Will SiliconDust new Premium TV feature be comming to NextPVR?

[scJohn]

SiliconDust has announced a Premium TV feature($35/month) which brings around 43 cable channels(without DRM) to select SD devices. https://www.silicondust.com/premium-tv/

Suppoorted devices: HDHR5-2US AND HDHR5-4US ; HDHomeRun CONNECT DUO & QUATRO;
HDHR4-2US HDHomeRun CONNECT (4th Gen Grey box rounded front); HDTC-2US-M & HDTC-2US ; HDHomeRun EXTEND ( Metal and Plastic enclosure versions ) .

That's right no Prime support.

New software and filmware now available at the SD website: https://www.silicondust.com/support/down...changelog/ and https://www.silicondust.com/support/down...changelog/.

Discussion thread: https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/view...19&t=69230

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YetNR_fFm3k

[sub]

You'd probably have to try it and see. From the posts in that discussion thread, it sounds like it might already work.

[mvallevand]

The tuner logic would need to change to support ,four streams per household on top of the atsc tuners

Martin

[pkscout]

The tuner logic would need to change to support ,four streams per household on top of the atsc tuners

Martin

I haven't read through the entire thread yet on the SD site, but from what I see a stream counts as a tuner in use. So if you're streaming a cable channel on a 2 tuner device there is only one tuner remaining to use. If that is true, then NPVR might not need to change anything. NPVR would likely continue requesting channels as normal and the device would tell you if all tuners are in use. I'll update this if page 5 of that SD thread says anything different. '-)

[mvallevand]

That would be a bummer than since for the most part people would be recording fiest runs on the major networks leaving little room to use the premium channels. I have to wait to see what channels we get in Canada.

Martin

[pkscout]

That would be a bummer than since for the most part people would be recording fiest runs on the major networks leaving little room to use the premium channels. I have to wait to see what channels we get in Canada.

Martin

That was my thought too. You could get a quatro and a duo or a couple quatros and have a total of 6-8 tuners. For me I think four across the board would be enough, and six would certainly do it. But I know folks who really need 8 tuners because of how much they record. Once you have more than four tuners, you are still limited to four premium streams total for the house, so if the six tuner situation you could do no more than 4 streams and have 3 left for OTA.

I think this all became academic for me. I can't get all the OTA channels where I am (or where we're planning to move), so I have to pay for at least lifeline cable. By the time I do that and internet and the SD Premium TV it's basically the same price as getting cable and internet from the cable company. And the HDHR Prime doesn't support SD Premium TV, so I'd have to get another box. Crap crap crap. Someday I will be somewhere I can get OTA TV and a community broadband provider. That plus SD Premium TV would be nirvana.

[scJohn]

I see getting the Guide data for the cable channels integrated into your existing Guide data a potential /major problem. As I get my OTA from Schedule Direct, where would I get the Guide data for the Premium channels.

I see this as an option for cord shavers, not cord cutters.

If they did not have ESPN, they could offer this for under $30/month.

[pkscout]

I see getting the Guide data for the cable channels integrated into your existing Guide data a potential /major problem. As I get my OTA from Schedule Direct, where would I get the Guide data for the Premium channels.

I see this as an option for cord shavers, not cord cutters.

If they did not have ESPN, they could offer this for under $30/month.

Since NextPVR supports using different Schedules Direct lineups for different channels, I don't think this would be a major issue. What Silicondust appears to be delivering are standard "live" cable channels over the internet (i.e. not on demand stuff). In the Silcondust forum thread mentioned at the top it looks like Silicondust is working with providers like Schedules Direct to get their offering added as a lineup like any other cable one, but in the short term I bet you could just pick a cable lineup near you (assuming SD broadcasts the lineup in your local timezone and not just one east coast feed) and then manually map the channels to the guide data (since the Silicondust channels numbers would be different they wouldn't auto map).

I'd love to see someone with a current Connect device try this. The channels are apparently all there, and you get a 2 minute preview of the channel every time you tune it. So it should be possible to test all this with NextPVR without having to actually sign up for the service.

[pkscout]

The tuner logic would need to change to support ,four streams per household on top of the atsc tuners

Martin

I haven't read through the entire thread yet on the SD site, but from what I see a stream counts as a tuner in use. So if you're streaming a cable channel on a 2 tuner device there is only one tuner remaining to use. If that is true, then NPVR might not need to change anything. NPVR would likely continue requesting channels as normal and the device would tell you if all tuners are in use. I'll update this if page 5 of that SD thread says anything different. '-)

I was thinking about this some more, and now I'm with Martin. I realized I was thinking about how my HDHR Prime with cablecards works. I'm pretty sure with cable cards tthat NPVR doesn't actually scan for channels, it just asks the HDHR for a list of channels and ignores the ones marked with DRM. That logic would work for the Premium Channels. But I think NPVR actually scans for ATSC signals, and if that's true it won't see the Premium channels at all. If all that is correct (which, given my track record is only about 50% likely), then NPVR would need some kind of change like:

1- add a "scan for premium channels" option when using a SD Connect device which would behave like the "scan" on the HDHR Prime with cable cards (this would require filtering out any ATSC channels already scanned by the Connect)

2- add a setting for the user to choose to retrieve all channels from the Connect instead of scanning for ATSC channels (which could require you setting up channels again if you already did an ATSC scan but would be fine for new setups; would also mean you have to scan all the channels in the SD app first)

3- something I haven't thought of that will be way better

[sub]

Users should be able to use these channels without me making any changes. They'll probably need to use the 'HDHR' device option on the Settings->Devices screen, but it may possibly work with the ATSC/QAM options as well.