
So far no transport errors
I am amazed !
 
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No reason to think they would be. All Freeview transmissions are "in the clear", it is only the PVR makers who build in DRM as a condition of their licence to access the EPG data (which needs the proprietary decompression tables). As the PVR functions are separate from the HDHomeRun receiver box, the network streams it provides (live TV) are simply what comes in through the aerial - ie unencrypted service streams demuxed from the DVB-T or DVB-T2.

The PVR functionality provided in Kodi (or whatever) requires a source of schedule information, which can be accessed from Internet sources instead of the transmitted EPG (although, unofficially, we do know how to decompress it - IIRC the CF does).

However, using third-party scheduling, I wonder whether Accurate Recording is available.
 
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Kodi as far as I know does record but does not series link
TVheadend as a backend does series link

No detect ads function either software

Plex does series link and Ad removal - but you have to pay for that

I have read that nextpvr is an alternative but never used it - I know it does series link but commercial skip ? - it is free
 
erne said:
Kodi as far as I know does record but does not series link
TVheadend as a backend does series link

No detect ads function either software

Plex does series link and Ad removal - but you have to pay for that

I have read that nextpvr is an alternative but never used it - I know it does series link but commercial skip ? - it is free
Click to expand...
The Silence program that underlies our ad detection was developed for Myth TV https://www.mythtv.org/

I have no idea how it compares to these other products - as always there seem to be a bewildering range of options!
 
erne said:
Hi. I have the quad tuners which are sometimes available for under £100. From Amazon
Click to expand...
erne said:
Just to see what happens I have set up and am currently recording 28 different programs using TVHeadend
It’s only using 6 of the 8 tuners so must be using the mux stream and capturing shows from the stream
Click to expand...
A little confused as to how many tuners and which model you actually have

Edit: read the sig line 2 x HDHomeRun quad tuners
 
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