[anarchoi]

I'm looking for a way to watch TV from my cable company in XBMC. Been looking for a TV Tuner, then i heard about HDHomerun. i've read the wiki and articles here and there, but i still have a few questions before i start spending money on this thing

1) Aeon MQ3 says that PVR is disabled. Can i still watch TV from my cable company using HDHomerun in XBMC ?

2) When i plug the coax cable straight into my TV, i get around 40 channels
I have to use my receiver supplied by my cable company to all of the 500+ channels

So using HDHomerun, will i get 40 channels or 500 ?

3) Also, this thing supports canadian channels, right ?

4) Will i be able to use my Nyxboard remote to switch channels using the numpad ?

5) Does it supports wifi ? My router is wifi but i've read a comment on newegg saying it was impossible to stream TV through wifi

[Dobyken]

I'm looking for a way to watch TV from my cable company in XBMC. Been looking for a TV Tuner, then i heard about HDHomerun. i've read the wiki and articles here and there, but i still have a few questions before i start spending money on this thing

1) Aeon MQ3 says that PVR is disabled. Can i still watch TV from my cable company using HDHomerun in XBMC ?

2) When i plug the coax cable straight into my TV, i get around 40 channels
I have to use my receiver supplied by my cable company to all of the 500+ channels

So using HDHomerun, will i get 40 channels or 500 ?

3) Also, this thing supports canadian channels, right ?

4) Will i be able to use my Nyxboard remote to switch channels using the numpad ?

5) Does it supports wifi ? My router is wifi but i've read a comment on newegg saying it was impossible to stream TV through wifi

So many questions. There are two versions of the HDHomerun. One works with either an antenna or QAM and the other, HDHRPrime, is a cable card tuner. When you plugged the coax directly into your TV you either got basic cable analog or QAM channels. The HDHomerun will NOT tune analog stations so if you can determine on your TV which are the QAM channels that will indicate what you can get with the HDHR. If you don't know what QAM is look it up. SiliconDust.com has listings of what QAM channels are available by zip code and provider. The "Prime" can tune all your 500 cable stations but pretty much requires Windows Media Center. There are a few hacks to get it working with other software but only with content that's marked "Copy Freely".

Using the standard version of XBMC it is possible to view streams from the HDHomerun. There's also a TVGuide addon that supports the HDHomerun which I use for quickly seeing what's on and watching it. For more robust features such as recording you have to install a supported PVR program and the PVR version of XBMC.

Any remote supported in XBMC will change the channel as your really just opening a different stream file.

I run one HD stream on "G" wireless just fine...with "N" you should be able to do 3-4.

[anarchoi]

Hello,

Thanks for answering my questions (yes i know i'm asking a lot of things but i have many interrogations)


I already tryed to check the QAM channels in my area from SiliconDust.com but it doesnt work with my postal code. Anyway i suppose i would be getting only less than 40 channels.

So i think i got it now. The only way to get my 500 channels is to get HDHRPrime and Windows Media Player. Do you know if full 500-channels-support for HDHRPrime will be added to XBMC in the future ? Or would it be illegal to support non-copy-friendly channels ?

Also, I suppose there's not any other alternatives to do what i want, like an internal TV Tuner ?

Thanks you very much for help. I'm glad i asked, you just saved me $150

[Dobyken]

The Cablecard "Nazis" have set strict rules for devices to access the media so WMC is pretty much it. With the MythTV hack people are reportedly getting most of the standard stations but not HBO, Showtime, Starz etc. So in theory if you installed Linux with Mythtv and the Prime you could get most of the stations. You would always be in jeopardy of the stations changing the copy flag and loosing all your stations.

A combo ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner would get those 40 channels that you get with your TV. The only tuner that XBMC supports is the standard HDHomerun. Any other tuners require the use of 3rd party PVR application like MythTV, MediaPortal, and TVHeadend.

One other option is a component video capture device like the Hauppauge HDPVR which, I thnk,would give you all 500 stations with the exception of pay per view. The gotcha is that you would need both a digital cable box and the device which will only give you one output. If you wanted to watch one thing while recording something else you would need 2 of each. There's also the
Hauppauge Hydra which has two tuners but you would still need two cable boxes. There's also a few HDMI recording cards but I don't think any of the really work with cable...only things like game consoles.

[anarchoi]

Thanks for the infos. I'm starting to understand now..

I'm on Windows so your first suggestion doesn't work for me unfortunatly.

One other option is a component video capture device like the Hauppauge HDPVR which, I thnk,would give you all 500 stations with the exception of pay per view. The gotcha is that you would need both a digital cable box and the device which will only give you one output. If you wanted to watch one thing while recording something else you would need 2 of each. There's also the
Hauppauge Hydra which has two tuners but you would still need two cable boxes. There's also a few HDMI recording cards but I don't think any of the really work with cable...only things like game consoles.

Component ? Does that means that i wouldn't get my HD channels in 720p ?

But if i understand correctly it wouldn't be supported by XBMC ? The main reason why i want to view tv cable channels in XBMC is to avoid using another remote and switch from one input to another all the time.. So if i have to exit XBMC every time i want to watch TV it's not worth it for me.

Actually, getting only those 40 channels could be fine but only IF i could get it in HD. But when i plug the coax cable in my TV i get 40 channels in 4:3 small definition... I have to use my digital cable box to get those 40 channels in HD (channel 40 in SD will become 540 in HD, etc)

It's not a problem for me if i have to continue using my digital cable box, as long as i can control the channels from XBMC with my Nyxboard remote

Thanks again for your time

[Ned Scott]

Component can do HD (all the way to 1080i/P), it's just analog instead of digital. The quality is nearly identical to HDMI in most situations, assuming the source is good (and some other factors).