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New to LiveTV


Erik

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Hello all,

 

Haven't played with LiveTV/PVR on the computer yet. I have MBS, MBT, and other apps that all work fine. But I'm not sure how the LiveTV works...

 

1) I obviously need a tuner, so is an internal tuner or the HDhomerun the way to go?

 

2) if I use the internal tuner, I need to use a backend with a plugin for MBS, what's the difference between them?

 

3) If I get a HDhomerun, is MBS just using DLNA so no backend needed? And the guide and such is all pulled from the HDhomerun?

 

I think that will get me started.

 

Thanks in advance,

Erik

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Cheesegeezer

1. Personally i would use an internal tuner, i currently have a skystar HD satellite and like it although its only single tuner, i would suggest a minimum of a dual tuner. i also use WMC or MBC as my MB client.

 

2. It is mandatory to use one of the 3 live tv plugins available from the server plugin catalogue.

 

3. I have no idea about the homerun so cant comment

Edited by Cheesegeezer
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Thanks,

 

I don't have WMC, so that's why I was wondering how the backends differ in functionality with MBS.

 

I am hoping that the HDhomerun might DLNA straight to the server and avoid the extra software in the middle. @@Luke, is my understanding of this correct?

 

Thanks again

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techywarrior

I've used both internal and network tuners for my HTPC.

 

 

1) I obviously need a tuner, so is an internal tuner or the HDhomerun the way to go? 

 

This sort of depends. I used to have internal tuners and I found that because my case was pretty cramped and the tuners get hot (at least the ones I had) that often times one of the cards would lock up. I had 2x AverMedia Duets (4 tuners total). If your case is large enough and there is enough air circulation this probably isn't an issue for you.

 

I now have 2 HDHomerun Duals (4 tuners) on the network and obviously I don't have that problem but they do use a significant amount of bandwidth to stream. I wouldn't recommend using more then a single tuner on a 100mb network although I wouldn't recommend you not using a gigabit network.

 

You also have to be careful that if you saturate your network moving files around that you could disrupt your TV stream(s)

 

 

2) if I use the internal tuner, I need to use a backend with a plugin for MBS, what's the difference between them?

 

You need a backend and plugin either way. Internal or external. I'd highly recommend WMC and serverWMC.

 

3) If I get a HDhomerun, is MBS just using DLNA so no backend needed? And the guide and such is all pulled from the HDhomerun?

 

No, MBS uses the backend you setup along with the required plugin. What is new in the latest MBS beta is that it can use the DLNA stream from the HDHomerun to send live TV to a compatible device or to bypass having the stream go to WMC create a .ts file, convert it and then send to the device. It will now just take the DLNA stream and convert it if needed and send to the device. But that is only for live TV.

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Thanks Techywarrior,

 

All I want to do for now is live TV (no pvr/dvr yet). So I will get an HDhomerun and try that out.

 

One last question, what do I do with MBS to see the HDhomerun device so it is available to the clients? I'll download the beta MBS when I get the HDhomerun in. Is it just automatic?

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techywarrior

I think you are still going to need a backend tho because MBS is going to need the plugin to interact with the tuner and I don't think any of the plugins will work without the backend being present. Also, I believe at the moment serverWMC is the only one that can do the DLNA stuff with the HDHomerun.

 

It's a new feature and unfortunately because my server is on my unRAID machine I can't install the beta yet to test it out.

 

I'm guessing that you don't have WMC because you have Win8? It sucks that you have to have Win8 Pro in order to get the media pack. It wouldn't be that big a deal to pay $10 for WMC if you didn't have to spend the extra $80 to first upgrade to Pro :(

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Yes it's windows 8 pro, but an edition that doesn't support WMC...

 

I'll have to wait and see if MBS will get direct access to the HDhomerun first then before I go buying one.

 

Thanks for the info

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Someone could build a channel plugin to access the streams from hd homerun. Maybe krusty would even be interested since the work would be similar to what he's done. All it would do is list the channels and allow playback. For the full live tv experience, server wmc still depends on wmc for guide data, saved recordings, etc.

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Ok, so since I can't use ServerWMC (No WMC), do either argus or next pvr provide the same full experience? Using internal/external tuner

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techywarrior

They both have a full TV experience with MBS with both internal and external tuners but I believe at the moment only serverWMC does the DLNA thing but Sven can confirm once he reads this thread.

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You you need to check if one of them support the HD Homerun. If Argus or Nextpvr support this you can use the plugin for that..

 

Only ServerWmc can read a DLNA stream from the HD Homerun. Maybe it's a better idea like Luke mentioned to build another plugin for that..

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krustyreturns

@@Luke,

 

Are you talking about a plugin that just implements part of your live-tv interface (just the channels and streams part), or implementing a different interface?

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a new plugin that would implement IChannel and create an internet channel. it wouldn't use server wmc at all and would just pull in hd homerun strams

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krustyreturns

I have never looked at IChannel, but it does sound like a simple plugin.  I will consider doing it once I get the next release out, or at least take a look at IChannel.  I also would be happy to help anyone who would like to do it.

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