Options for OTA MPG?

[pjpjpjpj]

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or put it under a hardware forum so I'm starting here because this subforum seems to be more watched.

I am wondering whether any of the miniclient devices can natively stream OTA MPG? In other words, I would like to install the miniclient on (whatever device I buy) and be able to watch live TV inside Sage via my antenna. Is this possible with any of the miniclient devices?

For instance, I have a FireTV stick and it can't. Can others?

[seglertx]

I just bought a 55" Toshiba FireTV and it has no problems streaming live or recorded TV from my SageTV server which is currently running Windows 10. My FireTV is using the older version 1.3.0 of the SageTV MiniClient so I guess that's the newest version in FireTV. I can also stream on my NVIDIA Shield which runs Android TV and the newer version 1.4.4 of the SageTV MiniClient. I'm not using ExoPlayer or IJK in FireTV or Android TV but just the default settings in the SageTV MiniClient. I have Streaming Mode set to Dynamic.

I am still having problems with the SageTV Miniclient locking up and eventually crashing. I think that has been a problem since around version 1.3.0 and it happens when I'm scrolling through recordings or archived videos but not while watching a show.

[Jackass]

What generation FireTV Stick are you using? I know for sure the FireTV Gen2 and the Fire Stick 4k can both handle live OTA via the mini-client. The older Fire Sticks I have cannot handle the OTA streams. My guess is the lack of hardware decoding for MPEG2. The FireTV Gen2 doesn't have hardware decoding either, but seems to have enough CPU/GPU behind it to handle it. The FireStick 4k does offer hardware decode for MPEG2.

Also to note....the MiBox can handle it as well.

[seglertx]

I don't do sticks. Wi-Fi isn't a good choice for streaming 1080 MPEG2 video even if you have an 802.11ac router. I only use streaming devices with an Ethernet port and reserve Wi-Fi for my laptops, tablets, and phones. I have a Toshiba 55LF621U19 55" 4K Fire TV connected directly to my LAN. It has the SageTV Miniclient for TV recordings and Emby for my archive videos. I use NVIDIA Shields connected to my other TVs as extender boxes. The SageTV miniclient is still hanging and crashing occasionally when scrolling through the recordings or archived videos but playback works fine once you start watching something. I still have my SageTV HTPC connected directly to my 55" TV so if I'm watching TV on it I normally change the input to the HTPC and use the 64-bit SageTV client in Windows 10 because it works much better than the miniclient.

[Jackass]

Originally Posted by seglertx

I don't do sticks. Wi-Fi isn't a good choice for streaming 1080 MPEG2 video even if you have an 802.11ac router. I only use streaming devices with an Ethernet port and reserve Wi-Fi for my laptops, tablets, and phones.

Modern WiFi is more than fast enough for a 1080i stream. Wired is probably always going to be better when you can, but the majority of my devices are all wireless these days since that is where the market has gone. A 1080i OTA stream is under 25Mbps....usually under 10Mbps.

I have a 24-port switch with 18 ports live yet I still have 30+ WiFi devices across the house.

[btrcp2000]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or put it under a hardware forum so I'm starting here because this subforum seems to be more watched.

I am wondering whether any of the miniclient devices can natively stream OTA MPG? In other words, I would like to install the miniclient on (whatever device I buy) and be able to watch live TV inside Sage via my antenna. Is this possible with any of the miniclient devices?

For instance, I have a FireTV stick and it can't. Can others?

I have 5 nvidia shields that have been doing this with an original HDHomerun (that came in a brown box before they had a logo) 12 years ago, and now added a HDHR Quatro. I also have the miniclient on a Samsung Note 9 that works fine over cellular services. I'm in your town too, so I can say for sure you'll be fine, and that includes the town to our north as well (as long as your antenna can pull it in).

[pjpjpjpj]

So I've kinda just resorted to still having HD300s at the TVs for Sage and teaching my kids to change inputs as necessary. My two recent new TV purchases have voice commands so they don't have to worry about pressing buttons, which I guess helps.

BTW (related to the side discussion above), I can't speak for other sticks, but the Amazon Fire sticks have a $15 add-on for hardwired ethernet. Works great.