BM1000-HDMI (HDMI Encoder) Review

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by wayner

Good to know that this works. Unfortunately CableCARD devices are not an option for those of us in Canada as the cable companies will not give us cable cards.

Yeah that's unfortunate.

Originally Posted by wayner

Hopefully we should soon see people trying out OTA capture of ATSC 3.0 channels as they start to go live and the HDHR ATSC 3.0 tuner starts shipping on a broader basis.

Looking forward to ATSC 3.0 as well. Will definitely buy an ATSC 3.0 HDHR tuner when they are available.

--John

[wayner]

I just spent some time reading the HDHR 4K thread. A container ship is leaving Taiwan with the devices Sep 2(today). They are supposed to get to the Long Beach port in 15 days. It isn't clear if those are just devices for the people funding the Kickstarter project or whether you will be able to order one through Silicon Dust. But some people should be getting these by the end of September. Then the next issue is do you have a station broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 in your local area!

[sdsean]

I finally got a 2nd one of these network encoder devices, and I have them both on their own specific IP addresses. But beyond that I'm not sure how to get OpenDCT and the generic tuner plugin configured. At the moment Sage only sees the one device. Any tips? I tried paging through the OpenDCT thread but it's so long. . .

[peternm22]

Originally Posted by sdsean

I finally got a 2nd one of these network encoder devices, and I have them both on their own specific IP addresses. But beyond that I'm not sure how to get OpenDCT and the generic tuner plugin configured. At the moment Sage only sees the one device. Any tips? I tried paging through the OpenDCT thread but it's so long. . .

I think this is the thread with most of the info: https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63855

I have two of these devices as well. I seem to recall that the easiest way to set up the 2nd one was to copy the text configuration for the first one and then make edits (a different unique ID, a different IP address, etc). It's been years since I set mine up though so I don't remember all of the details.

[KryptoNyte]

4 encoders, one box, for under $500 (and it's 4k). This is interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D53SWCD/

Sure would love to dump the Hauppauge HDPVR2's at this point.

[KryptoNyte]

... and apparently here's the h.265 version for a bit more.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TKMPCZH/

EDIT: I'm curious. I grabbed one of these.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

... and apparently here's the h.265 version for a bit more.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TKMPCZH/

EDIT: I'm curious. I grabbed one of these.

Those look really cool. Personally I love my HDPVR2's though. The picture quality is great.

[KryptoNyte]

That is true, except for a lot of motion, I've been happy with the HDPVR2's overall. The OLED TV's really make them shine - the picture and motion is quite good at 1080p.

On the other hand, if these encoders can handle 4k, I'm hoping they can handle 1080i even better. I will miss 5.1 channel audio somewhat, but I've found that I don't often watch regular television on my home theater any more - mostly on individual televisions.

[wayner]

If this works for 4K it would be really nice as I don't think there is another way to get 4K from a cable/sat box into SageTV. This could keep SageTV going for longer, especially if you can use a FireTV stick as a client.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

if these encoders can handle 4k, I'm hoping they can handle 1080i even better.

True. Keep us posted.

[baudfather]

Curious on the audio encoding - previous versions were limited to stereo encoding IIRC.

[wayner]

I am pretty sure that they are all stereo. They don't take the audio from HDMI, it comes from a stereo headphone jack. The four channel units on Amazon only appear to have two audio inputs - I wonder why that is.

[baudfather]

Originally Posted by wayner

I am pretty sure that they are all stereo. They don't take the audio from HDMI, it comes from a stereo headphone jack. The four channel units on Amazon only appear to have two audio inputs - I wonder why that is.

The BM1000 unit I have captures audio from the HDMI, I think the separate audio input is an optional audio input.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by baudfather

Curious on the audio encoding - previous versions were limited to stereo encoding IIRC.

It's all stereo audio. I assumed that going in.

[KryptoNyte]

Things seem to working well with the 4-input unit, with the exception that once every few hours SageTV says that it has lost the stream (for any streams coming from this device) and then OpenDCT re-tunes the same channel to recover. It does recover, but about 10 seconds of the program is lost.

Anyone else experience this?

[baudfather]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Things seem to working well with the 4-input unit, with the exception that once every few hours SageTV says that it has lost the stream (for any streams coming from this device) and then OpenDCT re-tunes the same channel to recover. It does recover, but about 10 seconds of the program is lost.

Anyone else experience this?

Yes, I get this from time to time with the BM1000 (also occasionally from firewire recording) - I'm guessing it's a timecode/frame sync issue, but that's entirely speculation.

[KryptoNyte]

I wonder why that happens. Maybe there is a setting somewhere in OpenDCT or SageTV for the duration that the stream halts before it attempt to re-tune.

[peternm22]

I have a couple of BM3000 devices and I've never had this problem with them, almost 100% reliable. The only problem I get is a few times a year the audio will start clipping a bit, but a power cycle fixes it.

baudfather, you signature says you have a BM3000 as well. Do you have the same problem with it or is it just the BM1000?

[KryptoNyte]

During this testing time, I currently have a main router, a switch coming off the router in an upstairs office (where I'm testing the HDMI encoder), and another switch in the basement (where the SageTV server is), so the encoder has to pass through 3 network devices to get to the server. I wonder if this stream problem will disappear when I move everything to the same switch that has the server.

What kind of bitrate are you guys using with your BM3000's? Have you tweaked any other settings?

I bumped mine to 32000 kbits/sec (1080p @ 60 fps) and have kept 2 input ports busy all day without issue. The highest encoder processor usage under these conditions so far is 37%. I have all sub-channels disabled, so it's just 4 available input ports/streams available. Will keep testing.

[KryptoNyte]

I tested (2) 4k sources today and can confirm that the 4k encoder will NOT accept an incoming 4k stream (Sammy 4k player and Firestick 4k - both of which work fine at 4k on a 4k TV). The best input source this device will accept is 1080p. I was able to encode 2 concurrent 1080p streams to 3840X2160@30, and they looked excellent (at 32000 kbit/sec) - although I was forcing the recorded stream to 60 fps, it was recording at 30 fps.

Apparently their marketing gimmick is that you can encode to 4k, although I'm not sure why anyone would.

EDIT: I stand corrected, input 1 and 2 can handle 4k input, at least with firestick.