thread on sync two tvs with HD Home Run new user?

[dvlamis]

I'm guessing this has been covered so please point me to an existing thread if appropriate...

I have not bought HD HomeRun yet, but here's my use case and I am wondering if HD HomeRun would solve my problem...

I have 4 TVs in my 3-yr-old construction house, all with wired ethernet, different brands, some smart, some with Chromecast. I have YouTube TV as my main service, but want to migrate towards over-the-air TV.

At times, I want to record live TV, sometimes time-shift so I can FF through commercials. We only have 2 in the household, so no need for lots of tuners.

The big problem is that I have a livingroom TV that opens to a deck with its own TV. Sometimes, I want to be able to pause one stream and watch on both devices. Can a HDHomeRun in the basement feed both TVs and allow me to keep these reasonably in sync?

Thanks

[paulbates]

It's probably more a matter of app compatibility. I run 1 HD home run Flex 4 and a DVR subscription and DVR shows to my home windows PC.

I can watch shows using the HD Homerun app on:
* Samsung TV via firestick
* iPad Pro
* Windows PC

I can use any combination of these clients at the same time watching different DVR and shows at the same time, while scheduled shows are being DVR'd.

BUT..... I have the 4 tuner version so I can't create demand for more than 4 TV watching sessions + requested DVR sessions. However, DVR's content does not use a tuner and I don't think there is limit. Hope that makes sense:
- Watch as much DVR'd content on multiple clients with HD Homerun app (with the DVR subscription and local storage) as you want with no practical limit
- Watching live TV and recording with the DVR to your local network storage, you are limited to a total of 4 simultaneously, 1 per tuner.

My use is to have it DVR shows for me so i can pick and choose and FF through commericals. The HD Homerun app is great for this IMO, has a good handle on what's on what channel, provides synopsis and sorts series into seasons. I really like it!

I don't see chromecast on their download list https://www.silicondust.com/support/downloads/. Maybe someone else here knows. In my case with Samsung TV, the app is not in the Samsung App Store but reportedly can be side loaded.. We had the firestick so I use it there and it works greate

I've never "live DVR'd", not sure if that's possible, maybe someone else here knows

One thing I found as a new user: Currently many of the ATSC 3, 4K, channels are drm/encrypted and HD Homerun can't show the encrypted channels. I've learned to get around it as most of the channels have a lower resolution version and that works for me. Silicone Dust continues to work with respective entities to fix it

[jasonl]

The big problem is that I have a livingroom TV that opens to a deck with its own TV. Sometimes, I want to be able to pause one stream and watch on both devices. Can a HDHomeRun in the basement feed both TVs and allow me to keep these reasonably in sync?

Kind of depends on how you define "reasonably". Most of my viewing is sports, and I want the action to be close enough that audio from one TV isn't spoiling the other, and that means they can't be more than a second or so out. The only way to consistently accomplish that is using a single playback device and an HDMI splitter to send that audio and video to multiple screens. It doesn't really matter what device you're watching on or what service it's coming from, keeping everything in sync with each other is basically impossible. The HDHomeRun app actually does better than most streaming apps because it will tweak the playback speed to keep within a specific range while most streaming apps play too slow and get progressively further behind or play too fast and have to pause and buffer, but there's still enough range that it can be annoying.

[dvlamis]

It's probably more a matter of app compatibility. I run 1 HD home run Flex 4 and a DVR subscription and DVR shows to my home windows PC.
...snip...
I don't see chromecast on their download list https://www.silicondust.com/support/downloads/. Maybe someone else here knows. In my case with Samsung TV, the app is not in the Samsung App Store but reportedly can be side loaded.. We had the firestick so I use it there and it works greate
...snip...

So maybe I just don't understand the whole value proposition of the HD HomeRun. If there is not a Samsung app or a Chromecast app, and there are questions on how to "side load" a HDHomeRun app, what's the point? Where's a canonical list of client software that SiliconDust has developed apps, or Is this really just for Windows PCs, Linux PCs and Macs, and am I wrong thinking that I can get a HDHomeRun and watch TV on my smart TV? Sorry, maybe I'm just looking at this wrong. I think I want something between a ***** and a HDHomeRun. I am a computer consultant by profession and have no problem looking things up, but I would need some sort of guide on how to make this all work.

Thanks.

[nickk]

If there is not a Samsung app or a Chromecast app, and there are questions on how to "side load" a HDHomeRun app, what's the point? Where's a canonical list of client software that SiliconDust has developed apps, or Is this really just for Windows PCs, Linux PCs and Macs, and am I wrong thinking that I can get a HDHomeRun and watch TV on my smart TV?

We have an apps for almost every platform. This includes Android/Android TV, Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku (devices and TVs), iPad, iPhone, XBox, Windows, and Mac. Samsung is the notable exception - for Samsung you need to use any other smart device plugged into the TV.

By Chromecast I assume you mean "Chromecast with Google TV", not the old Chromecast dongle from 15-odd years ago that didn't support apps.

Chromecast with Google TV is Android and it is fully supported by our Android app.

You don't need to sideload anything - our HDHomeRun app is available on each platform's app store.