HD HomeRun Dual - Did it just really do what I think it did?

[smajor]

I got a HD HomeRun Dual for Christmas - it's their 3.0 version. This might be a "well, yah, duh smajor, of course" post... but keep in mind I've been locked into STBs and dual HD-PVRs forever.

At any rate, wanted to add a couple of tuners to the setup since the majority of our recordings are on the major/local networks which are still Clear QAM on Time Warner for now - so 11 channels.

Initial setting up with NextPVR was a breeze as well as grouping the channels with the existing two HD-PVRs and giving the HomeRun's two tuners 1st & 2nd priority as I found the picture much better.

What I wasn't expecting was watching Live TV on the same channel in two rooms. It only used a single tuner! NBC on two TVs, only one tuner used. I was blown away.

I double-checked and the HD-PVRs were silent. I started a 3rd live TV session on another client and then 2nd HomeRun tuner kicked in. HD-PVRs still not used.

Wow.

[sub]

What I wasn't expecting was watching Live TV on the same channel in two rooms. It only used a single tuner! NBC on two TVs, only one tuner used. I was blown away.

I double-checked and the HD-PVRs were silent. I started a 3rd live TV session on another client and then 2nd HomeRun tuner kicked in. HD-PVRs still not used.

Yep, it did that. NextPVR can reuse a single digital tuner for multiple streams that share the same frequency. They could be the same channel, or different channels that are on the same frequency.

How useful it'll be depends on your cable network. More specifically, how many channels share the same frequency. Here in NZ, our FreeView satellite system has 20 odd channels on two satellite frequencies. You could be recording/watching 10 channels simultaneously with a single tuner, or recording/watching all channels simultaneously with a dual tuner setup.

[smajor]

Neat. After Time Warner did their last shuffle, they grouped the local channels together. A quick look shows they grouped several on the same frequency too. Cool.

[johnsonx42]

yeah, it's great, I get NBC, ABC and Fox on one cable channel and I record a fair amount from those so I often see two or three recordings running on just one tuner.