Silicondust Sound Cards & Media Devices Driver

1. Silicondust Sound Cards & Media Devices Driver
2. Silicondust Sound Cards & Media Devices Drivers

You generally want a sound card with signal-to-noise ratio over 100dB, but the best sound cards are in the 124dB range, which is a significant improvement. Channels - A lot of decent, budget-friendly sound cards typically support 5.1 channel audio, but you can spend a little more to get one that can handle 7.1 surround sound.

1. SiliconDust HDHR5-4US HomeRun Connect Quatro 4-Tuner Cord Cutter. Type: External TV Tuner Box Color: Black Variation: N/a Specifications: 8-VSB (ATSC over-the-air digital TV) Works with our HDHomeRun DVR service 100baseTX high-speed network Please note: This product HDHR5-4US is designed for use in the US and will only work in the US and other regions using the ATSC broadcast standard.
2. Sound Cards; IDE/SATA Controllers; USB & FireWire Controllers. Silicondust HDHomeRun EXTEND Free Broadcast HDTV 2-Tuner - Black. 5 / 5 (1 review) SKU: 855759.

Silicondust USA Inc. manufactures and sells a variety of network-attached tuner devices. Detailed information is available for the more popular devices by following the links.

Outside North America

In 2017, Silicondust released model variations suitable for different parts of the world. The above table doesn't work well to summarize these new models. For the time being, add a temporary table:

History of Hardware Releases From SiliconDust

Updated: 3/14/2013 http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=12216

(Note: 'Plus' model released in 2014. Also 'Dual - US model updated to fourth generation with DLNA support.)(Note: HDHR3-EU apparently replaced by HDHR4-2DT. Uncertain when.)

Use in MythTV

DVB-C variants of the HDHomeRun devices are not well supported by MythTV versions prior to 31. That is: prior to v31 DVB-C HDHRs were seen as DVB-T devices which would work on some cable networks (by accident) but not others.

An external North American cable TV tuner with three or six independent tuners, interfaces via ethernet, and supports CableCARD. See Silicondust_HDHomeRun for other models available. The Hauppauge DCR-2650 is a similar, USB-based CableCARD tuner manufactured by SiliconDust.

• 3MythTV Configuration

Description

The Prime is essentially SiliconDust's HDHomeRun tuner with over-the-airATSC support removed and CableCARD support added. (It thus retains the HDHomeRun's ability to receive clear QAM channels without a CableCARD.) Unlike the Ceton InfiniTV 4 the Prime does not require a PCI slot; it has an Ethernet port instead.

Full support of CableCARD requires that every device and software in the recording chain be certified as enforcing the copy protection mandated by the software. For insurmountable technical reasons, MythTV cannot comply with this. Because of this, the HDHomeRun Prime will only allow MythTV access to those shows that are not copy protected. These copy freely shows may be encrypted and inaccessible to a standard QAM tuner, but will be decrypted and made available through the HDHomeRun Prime. These are the same shows that can presently be accessed through firewire capture from a cable box.

While a digital tuner, CableCARD does not support the kind of access needed by multirec to record multiple shows from a single tuner. This device can only record three (or, for the rackmount version using two CableCARDs, six) shows at a time.

Initial Checkout and Activation

Complete the first four steps shown in the Quickstart Guide:

• Connect coax cable between HDHomeRun Prime and cable wall outlet or splitter.
• Connect Ethernet cable between HDHomeRun Prime and router.
• Insert M-CARD obtained from your cable provider.
• Connect the power adapter to the HDHomeRun Prime and a power outlet.

On a Linux computer command line:

Install development tools and prepare build directory

Copy sources from CD (or download from https://www.silicondust.com/support/linux/) and unpack

Read installation instructions for the library

Silicondust Sound Cards & Media Devices Driver

Build and install the library

Read installation instructions for the GUI

Start build

Install missing development package

Restart build

Install the GUI

Check out the options for the command line tool

Learn the IP number for the HDHomeRun Prime

Note: It is good practice to not proceed until the HDHomeRun is discovered by mythtv-setup. Mythtv-setup allows configuration of an undiscovered tuner by IP address, but if the HDHomeRun is not discoverable by the backend, then recordings will fail with only uninformative error messages in the backend log file. It is possible that the firewall on the backend is blocking discovery.

The Prime has an internal Web server that provides configuration and status information such as signal strength and copy protection.

Point a web browser to the address you just found (in my case, 192.168.1.104). You should get this top-level menu:

Click on 'CableCARD Menu' to get this menu:

Click on 'CableCARD(tm) Pairing' to get a menu like this:

NOTES: This display is for a CableCARD that has been paired, so yours will be different.If the HDHomeRun Prime reports no CableCARD, you may have inserted it incorrectly. You will of course have inserted it with the label up. However, the HDHomeRun Prime is quite symmetrical -- with cooling holes on both top and bottom.Its bottom side has a serial number label and four tiny feet.Make sure the serial number label and the CableCARD label are on opposite sides.

Contact your cable provider's CableCARD activation hotline (see http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=10490) and recite numbers from the pairing status page as requested.When they claim the card is activated, refresh your browser and note any changes.

Navigate to the HDHomeRun Prime log page (e.g., 192.168.1.104/log.html).It should look something like this:

Install VLC if necessary

Try out the hardware using the Silicondust GUI

Select the frequency set appropriately (e.g., us-cable in the U.S.) and hit the 'Scan ->>' button to find the first physical channel with TV programs.Hit the 'Program' button to show the programs packed into that physical channel. For example, in the Nashua area the first channel has these programs:

The first number in each row is the program number within the physical channel. The second number is the virtual channel number assigned by the cable provider.Click on one row, then 'View' to start up VLC on that program.

After viewing a program, return to your browser and navigate to the status page for the tuner you have been using.You should see something like this:

You can use the command line tool to record a channel scan.

A channel scan will take quite a while. You may want to monitor progess in a second terminal

In Nashua, the entry for physical channel 7 looks like this:

Navigate to the device's lineup (http://192.168.1.104/lineup.html?show=subscribed)Here, the standard definition signals for several over-the-airprograms have low virtual channel numbers, but there are HD versionswith 800 series channel numbers:

You can save a copy of this lineup like this:

MythTV Configuration

Preliminaries

Note: This guide assumes that you have correctly set up and configured MythTV itself, including setting up a working database and all the other setup steps common to a working MythTV setup

It's a good idea to sign up for program listings, e.g. from Schedules Direct (https://www.schedulesdirect.org).Configure your lineup, and 'enable' all the channels you are subscribed to.

Illustrated Guide (Master/.25)

Troubleshooting

Silicondust Sound Cards & Media Devices Drivers

• I'm able to view/record channels sometimes but not others
  • Make sure Max Recordings is set to 1 for each tuner. See Capture Card Setup > Recording options for each of the three tuners in the Prime. MythTV, with other versions of the HDHomerun, can record more than 1 program per tuner but not with the HDHomerun Prime.
• I'm not able to tune any of my channels! The OSD simply says 'Partial Lock' and 'LAMc'. What gives?
  • A lock message of LAMc indicates the channel is encrypted and untunable. There are multiple possibilities. Either the channel might not be copy-freely, and thus is uncapturable in MythTV, or your CableCARD may not have been properly activated. Check your HDHomeRun Prime's Web page (by bringing up its IP address in a Web browser). Click Status Menu. You should be able to see the tuner which is currently recording, and the channel to which it is tuned. Click the link for that tuner number at the top. The value for Authorization should be subscribed (A valid value in some cases is 'unspecified'. If a non-working channel says 'unspecified', see what appears for nearby working channels before assuming that it indicates an error.) and the CCI Protection should be unrestricted. If either of these values are different, and you are certain your CableCARD and HDHR Prime are properly paired, then this channel may not be capturable in MythTV. A value of 'unknown' most likely means that your card is not properly provisioned. For clear QAM channels (channels which can be tuned with any QAM tuner), Authorization may be unknown, but the channel may still be capturable.
  • Because many technicians (even those allegedly trained on the subject) are unfamiliar with CableCARD setups, particularly with devices like the HDHomeRun Prime, there is a good chance that you will have to call your cable provider a couple of times to get things worked out. If a regular reset doesn't work (sometimes it can take more than one to 'stick'), ask for a 'Cold Hit', 'DAC Init' or 'Grand Slam Init/Hit'. For some reason, the phone representatives are hesitant to try these, so be insistent.
    • The direct number to the Comcast CableCARD activation line is 877-405-2298, which should connect you directly to a human. Don't bother calling the number that your device recommends; that is just the normal customer service number.
• I want to use the Prime only to tune in Clear QAM channels.
  • The PrimeUpdateScript will be of interest.
• My recordings are being mysteriously truncated.
  • Try increasing the network buffers: sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=1048576
  • Check for packet loss, see the Troubleshooting section on the Silicondust HDHomerun Dual page.
• My HDHomeRun Prime cannot tune certain channels
  • You can get a lot of information from the web interface on the hdhomerun prime. You can look at the logs, and if you are tuned to a channel you can look at information about the channel. Also you can get a listing of all of the channels that the hdhomerun knows about. If you know the ip address of your hdhomerun, just point a browser to it.
  • If that doesn't work, you can tune to virtual channels and see what the CCI and other information is using the hdhomerun_config tool.
  • I had an issue where some of my channels weren't tuning, and I powercycled the hdhomerun and it started working.
  • Sometimes DRM may affect tuning some channels. The channels you lost are likely being protected with the 'One Copy' protection scheme (or other) that requires DRM to allow access to the stream.

More Information

• SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime
• Official HDHomeRun forum (hosted by silicondust.com) Official HDHomeRun forum