Living the dream:HDTV over cable in MCE

[mrcorbo]

One of the most frustrating aspects of having an HD-enabled HTPC has been the lack of support for tuning HDTV over cable (QAM tuning) in MCE and any other PVR software that uses BDA drivers. Up until now, it seemed the only hope was for Microsoft to update their driver architecture to accommodate this; which they will have to do to support the forthcoming CableCard tuners.

Someone had a different idea, though.

What if you supported in your driver software the ability to remap QAM channels to ATSC (OTA HD, which is supported in MCE)? Well after much anticipation the needed driver has been released and I can report that it works like a charm in Vista MCE.

The device that enables this is called the HDHomerun. It is a network-attached dual-tuner device, which is unique in itself. This allows for any PC on your network to control the device and access the digital data stream(s) it sends. It is a purely digital tuner, though, and doesn't support any type of analog signal. I am actually using the Fusion 3Q card I had been using previously for HD tuning for analog tuning.

How useful this device may be to you would depend on if you are satisfied with only receiving unencrypted channels. For me, the ability to record, convert, edit, and archive anything I record with this device in any way I see fit makes it worthwhile.

The network-based design also means that this tuner works happily with Linux and MacOS, as well, and the source-code is available so it can be made to work with just about anything that can receive and decode an MPEG2 transport stream over ethernet.

In case you haven't gotten it by now, I'm impressed with the thing.

 

[BRiT]

I've been following the HDHomeRun and the Dual PCI-Express tuner for some time. I placed my order for the HDHomerun on Monday. It should be arriving this week. I'll find out if the local cable-co provides QAM or if I need to pickup an indoor HDTV antenna. I should be getting great picture quality as I'm within a 5 mile radius of all the major broadcasters.

The sweet part of this device is how it sits on the network and allows for viewing from any networked PC. I wish they had an analog equivalent that was network based. The part that drew me in was how it works off the bat with VLC and rapidly added support for SageTV, BeyondTV, and MCE. This shows a lot of promise.

 

[mrcorbo]

I've been following the HDHomeRun and the Dual PCI-Express tuner for some time. I placed my order for the HDHomerun on Monday. It should be arriving this week. I'll find out if the local cable-co provides QAM or if I need to pickup an indoor HDTV antenna. I should be getting great picture quality as I'm within a 5 mile radius of all the major broadcasters.

The sweet part of this device is how it sits on the network and allows for viewing from any networked PC. I wish they had an analog equivalent that was network based. The part that drew me in was how it works off the bat with VLC and rapidly added support for SageTV, BeyondTV, and MCE. This shows a lot of promise.

OTA will actually have better picture quality (assuming good reception) since the CableCos usually re-compress HDTV feeds. You're lucky to have a choice.

I know of a reference design for a network-attached analog tuner (with video-ins as well for connecting to a STB). It has a hardware MPEG2/4 encoder and built in wireless-g. I don't know of any retail products based on the design yet, though.

 

[JBark]

The HDHomeRun is on my short list of things to buy if I've got some money left over from tax returns. I'll probably only use if for OTA ATSC, but the fact that it's networked means I can stick it inside my wiring cabinet in the basement, and get rid of USB ATSC tuner on my HTPC. My shuttle only has 1 PCI slot, so that's why I can only have 1 internal tuner card. Getting rid of the USB tuner will clean up a ton of cable mess upstairs, plus I'll get a dual tuner (very soon, anyway) out of the deal.

If I get any QAM channels, I figure it's just an added bonus. Considering I live in the middle of nowhere and can't get any local HD channels from the cable company, I'm guessing I won't get anything over QAM.