SiliconDust HDTC-2US pretty much rubbish.

[Dee_Ann]

I’m in the process of eliminating the PC I’ve been using as a home theater for several years.
I’m replacing it with an Amiko-A3 set top box for my FTA dishes.

In the PC I have a Hauppage tuner card which has worked well for my local OTA channels.

But with the PC going away so to will the tuner cards in it.

I was told that the best thing to do would be to get an SiliconDust tuner.

I am so unimpressed..

It came with no software at all. And it seems to be pretty much a windows only kind of thing.
Windows is another thing that I am (thankfully) getting rid of when the PC goes away.

I plugged the little tuner in properly and at first I couldn’t find the Mac OSX apps for it so I went to the (still running for now) PC and downloaded the windows 7 app. It ran and I let it scan for channels which it found most of the locals.

After a lot of clicking and cussing I finally got the thing to show me some channels. The channel viewer is the most rudimentary piece of junk ever. And there is no way to record, timeshift or use it like a DVR. That alone gives it a value of zero to me.

I eventually found the OSX app which is even more rudimentary than the windows stuff with less options.

The iOS app is rated as absolute rubbish and not only do you have to buy the app, you then have to pay more money to use it. And there is no app for my ancient, stuck in the past iPad 1.0..

I have PLEX servers running on my Mac and on the windows PC and I could find no way whatsoever to get them to recognize the SD. I have a Roku 3 and apparently it’s not compatible with it either.

Basically I have a $144 plastic box with green lights that says HD and that’s about it.

Is this thing really as useless as it appears to be? Or am I really missing it in a big way?


edit: Also, when I do tune in a channel with it’s crude little tuner app, the video is very choppy and really so sub-par that it’s not watchable. Even on a very low bit rate SD channel that is transmitting like 1980 VHS quality.

 

[osu1991]

Its a tuner it comes with no dvr software. It works perfect with windows media center. I use NextPvr on my Win8.1 machine. Records perfect .ts file and has 14 days of guide info once I setup a batch file to run and pull guide data.. if you want to use maccrap (I enjoy crapple as much as you like windows) then your on your own. I think Myth or SageTv works with Macs.

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[T134]

It is all in the configuration and setup.

With my old legacy SD I think there was a disc but instead I went to the IP of the unit and it had the SW in it. After installing on my computer it updated itself to the latest for that unit.

Part of your issue seems to be the default viewer program. It is nothing special, very basic. The SD is more meant to work with things like Windows Media Center, XBMC, MythTV and stuff like that. The idea behind the SD isn't really a stand alone platform, it is there to deliver the raw stream to your choice of setup.

One guy at my site has his setup with MythTV/XBMC and gets EPG, timeshift, DVR and all that. Personally I stayed simple on both the A3 and my computer. Just simple tuning for XBMC and the default App and VLC on my computer. If I had a newer SD I'd try their Android App on A3 since it probably does most of what you want without any hassle for setting up and configuring something else to work with the stream.

One hint on your computer with crappy video.....you can select the viewing app and therefore the codecs being used. If your computer doesn't play well with the default App for viewing, set it to VLC or WMP or WMC. I've even used TSreader with mine. Remember the SD is basically just a tuner that converts the incoming ATSC to IP and kicks out what it receives. What you do with it and how your computer/device reacts to what it receives is all up to you.

 

[Wayn23]

I think Myth or SageTv works with Macs.

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SageTV is no longer for sale, Google bought them and is using SageTV for the Google Fiber TV boxes, you might be able to find someone selling their Mac server license at the SageTV forum. SageTV was easily the best Media center app on Windows.


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[Titanium]

Wow! Been using Silicon Dust tuner for 5 or 6 years and LOVE it! Cant imagine TV viewing without it.

The Silicon Dust PC software is great for quickly scanning for new channels, looking at signal quality readings or checking if distant channels are coming in, but I rarely have ever used it for viewing programming. Primarily with Windows Media Center and TS Reader/VLC. Also tried the Myth and Sage software, but never really got into those solutions. Set-up Elgato's EyeTV on a friend's Mac. Nice software, but I kicked the Mac habit when I got out of the TV production industry.

 

[Wayn23]

The reason SageTV was so much better than other solutions is the client server/model with low powered hardware extenders.
I have little tiny boxes that play just about anything you can throw at it and use less than 10 watts all with the same GUI. I have seen SageTV setups with a dozen tuners in them or hooked to them. Google left the EPG server up for us so we still get updated guide information even though it has been over 3 years since the sale.


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[Dee_Ann]

Well, I just erased a whole page of rage-rant on this thing. I’m so flippin PO’d that I can’t see straight right now.

This has nothing to do with my running (or not) a Mac or windows, I thought this thing was a stand alone tuner.
It’s not and it does not do what I was led to believe it would do.

I’m going to stop now for awhile and quit messing with it for a few days until my fury dies down a few notches.
I’ve had a terrible week and this just ices the cake. If I can’t record OTA with this thing it’s going back.

I’m taking a time out for a few days on this. I’m too angry to deal with it.

 

[Wayn23]

To record with it you will need a PC of some sort running PVR software,most PVR software should support it, your model also can transcode the mpeg2 streams
to H.264 so it can be more compatible with hardware that does not support mpeg2. Many of us have been using Silicon Dust network tuners for years and have had good luck with them. Sometimes it is just best to send stuff back that does not meet your needs.


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[larrykenney]

I use the HD HomeRun on a Mac running OSX 10.9.4. The unit has no software and will not run on its own. You have to download the software for the Mac for the HDHR from the SiliconDust web site. That gives you the HDHR gui that lets you scan and view channels. To record you have to download the "Eye TV" program. Eye TV costs $75. The two work together and work great. You can record, playback, pause, go back, for forward, etc. with no problem. Timers seem to work fine too.

Larry
SF

 

[Wayn23]

This sounds like a better option for what you wanted to do.
http://www.tablotv.com/meet-tablo/
The guide is not free, a lifetime sub is like $150.

Here is another option.
https://us.simple.tv


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[Trip]

Yeah, the HDHR is a network-attached tuner, but not a network-attached DVR. You need a computer or other compatible device to make use of it. I'm surprised to hear the SiliconDust software didn't work for you on the Mac, as it works beautifully on Linux with VLC (for viewing; I don't record anything).

I have a Simple.TV right now that I have never managed to get any video out of. And it took them past the end of the return period to respond to my customer support request. I would say to avoid that one.

- Trip

 

[T134]

The FREE option for your Mac is the same as you'll want to run for A3 & PC: XBMC 13. Once you get it working on one system it will work on all of them. Bonus is that XBMC 13 will already be installed on your A3 when you get it.

I do the simple .strm file method but just downloaded NextPVR to try it out with the fancy EPG and recording stuff. That is probably more what you are looking for.

To help get you started here are some resources.

The following video is the original demo I did with my HDhomerun on the old XBMC box. It uses the old 12.2 "Frodo" XBMC, the XBMC 13.1 on A3 is way nicer but this gives you the idea of the simple setup.

This post explains basically what I did to make it work: http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=33681&pid=90812#pid90812

This post is from a guy on my site that setup the NextPVR thingy so he gets the guide and other features and he has a video demo of it on his Android phone: http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=33681&pid=90982#pid90982

Again since XBMC is cross platform once you get it working on one device you can make it work with all of them.

 

[osu1991]

I already had my guide batch file setup when I updated to the latest version of Nextpvr, so I am not sure if the latest version automatically works well with getting US guide data. The previous version did not, so I followed the instructions at link below and used the mc2xml generator to create a batch file that pulls guide data from Microsoft or TitanTv and creates an xml file with that data, then go into settings and channel listings on Nextpvr and set each channel to get EPG from the xml file. It works perfect and has been running flawlessly for 2 years now.

http://mc2xml.hosterbox.net/#npvr

 

[pickone4me]

I bought a silicon dust tuner myself when I found it priced at 59.99 on amazon, I kind of got it to work on linux, I wasn't impressed and sent it back. I would stick with the tv tuner cards, easier to setup, and work.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I can echo what everyone else is saying; the HDHR is meant to be used with a computer configured with DVR software (like Windows Media Center), although I have purchased the InstaTV Pro app and use it on both my iPhone 5s and Ipad 4 and I can tune all OTA channels just fine. My PC running Windows Media Center and my Roku box have eliminated all pay-TV for me (except for Netflix).

 

[Mochuf]

Well, I just erased a whole page of rage-rant on this thing. I’m so flippin PO’d that I can’t see straight right now.

This has nothing to do with my running (or not) a Mac or windows, I thought this thing was a stand alone tuner.
It’s not and it does not do what I was led to believe it would do.

If you thought that this was a stand alone device, then you did a poor job of researching it. You should be angry at yourself and not the device. I've been running one with Windows Media Center for a couple of years now and it works great.

 

[StevenD]

If you thought that this was a stand alone device, then you did a poor job of researching it. You should be angry at yourself and not the device. I've been running one with Windows Media Center for a couple of years now and it works great.

Oh don't tell her that! In her world, its ALWAYS someone else's fault! She's like Bob in that way.

 

[Mochuf]

Oh don't tell her that! In her world, its ALWAYS someone else's fault! She's like Bob in that way.

Yes, I've noticed that over the years I've been here. Plus she never seems to be happy. I'd feel sorry for her, except I don't feel sorry for people who complain and won't make a legitimate effort to make things work.

 

[Dee_Ann]

To the previous two commenters, thanks for contributing nothing to the conversation. But you did an excellent job of trashing me. Congrats on that.

1. My Mac. I do not have any intentions of turning my Mac into a home entertainment center. I don’t want to run XMBC or any app on my Mac. I don’t even want to watch TV on it. IF it could record TV channels in the background that would be fine. I’m not going to spend $75 for some app, I do not want to watch TV on my Mac, at most, record in the background. Apparently it will not because they BARELY support OSX/iOS... BARELY...
   
2. My iPad. It’s a 1.0 very, very, very first model that is locked permanently by Apple into an ancient version of iOS that crashes constantly. Obvious sabotage by Apple to make people throw out the old and buy new. Well I can’t afford a new iPad and don’t plan to buy one. There are no apps that will run on iOS 5.1.1 that will allow me to watch TV on my iPad. By the way, the iPad worked perfectly until Apple forced iOS 5.1.1 on it and declared it non-upgradable past that point. They intentionally loaded a crap operating system in it to render a perfectly good tablet into unusable trash.
3. My iPhone 5. It’s running iOS 7.1.1 so it’s all up to date but guess what? The SD app for iOS is complete crap and after you purchase the app, they charge you again, IN APP, to watch TV.. Reviewers rate it as a total rip off.
4. My windows PC. It’s going to be converted into a BSD server for my OSX home. I am eliminating microsoft from my life very soon. It can’t be soon enough to be honest.

My intention is to replace the PC which is running windows and the Myhometheater app with an Amiko A3 set top box.

I had been led to believe that the silicone dust gadget would play live TV on anything I own because it’s designed to do that.

LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES

ANYWHERE ON YOUR NETWORK? LIES..

All I want it to do is record TV on something. Something that’s not a windows computer because I won’t have one anymore as soon as I get my A3. That can’t be soon enough.

So can anyone tell me if this gadget will allow me to watch live OTA ATSC TV through my Amiko A3 and or will it allow me to record OTA ATSC TV to the disc in my Amiko A3?
I don’t have the Amiko yet, the shipment has been delayed again (not to mention, no red) and I know absolutely nothing at all about Android which it is based on.
Because the delay in getting my new tuner could be extended even into next month, I need to know now if this is folly so I can return it and get something else that will work with the Amiko.

Being able to watch TV on my Mac is a zero priority for me. I just do not want to do that. Being able to watch it on my iPhone, I really don’t care, it’s too small. On my iPad, that would be nice but I don’t see that ever happening because of the lock down on the old operating system. Being able to watch it on a windows pc is not an issue because that’s going away soon. I really only care about being able to watch AND record on the Amiko A3. If it can not do that then I have no use for it and I need to return it for something that will. If I wait too long they won’t let me return it.

 

[T134]

Dee Ann,

I agree no need to trash you in the thread. However, the idea with SD HDhomerun is very well established. It works very well but you have to put in some work to set it up the way you want it. Your diagram that you put "LIES LIES LIES" on top of is actually true and correct. My old legacy SD does everything in the diagram except transcode because it is the older model. This is not Mac where someone else tells you it will only work the way "they" want it to and that is it. It is actually superior to other PCI/USB tuners in the fact that it is not dedicated to running special software to make it work. HDhomerun takes the OTA in and puts out raw MPEG-2. It is your choice to decide what (if any) software you want to use to tune, record or otherwise manipulate the raw stream. It is like Android: full of options and not locking you into something.

Pay the whole $2 for their Android App.....probably will do everything you want to do with little or no learning curve or work required.