Support for new transcoding Silicondust HDHomeRun Plus (HDTC-2US)

[zikronix]

I think I have it working now; I've only got 2 channels mapped so far, but my initial testing is good.

I have the dual tuners set up and working, and have the XBMC Gotham front end working.

I love it! Thanks. Will let you know if I encounter any issues during the next week or two.

Is channel changing still slow in xbmc...or is it instant now? There is a thread over on xbmc where they are working on integrating directly in XBMC since the tuner is handling all the transcoding.

[mvallevand]

Is channel changing still slow in xbmc...or is it instant now? There is a thread over on xbmc where they are working on integrating directly in XBMC since the tuner is handling all the transcoding.

It's not using the HDHR but I captured this demo yesterday http://youtu.be/uDBexA0Wdig and I think that in general NextPVR/XBMC tuning is pretty fast, with stock XBMC (not margro build)

Martin

[sub]

If it is slow with this new device, I suspect it's a case of the new HDHomeRun transcoder device being slow to start delivery of the transcoded stream. ie, might take 3 (or more) seconds longer than an old school HDHR delivering native ATSC/QAM streams.

[zikronix]

It's not using the HDHR but I captured this demo yesterday http://youtu.be/uDBexA0Wdig and I think that in general NextPVR/XBMC tuning is pretty fast, with stock XBMC (not margro build)

Martin

That looks pretty quick and youre not even using the device. Its one of the main reasons I couldn't use XBMC because of the slow channel change, and it affected every back end. Next pvr was one of the faster ones from the get go but it was still 4+ seconds. This looks like its pretty damn quick. Which my hope is since the device is handling the transcoding, it will be quick. Its quick using media center, its quick using the native apps. My hope is with this device no matter the backends or front ends you use, the device offloads a lot of that work.

I think in the end your going to see a lot of these devices and they will be able to be directly integrated to the software products, however it will probably require some recoding on the software side for many of them.

Ill install next pvr tonight and see what I get out of it.

[sub]

Is there any particular reason you're trying to use transcoding? That's likely to be a lot slower than native streams. I'm sure the media center and the silicondust apps are just showing the native MPEG2 streams. As soon as you look at transcoded streams, you're likely to add a few seconds. Having NextPVR use the native streams will give you the quickest channel change times in XBMC.

[zikronix]

Is there any particular reason you're trying to use transcoding? That's likely to be a lot slower than native streams. I'm sure the media center and the silicondust apps are just showing the native MPEG2 streams. As soon as you look at transcoded streams, you're likely to add a few seconds. Having NextPVR use the native streams will give you the quickest channel change times in XBMC.

From what I understand it looks like the transcoded streams would actually be faster for xbmc, and the possibility to use them directly in xbmc and other apps for viewing, time shifting, recording etc.


At least that's what I have been led to believe. I think more importantly when I put it (HDHR-TC) in XBMC as a dlna device it works, it changes channels extremely fast there is just no support for the device for recording etc with out some additional coding. In order to get that I have to use one of the many wonderful back ends and front end plugins. Both NextPVR and WMC have treated me nicely. NextPVR being a fantastic product and by far the easiest to set up for third party apps.

We still use WMC however because I have the WAF(Wife Approval Factor) to deal with.

[sub]

The transcoded streams might help on some of the alternative platforms, like on Raspberry Pi etc, where the hardware has support for decoding H.264 and not for MPEG2. In these cases the video may play smoother, and use less CPU etc. It's never going to be faster for starting video or changing channels though - the HDHR will take significantly more time to start delivering a transcoded stream data than it would take to deliver native stream data.

[zikronix]

The transcoded streams might help on some of the alternative platforms, like on Raspberry Pi etc, where the hardware has support for decoding H.264 and not for MPEG2. In these cases the video may play smoother, and use less CPU etc. It's never going to be faster for starting video or changing channels though - the HDHR will take significantly more time to start delivering a transcoded stream data than it would take to deliver native stream data.

Admittedly I havnt got into the nitty gritty of what this thing is doing on the 264 side and performance. That being said I have a full blown sff pc running win 7. So you can see where I might want to move to something a little less power.

You mention that video wont start faster but to the contrary with wmc server + xbmc it was definitely faster, and channel change seemed faster, and with raw xbmc it was definitely faster starting the video than the previous generation. My hope is that trend continues, maybe it doesn't have to do with the transcoding side of things maybe the device is just a faster device. I don't know how the code works in any of these products.

I have the following available and trying to do the best available.

Synology ds1512+
WMC (sff pc)
Rokus
xboxs

and various other items.

All in all ideally I want the Channel Master box, with local storage for local dvr capabilities, and the ability to stream content from online providers and the ability to read local media from a share.

Channel master is close.....very close! until then my only options are to use the products that are presented before me!

That being said...I know this is the next pvr forum and I feel that I Kind of derailed this thread. But the fact remains...is I like next pvr and from a back end standpoint it was very easy and quick to setup and operate, and I continue to see it as a viable option.

[sub]

You mention that video wont start faster but to the contrary with wmc server + xbmc it was definitely faster, and channel change seemed faster

Are you just talking about channel change times on different backends though (ie wmc server vs nextpvr) - ie, nothing to do with transcoding? or saying wmc server + xbmc was faster when configured to use transcoded H.264 vs native MPEG2? My understanding was that wmc and wmc server is just using the native MPEG2.

[mvallevand]

My understanding was that wmc and wmc server is just using the native MPEG2.

Native is wtv format. I think the pvr.wmc server does a remux to ts as an option

Martin