If you have a moderately powerfull PC, you can run a program HDHRFling. It will “fling” your cable to a Roku. Its what I am using right now. You need to check around with your cable provider to find out what kind of copy protection that they use on their system though. Some flag everything as “copy once” and you will be screwed if this is the case. I am on Verizon Fios and they only use those flags on premium channels like HBO.
HDHRFling will allow you to do this. I do it now.
It works with ClearQAM cable just fine. As noted upthread though, OnDemand does not work, as well as sometimes DRM comes into play for some channels.
I’ve had mine for about a year, mainly for my XBM…err, Kodi setup. $2/mo for a CableCARD on Charter instead of $7. (or $12 if you count the DVR).
While the HD HomeRun Prime app works great, if you don’t have a strong WiFi signal with at least a 802.11g radio, HD viewing may be a problem. Also, those people that want to watch on a computer, no need to have MediaCenter installed, the device shows up in VLC media player via UPnP. Great device, good price, would buy another one if I needed it
Yeah, I believe Plex and Media Browser will let you do this as well. I use Media Browser myself. You just need to open/forward a single port on your router and use the free server program on an always on PC. It’ll even handle the transcoding of the video stream to reduce it to something more friendly to your device or connection.
I frequently watch the 12:00 news on my lunch break at work. I’ll either stream it on my smartphone, or connect to it through my web browser. While there is roughly 20 seconds of buffering involved, it otherwise works great.
I just have the lower end HD Homerun ATSC dual tuner device, as I don’t have cable tv. But almost certainly, the ability to stream a few hundred cable channels would really be cool.
Anybody know if you can use a cable card that is currently in a TiVo, or do they use a different type of card?
I’d be careful with wireless. Our main computer had wireless and it could not keep up with a three-channel HD Homerun Prime. That means you could be recording three HD channels and playing another at the same time. My wireless could not handle that. I ran 1gbps wired ethernet to the main computer, and all is well now.
If all you do is watch a single HD channel, wireless can probably do that.
Warning… these things don’t always work if your cable provider requires a tuning adapter to get channels. I have 2 of them the first one I got many years ago and the second one last year. The older one will work with a tuning adapter just fine, but the latest firmware isn’t compatible with the standard tuning adapter so my second unit only gets the few channels that don’t require the add-on adapter. When I contacted silicondust I got poor service saying to update the firm ware and after it still didn’t help being told well it isn’t our problem.
I found this device has limited use. It does not work well with smart tvs. I had excellent signal but all the channels pixelated. Even streaming to the PC App pixelated. If you run media center and a media center extender like the 360, you will get the most seamless use. HDHRFling will let you transcode the programs to a folder that can be picked up by plex/roku or some other streaming app. This will not be like streaming live cable. You have a VERY limited amount of options for watching live tv (like a cable box). Non device related – Getting the cable card setup to “lock on” to the device is going to be a challenge. I did it by posting to Verizon’s support; however, good luck getting a rep over the phone to help out. It will most assuredly take several phone calls. I did like the 360 extender setup. If you are trying to get rid of your cable boxes and you have media center and some sort of compatible extender then this may be for you. If you think you can get it to watch live tv from your roku – not going to happen.
And on Comcast, they pay you $2.50 each month for each CableCard Device.
I don’t understand all these questions about using this device with TVs. It’s function is to provide the capability to watch TV on your network-connected computers and computing devices.
There is no software (per se) on this device, there is no interface, there is no storage. It’s not a DVR, and it’s “technically” not a cable box.
You run an app on your network-connected computing device, and this unit will stream a channel from cable over the network to it.
The interface is on your computing device. (I use QuickTV, which was supplied from Silicondust). You can use DVR software on your computing device (ie. Media Center) to record the stream from the HDHR.
I have a Home Theater PC (HTPC) with a 82-inch Mitsu TV attached as the monitor. I prefer watching TV on the computer using QuickTV over using the TV as a TV itself, because channel surfing is so much better using QuickTV (the channel list slides out from the right when you move the mouse to the right edge). You change a channel by clicking on it.
Any multi-stream cable card should be interchangeable, but you may need to call the cable company to pair the cable card with the new device. My cable company is very lenient that way - I can swap cards around without having to redo pairing, but I’ve read that other cable companies are more restrictive. But it should just be a phone call and reading off some numbers to do the pairing.
So our Cox provided is stopping all analog TV signals and requiring users to use a digital signal tuning box on TVs not using a cable box. Sounds like this is going to be useless for those Cox users (and others who are on all digital systems.)
Another great deal I won’t be able to take advantage of, because Woot still hasn’t realized that Puerto Rico uses the same US Postal Service as the main land, for exactly the same price…
I’ve had this for several years. Works ok. I’ve never been able to get the upper tier digital channels with it.
Were you running 802.11ac and if so, on the 2.4 or 5ghz band? I have the Asus RC3200. Reserved my media server’s wireless card to the 3rd 5ghz band (kids used the 2nd band for gaming). I’ve had 2 TV’s pulling recorded movies off the PC with not issues in 1080 mode. I’m using a digital antenna, ATI wonder digital tv card and media center.
Guess my first question is, can this device record live tv so you can pause it, like typical DVR’s? I know it can record like a dvr but can it do the continuous record function like Wide Open Wests home media box can? I guess one can just record the channel but that would fill up the drive over time rather just burn up an hours worth of space and it just over rights that space as it goes along.
Works with Time Warner CableCard (extra effort required!)
Suggests either the card isn’t validated or hasn’t been “hit” with your subscription level by your cable provider. Most likely solved by a call to your provider (say you are not receiving the premium channels). We (Silicondust) can check as well - file a quick trouble ticket and we will check the card status.
HDHomeRun prime is digital cable TV so it is perfect for switching away from analog.
The HDHomeRun PRIME works with all Motorola and Cisco tuning adapters used in the US.
There was a problem at one point last year due to a firmware bug in Motorola MTR700 tuning adapters which is no longer an issue.
You can read about it here:
https://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=17751