Finally - HD Homerun HDHR4-2DT for UK

[maceie]

Looks like they are finally releasing the dual DVB-T2 network tuner for the UK.
Take a look here and look at "Reward 5"
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ed/description

$199 = £134 (right now).

Could finally put my SageTV server as a VM and retire the physical box then.

[starfire]

What's to stop you running it as a VM now?

You can passthrough some PCI tuner cards to a VM if that's the issue.

[rickgillyon]

If this was a Virgin or Sky solution it would be great, but Freeview? No better than a standard tuner if you already have a Sage box. Am I missing something?

[maceie]

Originally Posted by starfire

What's to stop you running it as a VM now?

You can passthrough some PCI tuner cards to a VM if that's the issue.

Yeah, I know, but I want to consolidate some boxes without buying lots of new hardware.
I've run it through my head many times, but almost all the kit I have is getting old, so all needs replacing at some point as it's DDR2 memory/cost limited.
A T2 network tuner would suit my needs for a low(ish) cost.

[matterofrecord]

I'm not going to pretend I understand the HD Homerun thing BUT

1) I don't see sagetv support

2) It isn't any cheaper than a dual tuner pci-e card

What's the attraction? ( assuming your sagetv server isn't physically full of tuners )

[maceie]

Bought one. It works just fine.
I just didn't especially want a PCI-E tuner in a box anymore.
The H/W it runs on doesn't do passthrough and right now I don't want to buy all new kit just so I can then buy a HD PCI-E tuner to get what I already have.

I'm running a C2D dedicated server, 24/7 and TBH I want to scrap the hardware.
So this way, I can move the server into a VM on Unraid, pass the tuner to it. and I'm done.
Electricity bill drops a bit and I get to play with something new for 5 minutes.
I'm yet to setup the EPG as I need to import to XML from digiguide, but it tunes and plays fine.
For me, it's £99 well spent.

[SidKnee]

Hi, did you get this fully working in the end? How difficult was it to configure SageTV to use the HD Homerun?

[maceie]

Yeah, all working with little trouble TBH
Biggest stumbling block was not having sage installed before I installed the HDHomerun S/W.
Basically, if it doesn't find SageTV it doesn't do something to the config file.
There are posts about it on here somewhere.
EDIT "BDA Compatibility Mode dropdown" is what you need to ensure is set to SageTV
Once I clicked the dropdown in HDHR s/w to select SageTV, it just worked.
I'm using Digiguide to get EPG listings and Stephanes importer (donator version) to inject the EPG into sage via the webserver plugin.

I also had to manually edit the default Predefineddvbt.frq file as my transmitter has shifted one of the transponders off and I was missing a bunch of channels.
Easy copy/paste and rescan job.
HD picture is great too

[SidKnee]

Thanks, I've taken the plunge and ordered one. Hopefully it will go as smoothly as yours! ��

[SidKnee]

Hi Maceie, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong but I can't get my homerun to play nice with Sage. It looks to have installed ok (appears as an available tuner in Sage) but every time I try and record from it Sage reports that it has failed (with the usual messages about loss of input/resetting the tuner etc.). If I connect to the tuner directly (DLNA) it's fine and streams ok both wired and to wifi devices, the Silicon Dust config software reports all the expected channels and 99-100% signal strength.
When Sage tries to record I can see increased network traffic so it looks like Sage is talking to the tuner, and a file is created in the recording directory, but no data is put into it. SageTV is set in the BDA mode.
Not sure if my frq file is right though - can you post a couple of lines from yours (for the HD channels) so I can compare? Do you have to add some specific recording quality/options in Sage for the tuner or does it capture the raw TS and ignore any quality recording setting?

Thanks,
Adrian

[taylormadearmy]

Have you added the new frequencies? The ones built into the standard files are very out of date:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62578

[SidKnee]

Thanks, using the updated frq file solved the problem with tuning but I must be doing something seriously wrong when I try and configure the EPG data as this really messes with the tuners and they won't work correctly after this. Not quite sure what I'm doing wrong yet as I didn't have this issue configuring any of the other tuners in the set up.

Cheers,
Adrian.

[maceie]

Hi Adrian, sorry I didn't see your message a few days back, but I see someone pointed you to the right area.
Just for the record, mine are like this (but with more of them - but thats the format)
You can use ScanBDAChannels from hauppauge as well to find the freqs.

frq:746000000;band:8;
frq:706000000;band:8;

If i recall correctly, the OTA EPG data is garbaged for HD channels - something to do with encryption I think, so it best to ignore it and go for the import option.
Sometimes the OTA was right, Other times I just saw "(&iOYBb7688___@@:~~467" and similar.
Edit - See Post #10 here http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62578
I (and others) use Digiguide and LM Gestion importer.
The first time you set it up, it's a little confusing and then it all makes sense.
Aside from a few hours work, I have plenty of time over the holiday if you need some pointers.

[SidKnee]

No problem, thanks for the reply and offer of help. Once I had the updated frequency list I managed to get the tuner to tune correctly (so I at least know that it works) and ran a couple of manual recordings to make sure Sage could use it. I already use Stephane's import utility and Digiguide for Sky and a couple of Freeview tuners I have but for some reason when I configure the HDHR it stops tuning properly. I must be doing something wrong with the configuration but don't think I'm doing anything differently to before

I'll do a bit more digging, it's probably something super obvious that I'm forgetting to do.

Cheers,
Adrian.