More Devices than Expected (HDHomerun Flex 4K)

[mvallevand]

Gotcha now and agree, although there have been reports of packet loss via UDP in ATSC mode.

Martin

[geobrick]

Your Silicondust device is either clear QAM or ATSC.  Totally different tech.  ATSC is OTA, QAM is from your cable box.  You need to pick the channel list you like.

The HDHR settings come from how you have configured the tuner using the Silicondust software.

In miltirec mode only the minor channels you want are recorded

Martin

OK. Got it. Clear QAM would be a cable format and ATSC is the over the air format.
I bought the Flex 4k to connect to an Antenna and didn't know it could be used for some types of cable too. 
I'm using the SDHR Prime with a cable card for cableTV.

I wonder why the Flex 4k is finding any QAM channels at all. It's only connected to antenna.

[geobrick]

No, there is no difference in quality. They digital channels are same regardless which method they were delivered by. (the QAM/ATSC options can end up putting more traffic on your network, since the filtering out of unwanted streams is happening on the client side instead of server side, but otherwise you're going to end up with the same content).

'QAM' is for digit cable.

'ATSC' is for via antenna.

'HDHR' can be either, depending on how you scanned the channels at the HDHomeRun end.

Thanks. I think I get it now. The Flex works with ATSC or QAM and NextPVR is ready to handle channels from either source. 
I've only got it hooked up to an antenna in the attic. I'll delete everything but the HDHR devices listed.
Still interesting that there were 10 QAM channels found.

[geobrick]

I will disagree with sub about quality as only the tech is the same.  Clear QAM might turn out to be SD only now in many markets.  Cable companies also often reduce the bitrate to fit many channels on one frequency.  At the same time there may be less chance of signal dropping out and pixelation from cable.

Viewing is probably the best test.

Martin

So they're capable of being the same quality as long as the local cable company isn't trying to reduce bandwidth. 
ATSC OTA is the likely the higher quality because for OTA channels, the video signal is coming directly from the broadcaster at its full bitrate. As long as there's a strong signal that doesn't drop out.

   Thanks

[geobrick]

ie, I don't want him thinking that receiving an ATSC channel 'KTLA-HD' via "HDHR" mode or "ATSC" mode will be any different in quality. It'll be exactly the same in NextPVR

Yes, but if I tune to KTLA-HD from the HR Prime (also an HDHR mode), the signal coming from Frontier. Is Martin saying Frontier might be changing the bitrate? 

I understand what you are saying. It's based on my original question. From the Flex 4k, there's no quality difference between choosing the HDHR device or the ATSC device. Sticking with the HDHR devices will simplify things.

[BrettB]

Yes, but if I tune to KTLA-HD from the HR Prime (also an HDHR mode), the signal coming from Frontier. Is Martin saying Frontier might be changing the bitrate? 

Short answer: The cable company very well may be re-encoding the stream.

Longer answer: In the US, OTA ATSC 1.0 broadcasts have video in MPEG2 format at a size and bitrate selected by the broadcaster. In recent years, some US cable companies (I can definitely confirm for Comcast/Xfinity) have changed to re-encoding local channels to H.264 video format to save bandwidth. This change does have the nice benefit of also reducing the amount of disk space require to store recordings. I can't say that I've done direct visual comparisons, but I haven't really noticed any significant difference in quality.

I don't know if Frontier is re-encoding any local channels in your market or not. You could always try recording a channel from the HDHR Prime and recording the same channel from OTA via the HDHR Flex and then comparing. Take a look at the filesize and try watching and see if you notice any significant difference in quality.

[mvallevand]

You should be able to check the bitrate of the stream on the HDHomerun device's web browser. If you are happy with HD from Netflix and other streaming services then you likely would not even notice it. Likewise MPEG2 to H264 is not lossless but the size difference is dramatic.

Martin

[sub]

I wonder why the Flex 4k is finding any QAM channels at all. It's only connected to antenna.

Probably a case of some of the QAM frequencies matching the ATSC frequencies.

[DSperber]

Yes, but if I tune to KTLA-HD from the HR Prime (also an HDHR mode), the signal coming from Frontier. Is Martin saying Frontier might be changing the bitrate?

I've been following this thread just for my own interest. I, too, have recently added an HDHR Flex 4K (fed from roof antenna here in Marina Del Rey) to my home TV environment. And I configured the tuners using just the four "HDHR" items, not the ATSC/QAM items.

But now I see a remark from @geobrick that is of great interest to me, since he refers to both KTLA-HD (which is a new Los Angeles ATSC-3.0 channel) and also Frontier as his service provider, plus mentions of QAM. As it turns out I have a good friend and "computer and TV technology colleague" who lives in the West Valley (i.e. Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, Ventura County suburbs, etc). And he, too, has FIOS service through Frontier that delivers QAM (i.e. not DRM copy-protected cable channels as Ihave for everything here in MDR through my Spectrum service).

Now the fact that you talk about "if I tune to KTLA-HD from the HR Prime" comment is of real interest to me. Is that coming from the Frontier feed, and the cable going into the Prime box, meaning the Frontier channel lineup would now include KTLA-HD which is a surprise as it is an ATSC 3.0 channel? Or is it actually coming from the Flex box but because both SD products are on the network all of the channels available through both sets of sources and tuners are available universally? I may be expressing this badly.

I am mystified by how KTLA-HD got to even be seen and tunable on the HD Prime. Is it from the network-based Flex 4K and what it picked up from OTA? Or is it actually being newly provided by Frontier in their cable channel lineup? Can this be explained and clarified for me please?

My friend in Westlake Village with Frontier service would be very interested as well.

[sub]

He may not have actually meant KTLA-HD. I was the one that first mentioned it in this post, and I just used that name as an example ATSC channel name, and we may have just continued to use that example in general terms. (I certainly wasn't thinking of any significance of ATSC 3.0 vs ATSC 1.0 etc when I picked it - it was just a random channel name I picked out of thin air)