HDHomeRun Prime Installation to NextPVR using reclaimed cablecard

[wwhenderson]

Long Post...

Configuration:
Cable Provider: Fronti*r FIO* via fibre
  Link Type: ONT WAN
  Link Speed: 1000/Full Mbps
  Router Model: NVG468MQ
  Router Firmware: 9.3.0h7d91
Media Recording: NextPVR V4.2.5
PC Device name: ASUS-P8H67MLE (aka MediaPC)
  Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz 
  RAM: 8.00 GB (7.73 GB usable)

Existing TV device: Ceton InfiniTV PCIe (IPV4 192.168.200.233) installed in a MediaPC PCIe slot with a cable provider supplied M-Card cablecard (many years
in use), which uses the Windows network stack to communicate with NextPVR.

New TV device: HDHomeRun Prime (IPV4 192.168.2.150) with M-Card cablecard from a disconnected cable provider set-top box.

HDHomeRun Prime device:
  Purchased: 3/11/2022
  Hardware Model: HDHR3-CC
  Firmware Version: 20220203
  DTCP-IP: DTCP 1.7-SD20200724
  WMDRM-NDT: WMDRM 10-SD20171110
  Memory Report: 64 MB SDRAM, 2 MB Flash

Situation:
- Old Ceton InfiniTV4 card has failed twice in the last two months to record properly.
- Need to replace the InfiniTV4. The new HDHomeRun 6 tuner is not available yet. Been waiting for a couple of years now. Promises...promises....
- Ordered a new (old?) HDHomeRun Prime from Amazon for a replacement.

My Workflow:
- Cable provider no longer requires a set-top box to be returned in my area.
- My set-top box was disconnected and removed from my billing last year.
- Reclaimed the M-Card cablecard and HDD from the old set-top box before sending the box to the recycler.
- Inserted the old set-top Arris/Motorolla M-card cablecard into the new HDHomeRun Prime device.
- Powered on HDHomeRun device
- Connected RG-58 TV cable
- Connected CAT-5 cable
- HDHomeRun device was using DHCP IPV4 address 192.168.2.146
- Set a static IPV4 address for the HDHomeRun device in the cable provider router to the last address of my DHCP range (192.168.2.150), since a static
  address could not be set in the HDHomeRun device.
- Via web browser, launched a channels scan on the HDHomeRun device and found 200+ unencrypted TV channels. Many were the same as my existing Ceton
  InfiniTV4. No encrypted channels were found.
- Contacted cable provider tech support to 'pair' the 'new' cablecard with the TV cable service, so I could receive encrypted TV channels.
  - The tech attempted to 'pair' the old set-top cablecard to the new HDHomeRunPrime  device using the info I obtained from the cablecard. The tech could not
    confirm that the pairing was accepted. The tech suspected the old cablecard was still 'married' to the old set-top box and could not be separated for
    reuse.
  - After the attempted pairing, I did not see any changes in the cablecard hardware settings as compared to before or as compared to the existing
    Ceton InFiniTV4 cablecard. I was looking for a change in the 'Conditional Access' 'Val' field from a '0x01' to a '0X04' as per the Ceton InfiniTV4
    pairing, but there was no change. I was also looking for a change in the 'Card Validation' field, but no joy there either.
  - The tech recommended obtaining another cablecard from customer service.
- Transferred from cable provider tech support to off-shore customer service agent, who denied my request for a second cablecard, saying only one was
  allowed.
  - While on the phone escalating with customer service, and re-scanning the cablecard channels, encrypted channels were now displayed in the HDHomeRun
    channels list.
- Apparently the cablecard 'pairing' WAS successful.
- Disconnected the call to customer service.
- On the MediaPC,
  - Opened the NextPVR 'Settings>Device' tab and the HDHomeRun device was not shown.
  - Closed NextPVR
  - Installed the HDHomeRun 'hdhomerun_windows_20220303.exe' program without a reboot.
  - Opened NextPVR 'Settings>Device' tab and the HDHomeRun device and tuners now displayed.
    - Suspect the 'HDHomeRUN RECORD' Windows service that was installed by 'hdhomerun_windows_20220303.exe', now allows the HDHomeRun device to be
      visible to NextPVR.
  - On the NextPVR 'Settings>Device' tab, the HDHomeRun Prime displays as device type 'HDRI' device name 'DVR-2650/HDHR Prime 13249C5F-x' with 3 tuners and      the existing Ceton InfiniTv4 device type is 'DRI' device name 'Ceton InfiniTV PCIe (00-80-5a-f0) Tuner-x' with 4 tuners.
- Logged into Schedules Direct and changed my EPG program guide channels subscription to agree with the HDHomeRun channels list for downloading during
  the next EPG update by NextPVR. 
- Note, my NextPVR was already configured to download the EPG from Schedules Direct for the Ceton InfiniTV4 device using my Schedules Direct credentials.
- On the Media PC,
  - Opened the NextPVR 'Settings>Device' tab, selected the HDHomeRun device, 'Device Setup', and 'Scan'.
  - 290 channels were found on the first HDHomeRun tuner (some encrypted and some non-encrypted).
  - Selected each 'empty' (no channels) HDHomeRun tuner and allowed NextPVR to copy over the channels from the 'prior' tuner.
  - On the NextPVR 'Settings>Channels' tab, noticed that the channels were mostly the same as my cable provider TV subscription and as the existing
    Ceton Infinity4 tuner channels scan.
  - Selected each new channel and set the EPG source to 'Schedules Direct'.
  - After 50+ or so channels updates, clicked 'OK' to save the channels settings. If not, eventually NextPVR seems to hang with too many updates.
  - Open NextPVR again and updated each channel's EPG selection until they are all complete.
  - When all the EPG settings were complete, launched the 'Update EPG' function.
  - The EPG updated and the PC did not reboot.
    - My NextPVR 'PostUpdateEPG.bat' is configured to automatically run after an EPG update and reboot the PC unless NextPVR is recording or there is
      an active defrag. I have the NextPVR update at 4:00AM, since the Ceton InfiniTV4 card periodically acts up if it is not rebooted after an EPG update.
      The Ceton InfiniTV4 is quite old, so I nurse it along.
  - Clicked 'OK' to save the channels settings.
  - Closed NextPVR settings.
- Opened NextPVR TV Guide:
  - Verified the Guide displayed the correct channel names and program names.
  - Verified the new encrypted TV channels could be 'watched'. Joy...
  - Set a few new NextPVR recordings for the new encrypted channels and verified they recorded in the correct NextPVR 'Recording Directories'.

Your mileage may vary.

This could only have been done with the assistance of other forums posts. Thank you all.

Enjoy...

[mvallevand]

What I don't see is where you upgraded to v5

Martin

[wwhenderson]

I have had issues 'in general' being on the bleeding edge. I haven't looked at upgrading NextPVR in a while. I wanted to make sure the 'new' device worked 'in place' before I changed NextPVR. One change at a time helps keep it simple when backing out of or troubleshooting a change. I'll get to it soon. I want to make sure I have no other issues with the video formats from various TV channels via the new device. I know you appreciate feedback for new releases, so I appreciate your follow-up. Thanks...

[mvallevand]

Bleeding edge? The first public release of v5 was two years ago next week. The reason I mentioned it is you said you are had problems with 50+ channels which shouldn't be an issue at all, I have around 300, but you won't be able to get problems looked into or fixed on v4 so you are basically on your own. Also, I am not sure if the HDHR tuner type changed or not for v5 or not, you might have to redo everything again so the best time to change would be now.

Martin

[wwhenderson]

I may not have been clear about the channels, but I was getting 230+ non encrypted and now enjoy 270+ after the M-Card was paired. I have gotten as many as several hundred 'scanned' but I was not subscribed to all and had to crop the list.

In response to using NextPVR V5, I use a Logitech Harmony 650 IR remote control for the NextPVR '10 foot' interface (old MCE term). After a quick view of NextPVR V5, my first issue is that V5 is installed as a Windows app package (not as an 'installed program') and must be launched from 'Start' via a keyboard/mouse. I am not a fan of launching a TV media app this way, since I use an IR remote. I have no idea if this Windows app requires network connectivity to the cloud (most 'package' apps do). My media PC is a standalone PC with no Internet connectivity so any cloud type apps are a no-go. I have no apps on this Media PC that require cloud connectivity.

Launching NextPVR V5 via Windows Start, appears to require a keyboard/mouse. I can create a Windows desktop shortcut to launch this NextPVR package app with a keyboard, but a keyboard is only used for maintenance on this PC and a keyboard is NOT for watching TV, IMHO.

I use 'AdvancedMCEremotemapper, to remap the Harmony IR keys to media functions, but I cannot find a simple way to remap a Harmony key to a Windows shortcut, other than defining each shortcut as an ascii text key string in the MCE mapper. This is not desired for simplicity and for the tendency to accidentally introduce error. A MCE Green button to launch NextPVR V5 would be better.

I have noticed other issues with V5 that causes me to want to abandon NextPVR, since V5 appears to dumb down the settings. I understand simplicity, I am in favor, but I have issues with the lack of settings visibility and the lack of ability to change them that I was accustomed to with V4. First of all, I was not able to display or change the decoders in V5. The second was no config.xml where detail settings might be changed (ala V4), maybe I missed something.

I already have issues currently with V4 and the inability to set recording priority when multiple dis-similar devices exist (i.e. Ceton InfiniTV4 (DRI) and HDHomerun Prime HDHR). With having this issue, I have ordered a second HDHomeRun Prime to replace the InfiniTV (fails too often) to hopefully reduce complexity and increase tuner availability. I have manually changed the way the V4 channels are displayed and have manually changed my existing scheduled recordings to mitigate the situation, but without a channels priority/grouping scheme between dis-similar devices for recording in V4 causes me to look elsewhere. Maybe I am missing something in V4 also.

I will probably have other V5 issues on further analysis, but no decoders settings to display or change and no MCE Green button are non starters for me to continue to use NextPVR. I could be overlooking the location of the decoders, but requiring a keyboard and no MCE Green button are non-starters.

I will continue to NextPVR V4 until I can find an alternative, but V5 does not meet my needs at this time.

I appreciate your efforts to make an awesome PVR and I have used it since I had to migrate to Win10 and MCE bit the bullet, but I have come to realize that I am probably not the best audience for NextPVR V5. Regards.

[mvallevand]

NextPVR.exe is still a .Net Framework application, it launches the same way, decoders are configured the same way via the right click GUI and it functions there same way, except for some missing things like addons, and config.xml still exists. There is no need to to use the web page except for configuration, which isn't easily available via the 10' interface either.

Feel free to use v4 understanding the minimum support you will get here.

Martin

[sub]

In response to using NextPVR V5, I use a Logitech Harmony 650 IR remote control for the NextPVR '10 foot' interface (old MCE term). After a quick view of NextPVR V5, my first issue is that V5 is installed as a Windows app package (not as an 'installed program') and must be launched from 'Start' via a keyboard/mouse. I am not a fan of launching a TV media app this way, since I use an IR remote. I have no idea if this Windows app requires network connectivity to the cloud (most 'package' apps do). My media PC is a standalone PC with no Internet connectivity so any cloud type apps are a no-go. I have no apps on this Media PC that require cloud connectivity.

Launching NextPVR V5 via Windows Start, appears to require a keyboard/mouse. I can create a Windows desktop shortcut to launch this NextPVR package app with a keyboard, but a keyboard is only used for maintenance on this PC and a keyboard is NOT for watching TV, IMHO.

To be honest, I'm not actually sure what you're saying here. NextPVR v5 just has a regular executable (nextpvr.exe) the same as NextPVR v4 before (c:\program files\nextpvr\client\nextpvr.exe). They look pretty much identical, and are written using the same tools etc (.NET Framework)

Just to be clear, NextPVR is kind of two parts now. The server is configured as a web application. You access it through a web browser. You only really need to do this at initial setup, for configuring where to recording to do, and your channels etc.

The main user interface (at least on Windows) is nextpvr.exe, which is the same as v4 in the past. For people that don't like this front end user interface, there are other client options.

I have noticed other issues with V5 that causes me to want to abandon NextPVR, since V5 appears to dumb down the settings. I understand simplicity, I am in favor, but I have issues with the lack of settings visibility and the lack of ability to change them that I was accustomed to with V4. First of all, I was not able to display or change the decoders in V5. The second was no config.xml where detail settings might be changed (ala V4), maybe I missed something.

When you're in nextpvr.exe, you can still right click -> Settings -> Decoders to choose the decoders used during playback. v4 used to have more settings available in this settings screen, because it was a mash up of the server settings, and the frontend (nextpvr.exe) settings. Now those a separated, and only the front settings are in nextpvr.exe. The rest of the settings are in the web app.

I already have issues currently with V4 and the inability to set recording priority when multiple dis-similar devices exist (i.e. Ceton InfiniTV4 (DRI) and HDHomerun Prime HDHR). With having this issue, I have ordered a second HDHomeRun Prime to replace the InfiniTV (fails too often) to hopefully reduce complexity and increase tuner availability. I have manually changed the way the V4 channels are displayed and have manually changed my existing scheduled recordings to mitigate the situation, but without a channels priority/grouping scheme between dis-similar devices for recording in V4 causes me to look elsewhere. Maybe I am missing something in V4 also.

[quote]]I will probably have other V5 issues on further analysis, but no decoders settings to display or change and no MCE Green button are non starters for me to continue to use NextPVR. I could be overlooking the location of the decoders, but requiring a keyboard and no MCE Green button are non-starters.

I will continue to NextPVR V4 until I can find an alternative, but V5 does not meet my needs at this time.

I suspect this is just case of not realising that nextpvr.exe is still part of v5, and that the web app is really just something you use for configuring the server (and maybe some light scheduling/viewing)

[sub]

FYI, this is what NextPVR.exe looks like in v5, and here is the Settings->Decoders screen.