A new DVB-S2 receiver similar in concept to a HDHomeRun?

[anik]

I just came across an announcement of this device:

TBS MOI DVB-S2 Streaming Box

The specifications are here.

They won't actually be available until March although pre-orders are being taken at one site now. However, I notice that the specifications mention nothing about the use of a DiSEqC switch or 22 kHz tone switch. I don't know if that means it offers no support of those, or if whoever wrote the specs just forgot to mention it. If it doesn't include those then the device won't be very attractive in areas where the signals are on multiple satellites and frequency bands (as in the U.S.A. and Canada).

At first glance this appears to me to be similar in concept to the HDHomeRun device, except it's for satellite signals rather than terrestrial, and made by a different company.

 

[Lak7]

No HDMI connection, so it's LAN only.

 

[wallyhts]

That looks cool. It looks like a Linux box running dvblast. Which makes me wonder about blindscan?

 

[Tron]

That would be interesting. The HD Homerun is an incredible device, it has given me the most trouble-free ATSC/QAM PC recording capability I've ever experienced. No PCI card can touch it, as long as you have a reliable wired network.

 

[Pixl]

I wonder if you could locate the box at a remote location and access it thru the internet?

 

[wallyhts]

That would be interesting. The HD Homerun is an incredible device, it has given me the most trouble-free ATSC/QAM PC recording capability I've ever experienced. No PCI card can touch it, as long as you have a reliable wired network.

I got a homerun for Xmas. I hooked it up a few days ago and I'm wondering do I have to use there software to select the channel? I notice that after I tune a channel the software shows the multicast address which I can then open in vlc. So I guess what I'm asking if I leave it on a channel is there anyway to just use vlc to view the multicast without using the homerun software?

 

[wallyhts]

I wonder if you could locate the box at a remote location and access it thru the internet?

I would say yes but it would be full bit rate so you would need 20+ Mbps upstream to view some channels.

 

[Tron]

I got a homerun for Xmas. I hooked it up a few days ago and I'm wondering do I have to use there software to select the channel? I notice that after I tune a channel the software shows the multicast address which I can then open in vlc. So I guess what I'm asking if I leave it on a channel is there anyway to just use vlc to view the multicast without using the homerun software?

I've always used their software in conjunction with VLC just as you describe, so I'm not sure if there is another way. I know that the HD Homerun can be integrated into Windows Media Center and Media Portal. I believe it can also be used with Myth, but I'm not sure about that. Perhaps someone who has succeeded in using other software will chime in ...

 

[Anole]

I located my HD Home Run dual tuner in the living room next to the TV.
A 3-way splitter feeds it and a 42" LCD TV.
A LAN cable hooks the HD HR to the master bedroom to a core2duo laptop running Vista Home with all the (stock) media extensions.
A $15 remote, external 500gb USB hard drive (optional), and 22" TV on HDMI complete the setup.

The tuner is run from Vista Media Center like you had a dedicated PVR.
Including on-screen Guide.

Scheduled recordings are watched on the living room TV using a Westerd Digital media player over another LAN cable.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Similar to what we reviewed last year in this thread:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/280572-An-Ethernet-Based-Receiver?p=2817916#post2817916

 

[anik]

I know that the HD Homerun can be integrated into Windows Media Center and Media Portal. I believe it can also be used with Myth, but I'm not sure about that. Perhaps someone who has succeeded in using other software will chime in ...

I'm using a HDHomeRun Dual that I got about a month or two ago with Mythbuntu running on a dedicated backend server, and a MythTV frontend on another box that is connected to my TV (in a different part of the house). It's a bit of a bear to set up (and even moreso if you cannot utilize or don't want to pay for the TV scheduling service that they push really hard to U.S. residents, but that won't even work for people in other parts of the world), however it's not that difficult, and once it is set up it works VERY well. And if you use the MythTV backend you can either use their frontend software or you can use the new (still in Beta) version of XBMC "Frodo", which now has PVR support.

The software included with the HDHomeRun is good for setup and initial testing but to get the full power you will want to run some sort of software that lets you record programs. If you are a bit of a Linux geek, the easiest software to set up and get running is a command-line program written in Python called HDHomeRun Recorder, which I found out about from an article here. That program does not have the nice GUI schedule grid, however it was easy to set up and opened my eyes to the potential of this device. But MythTV offers so much more control, including the ability to record from both tuners simultaneously. XBMC Frodo also has many of the major features of the MythTV frontend, but since it is still in Beta I'm not yet running it on my HTPC.

For those that don't get the backend/frontend concept (which I had a bit of difficulty understanding), the backend is basically what talks to all your tuners and acts as your PVR and scheduler. The frontend(s) (and you can have more than one) connect to the backend to obtain the content, and present the user-facing interface. So, for example, you can schedule a recording on any frontend you have (or even via a web-based interface) but the scheduler itself is on the backend, so if someone sets up a recording via any frontend, any other frontend will be able to see that it is scheduled or watch it after it's recorded. You CAN run both the backend and a frontend on the same machine (assuming it has enough CPU power to handle both functions) and many people do that, but I have not done that so far. You can also have "slave" backends but I definitely have not attempted that!

There are a lot of features in MythTV that I did not expect and that surprised me, so if you have a spare machine that isn't being used for anything else and isn't ancient, you might want to give Mythbuntu a try, unless you are pretty confident in your Linux skills and would prefer to try it on some other distro.

It was the fact that the HDHomeRun and MythTV worked together so well that caused me to start looking for a DVB-S2 device that might also work with MythTV (that and the fact that my satellite receiver died on me). If this new TBS box has DiSEqC and 22 kHz tone switch support I will be very interested. If not, then not so much.

 

[Anole]

Had missed that previous thread.
Liked the idea of putting the HDHR up the tower with the antennas!

I once thought about putting a wifi router atop my 40' phone pole, and powering it over the cat5.
Luckily I had many other interests and never got to it.

A microHD-class LAN-based tuner has my attention!
...or even one which makes its hard drive available to the house LAN.

 

[wallyhts]

here.

Thank you thank you.

 

[anik]

I just discovered that some of the questions I had raised (and a few I hadn't) were answered in a TBSDTV Community Forum thread. See in particular the post by steven dated Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:03 pm (might be different depending on the reader's time zone) which is at the bottom of the first page of the thread as I write this.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Wow I missed this it sounds like it could be an amazing product!

I have a HD Homerun Prime with Cablecard and just recently started testing it as a DLNA device. Working great so far. I could imagine a FTA Receiver like this, that would be ultimate! FTA anywhere in the house! That would be cool!

 

[SatelliteAV]

The DVBS devices work well with fixed dish and multi-satellite configurations. We are currently working on USALS and DiSEqC 1.2 options.

The current challenges are with supporting multiple viewing devices and selecting the controlling device for motor control and DVR function.

 

[concord]

MythTV...It's a bit of a bear to set up (and even moreso if you cannot utilize or don't want to pay for the TV scheduling service that they push really hard to U.S. residents, but that won't even work for people in other parts of the world...

$25/yr for Schedule Direct service isn't bad at all, I think Europe and others can get the info another way. I used to have MythTv and used ZapToIt to get the scheduling, before the sites like TitanTv, ZapToIt started to forbid scraping the information from their site...I guess too many people were using them and it was bogging down their system. Since Win 7, I switched to Media Center and switched to a HDHomeRun last year. Another all-in-one Linux install for MythTv is LinHES (formerly KnoppMyth), like Mythbuntu, it includes the OS and MythTv.

 

[anik]

concord, that's a value judgment that each individual has to make for themselves, however there are two things that bother me about Schedules Direct. One is that I read somewhere that they hadn't attracted as many users as expected so they raised the annual rate. That to me seems counter-intuitive and stupid, but I guess they do what they have to do to stay in business. But the thing that really grates me is they try so hard to keep people from learning about the alternatives. If you mention one in the MythTV forums they will censor your post, and if you post it elsewhere, sooner or later someone will show up (I suspect, but cannot prove, that it's a shill for SD although sometimes it appears pretty obvious) and try to convince people that they are doing wrong by using any method to obtain schedule information other than Schedules Direct. It's kind of a weird vibe I get, like if you are a Mac user and suggest that maybe people should look at free software rather than buying it in the Apple app store - somehow you become the skunk at the garden party even if you are trying to do people a favor by mentioning a cheaper alternative.

The biggest objection they can muster against alternatives is that they might violate one of those Terms of Service agreements that you are supposed to have to click through before using a service. I don't know about that because I have never seen any such ToS, but let's face it, when you are into things like Satellite TV and Home Theater PC stuff you probably violate a lot of technicalities, most of which you don't even know about, and some of which you do but don't care. For example, many free-to-air satellite feeds put on a notice a minute or so before the programming begins warning that the feed is only for their affiliates, and if you watch it you are violating some law or other - and has that stopped anyone from watching? The attitude of most people is, if they didn't want people to see it they shouldn't have made it so freely available. You can encrypt satellite feeds, and you can password protect schedule information if you don't want people to use it, and if you don't do things like that people tend to assume you don't care all that much.

My perception is that TV schedules ought not to require a subscription. After all, I can go to TitanTV and (with a little configuration) get schedule information for just about any station or cable service in the USA or Canada, and view it for free in my web browser. So what makes that information so much more valuable when viewed on a HTPC? Darned if I know. But as I say, that's a value judgment that people need to make for themselves. Personally, I kind of wish that SD would hurry up and price themselves out of existence so some of the MythTV people wouldn't be able to push them so hard.

 

[GenBap]

My MOI came in today. Will hopefully post some thoughts later this evening.

 

[Tron]

Looking forward to reading your review. I use the HDHomeRun networked tuners for OTA, and would never go back to an internal PC solution (tuner card).