I am wondering how does the interaction between SiliconDust HomeRun HD and EyeTV work. My Samsung power supply board is on the fritz and I am thinking of using the Mac Mini as a tv tuner. If I purchase the SiliconDust HomeRun HD do I need to install EyeTV to view any channels or do I need it to view the encrypted/premium channels. I do have a fiber optic line. Also, any advice on how to set this up would be much appreciated.
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SiliconDust, EyeTV setup
- Thread starter tpleighton
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The prime tuner is incompatible with eyetv. No product exists for mac osx that can use a cable card tuner that I am aware of. (Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.)
I use an eyetv hd hooked up to a cable box, but to be honest it still occasionally gives me problems/fails to record/dropouts every once in a while despite everything I have tried. Their tech support eventually gave up on me and stopped returning my emails.
Compatible tuners with clearQAM do work, I used a silicon dust non cable card tuner in the past, but make sure that you still have some clear channels available, as cable companies have started encrypting them now that the FCC allows them to.
I use an eyetv hd hooked up to a cable box, but to be honest it still occasionally gives me problems/fails to record/dropouts every once in a while despite everything I have tried. Their tech support eventually gave up on me and stopped returning my emails.
Compatible tuners with clearQAM do work, I used a silicon dust non cable card tuner in the past, but make sure that you still have some clear channels available, as cable companies have started encrypting them now that the FCC allows them to.
From reading the developer posts at SiliconDust, I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for Elgato to support the newer SD devices (or even the older CableCard version). I was originally hoping for that combination when I tackle this project late winter, but I doubt it's going to work, so I'm looking at MythTV instead.
The one thing that still seems to be a problem is going to be viewing live TV through this set-up (which will include Apple TV units). From what I've read, you can use Plex with Myth to play back recordings, and then play some routing table games to get the Apple TVs to redirect your Trailers or iMovie Theater apps to point to your Plex server instead, so that handles the "DVR" portion.
But live streaming is a bit trickier. One thing that gives me hope, though I haven't finished the research on it, it that apparently, it might be possible for Plex to play back a DLNA stream, which the SD boxes will be able to provide.
Of course, this isn't for the faint of heart. MythTV, I understand, is a fairly lengthy setup process, then Plex would need to be added on top of that (and PlexConnect for the Apple TV), then add on whatever would be needed (if it is indeed even possible) to do DLNA streaming through Plex while avoiding any issues with the different apps locking the tuners on the SD box in undesired ways. (MythTV apparently assumes it has exclusive use of the tuners. A potential alternative is to use MythTV as the DLNA provide for Plex to consume.)
The one thing that still seems to be a problem is going to be viewing live TV through this set-up (which will include Apple TV units). From what I've read, you can use Plex with Myth to play back recordings, and then play some routing table games to get the Apple TVs to redirect your Trailers or iMovie Theater apps to point to your Plex server instead, so that handles the "DVR" portion.
But live streaming is a bit trickier. One thing that gives me hope, though I haven't finished the research on it, it that apparently, it might be possible for Plex to play back a DLNA stream, which the SD boxes will be able to provide.
Of course, this isn't for the faint of heart. MythTV, I understand, is a fairly lengthy setup process, then Plex would need to be added on top of that (and PlexConnect for the Apple TV), then add on whatever would be needed (if it is indeed even possible) to do DLNA streaming through Plex while avoiding any issues with the different apps locking the tuners on the SD box in undesired ways. (MythTV apparently assumes it has exclusive use of the tuners. A potential alternative is to use MythTV as the DLNA provide for Plex to consume.)
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yeah, I haven't finished the research on it, it that apparently, it might be possible for Plex to play back a DLNA stream, which the SD boxes will be able to provide. thanks
You can do it a couple of ways.
With the HDHR3-US you can use EyeTV to tune and record programs. I run two HDHR3s in my setup connected to an OTA. I can, and regularly do, record 4 programs at the same time.
You can use EyeTV to stream a program to your iOS device, but i'd recommend against it on all but the newest and fastest hardware as it really chews through CPU cycles.
What I do is run an iOS app called InstaTV Pro which takes the stream from the HDHR directly, with no media server middle man. It takes a lot of network bandwidth - make sure you're running wireless N at least.
I cable my HDHR boxes to a gigabit capable router, along with my media server. I've found that if you try to take any piece of that huge HD data stream wireless it becomes a mess of dropped frames and bad recordings. Best to cable it when you can.
The latest model (HDTC-2US) that will be released in 1 week for $170 will help with network congestion because it will transcode to H.264 in hardware. However, keep in mind the following caveat:
The eyeTV 3 software does not support the H.264 stream. Elgato might update the software to support it eventually, or they might not. The HDTC-2US still should work with eyeTV however it will be grabbing an MPEG2 stream - thus bypassing the H.264 transcoding. So in this case streaming live TV via the eyeTV iOS app will still be a very CPU intensive task as mentioned by cdavis11.
I'm not sure if InstaTV Pro will immediately support the H.264 streams, however the developer of that app has worked closely with SiliconDust so I'd expect support sooner than later. Maybe the answer is somewhere on their forums.
The latest from silcondust on that:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=15822&start=30#p94204
I've used an HD Homerun for the past two years with EyeTV running on my mac. It works fine for OTA antenna or clearQAM (that is, unencrypted cable) channels. It works in the following way: The source (Antenna or Cable) gets plugged into the HD Homerun device via co-axial cable. The HD Homerun device gets plugged in via ethernet cable (wireless is not an option) to your router. Than any computer running EyeTV on your network (be they wired or wireless) can see the program stream coming from the HD Homerun. You can watch live TV on your mac this way, or set recordings to watch later. The recordings can be auto-exported to iTunes so that you can watch them on an Apple TV.
I have no idea if it will work with fiber optic line, but I wouldn't bet on it. And yes, if you need a CableCard version (the HD Homerun PRIME, a different product from the HD Homerun), it looks like you have to go with something other than EyeTV, since EyeTV does not officially support cable card.
Useful info on the HD Homerun Prime and EyeTV here:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=15481