Moving to newer gear, and questions

[RickSD]

I am also a SE Michigan viewer, and also having issues.

Don't want to disrupt this thread, but mine also focus on WDIV...

We can watch the Today Show, live, OTA, from 7 to 8AM most days. At 8AM we start to get freezing. Later in the day, or evening, it works fine.

I am SW by just over 20 miles from the antenna.

I used to watch, just fine, with a coat hanger and board homemade antenna in the attic and a single booster. I have 2 HDHRs, years old, and use NextPVR to record and then watch. Then I started having issues in 2023(?). I now have an antenna in the attic, removed the signal booster, and added a 5G filter (which had no effect).

I am also having issues with NextPVR, mostly a sync of video and voice that makes using it for playback impossible. Using other front ends are all problematic.

I would jump to modern SiliconDust equipment in a minute but the DRM issues concern me, I don't want to spend money and find myself with new issues.

Happy to start a new thread as you suggest.

[RickSD]

i use some HDHR tuners, all at least a decade old. I have been using them with NextPVR as my DVR for many years, with hiccups now and then. In the last year or so, I have run into freezing at times on one particular channel, and recordings not happening due to locking signal but no data. When I try to watch the latter live with my TV, it works fine, same if I go live with HDHR viewer. The freezing seems to be tied to something starting up somewhere at around 8AM in the morning, with no issues at night. With the NextPVR player, I've had some big issues with video and audio not syncing, but the shows play fine in other players, so it's their issue, not mine.

I went from a homemade antenna in the attic (coathangers on piece of wood that worked great), to a commercial antenna. I removed my booster, that made no change. I added a 5G/LTE filter, that made no change...

I saw on another thread where a SiliconDust person worked through some SE Michigan reception issues with the person, that would be great. I also want to understand if I buy your 4K box, how that's going to work in the future with ATSC 3.0 DRM, I know you're fighting that battle.

My DVR requirements are:

1) The ability to watch a recording as it's being made, i.e. starting a program at 6:45PM that started at 6:30PM, before it's complete.
2) The ability to turn on/off closed captions easily.
3) The ability to skip commercials with a few key pushes.
4) The ability to store programs on an NVMe drive or USB drive (i.e. not limited to the device or the cloud).
5) Ideally, not requiring cloud storage and use of internet to watch recorded programs.

I look forward to learning and moving on from NextPVR. I hope you can help get me there. Thanks!

[pshanew]

My DVR requirements are:

1) The ability to watch a recording as it's being made, i.e. starting a program at 6:45PM that started at 6:30PM, before it's complete.
2) The ability to turn on/off closed captions easily.
3) The ability to skip commercials with a few key pushes.
4) The ability to store programs on an NVMe drive or USB drive (i.e. not limited to the device or the cloud).
5) Ideally, not requiring cloud storage and use of internet to watch recorded programs.

You didn't actually ask any questions. So I assume you just wanted feedback on your requirements?

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. There's no native commercial skipping; so you'll have to skip through them manually.
4. Yes. Where you store the recordings is entirely up to you.
5. Cloud storage is not required. Internet access is required for accessing EPG data.

[RickSD]

Appreciate the response. On commercial skipping is that in adjustable increments? Or fixed 30 seconds?

You are correct on the lack of direct questions.

1) Will the 4K box get DRM access at some point, and is that in 2026?
2) Can someone work through my reception issues, like I saw a SiliconDust person doing on an ATSC 3.0 thread and understand if it's an issue of reception or the HDHR is fine it's the NextPVR software that was/is having the issue?

[jxxaxxy]

1. There is no official answer to this. There are so many moving parts that have to be ironed out on both SD side and A3SA. Until it actually happens the answer currently is no.
2. More details would be needed. You would also need to send diagnostics information from the tuner. Also they would need to know the area to see what frequencies are in your area. Hi-VHF, Low VHF, and UHF are the standard frequencies used. It could be that you purchased an antenna that might not pick up the correct frequencies for your area.

In Rockford, IL I have both Hi-VHF and UHF so I had to purchase an antenna with short and long elements to get both reliably.

[RickSD]

1. There is no official answer to this. There are so many moving parts that have to be ironed out on both SD side and A3SA. Until it actually happens the answer currently is no.
2. More details would be needed. You would also need to send diagnostics information from the tuner. Also they would need to know the area to see what frequencies are in your area. Hi-VHF, Low VHF, and UHF are the standard frequencies used. It could be that you purchased an antenna that might not pick up the correct frequencies for your area.

In Rockford, IL I have both Hi-VHF and UHF so I had to purchase an antenna with short and long elements to get both reliably.

1) That's my understanding too, thanks for confirming. Given that local stations are moving to DRM, there would be little reason for someone to change from older HDHR devices to newer ones, until that's ironed out, no?

2) This thread - viewtopic.php?t=80407 - is the exact same viewing area. @jasonL was helping figure it out. I bought an RCA ANT705E, which should be fine for either UHF or VHF. My channels are:

ABC - UHF 25 68 degrees, 26 miles
CBS - UHF 21 68 degrees, 26 miles
FOX - VHF 7 64 degrees, 25 miles
NBC - UHF 32 61 degrees, 26 miles
PBS - UHF 20 68 degrees, 26 miles

Antenna is at ~65 degrees. As I indicated prior, I had no issues for many years, using a homemade antenna. Then I started having issues, but I haven't determined if it is due to NextPVR pulling in the signal from the HD boxes, or the HD boxes receiving a good signal.

No sense upgrading to a 4K box that has the same issues.

[jasonl]

I moved your post from the other thread over so all the info is in one place.

Seeing reception issues on a specific channel at a specific time of day would tend to suggest some sort of interference from some other electrical/electronic device. First thing to do is make sure the HDHomeRun devices are at least 3' away from other electronics, especially anything that transmits or receives signals, such as a wireless router, cable modem, baby monitor, cordless phone, cell phone/tablet/hotspot, etc..

If that doesn't help, you'll want to try to identify what is causing the problem. The usual candidates are LED and fluorescent lights, dimmer switches, anything that converts electricity into motion (fans, motors, pumps, compressors), and gasoline engines (due to the ignition and other electrical components). I would tend to lean more towards the lights doing it, since the other items would be more likely to cause problems with VHF channels like Fox rather than UHF channels like NBC. It could very well be something simple like a light in the bathroom or kitchen and 8am is when someone is in that room getting ready for the day.

[RickSD]

I moved your post from the other thread over so all the info is in one place.

Seeing reception issues on a specific channel at a specific time of day would tend to suggest some sort of interference from some other electrical/electronic device. First thing to do is make sure the HDHomeRun devices are at least 3' away from other electronics, especially anything that transmits or receives signals, such as a wireless router, cable modem, baby monitor, cordless phone, cell phone/tablet/hotspot, etc..

If that doesn't help, you'll want to try to identify what is causing the problem. The usual candidates are LED and fluorescent lights, dimmer switches, anything that converts electricity into motion (fans, motors, pumps, compressors), and gasoline engines (due to the ignition and other electrical components). I would tend to lean more towards the lights doing it, since the other items would be more likely to cause problems with VHF channels like Fox rather than UHF channels like NBC. It could very well be something simple like a light in the bathroom or kitchen and 8am is when someone is in that room getting ready for the day.

To be clear, the reception issue isn't confined to the HDHRs, it's OTA directly too. We have nothing that kicks in at 8AM, and live in a residential neighborhood.

I'm more interested in determining why NextPVR notes that they can't get signal at times from the HDHRs and whether that's a function of reception, or the NextPVR software. I saw the post with the other SE Michigan person, and I have the exact same channels, so that's what led me to reach out.

I have no knowledge of the diagnostics available from these boxes, or how to interpret them, beyond the signal strength screen.