Need your opinion on transcoding: built-in HDHR vs. do it yourself

[craigrs84]

Ok I just purchased the HDHR transcoding dual tuner for $170. This is my first foray into tv tuners connected to a computer.

After using it for a few days I'm wondering if I made a mistake.

The primary reason I purchased it was to make it so I can stream TV real-time throughout the house. It was my understanding that MPEG2 was too large to go through a wireless N network, thus the need for transcoding.

However in my testing I've been able to get decent quality on a 7" tablet in my bedroom when viewing 1080i MPEG2 without transcoding which surprised me. Every once in awhile it had to buffer but it wasn't frequent enough to bother me too much. Do you think the loss in quality would be more noticeable if I was watching on a bigger screen such as another TV instead of a 7" tablet.

The HDHR is connected directly to my PC in the family room, right beside the TV, so there aren't any issues there because its all going over the wire.

So now I'm wondering did I spend a lot of money for something I didn't need? I would still need to transcode the videos to save space but that could be set up as a nightly job I think. Another factor is that half the time I don't even watch TV real time I watch it a few days later after its been recorded, so transcoding via a nightly job would have already taken place by then.

Thoughts? One other thing I don't like about the HDHR Plus is that it has a loud fan on it.

If I return it unfortunately I have to pay a 15% restocking fee which will be about $25, but I will still save quite a bit of cash by buying the 3rd generation HDHR dual transcoder.

[vintdiesel]

Just looked up the specs on this product, seems a capable box. It appears the transcoding side is in its infancy and may need a few firmware revisions to get it to where you want it to be.
If you want to be able to stream live TV to your portable devices on the fly then this box may be able to do this, but it may need some enhancements to make it compatible with most applications, maybe a waiting game?
I am in the same boat as you, I record most of my TV and watch it the same day later but not often live so I can skip the ads. My transcoding is done as a nightly batch job to save disk and yes those can be streamed to a portable device too.

[sub]

The device sounded like a pretty good idea to me, for adding the ability to stream to tablets and mobile devices around your home etc.

I did read a post on the SiliconDust forums though, that sounded like they didn't include AAC audio encoding, so might have shot themselves in the foot for these types of client devices. The apple player components only handle H.264/AAC, so no AAC means no easy way to get audio. You can still watch the streams, using apps like VLC on an iOS device, but it limits your choice of client app, and make it difficult for anyone wanting to create their own apps.

[whurlston]

Could be due to licensing issues. IIRC, AAC licensing costs (for multichannel) are much higher than AC3 licensing costs.

[mvallevand]

I'm most interested in knowing the quality and the noise/heat under heavy load. (I guess that is why I am so eager for people to try NetworkRecorder and let me know) but transcoding to save disk space when drives around $35 a TB doesn't see to be worth the effort. However sometimes I do record shows I know I want to place on microSD cards, and it's nice to get a couple of hours on a 8GB card.

For streaming I have no problems with 1080p m2ts on wifi on my PC but none of my tablets or phones give me acceptable ATSC quality in anything but the ideal locations in my house. I do end up watching 1/2 an hour or so on my tablets and X-NEWA with VLC is working pretty well but I'd like to try some options

As for AAC vs AC3 the real issue to me would be 2 channel downmix vs 5:1. I want 5:1 recording capability period. My absolute worst HTPC decision was buying a Hauppauge HDPVR 2 thinking I'd get 5:1 one day. Instead just two months after I purchased it almost on release day, Hauppauge announced a different model that had 5:1 with no upgrade path. The lesson learned is don't count on firmware updates doing what you want.

Martin

[craigrs84]

one of the main things I dislike about the unit is that it has a fan which makes sense but not something I really thought about before purchasing it.

The fan is pretty loud and I have a smaller house without a good place to stash it away from everything. So it's kind of annoying.

Heat doesn't really seem to be an issue, I guess the fan is doing its job.

I've done some more testing tonight and was again able to watch TV over wifi on my laptop without any issues without transcoding. I'm getting around 4.5 megabytes per second (does that convert to 36 mbps?). Like I said I have a couple tablets but they are both Nexus 7 Android. Don't own anything Apple so I don't think I've been affected by the AAC issue. My tablet apparently accepts the MPEG2 video format because I haven't had to convert it or do anything special.

I've also played around with Plex some but I guess that doesn't really support live tv. but would work for next day playback.

[craigrs84]

I think I've talked myself into keeping the transcoding version of HDHR.