User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Downloads & Instructions
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Mediaman
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User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by Mediaman »

Guide to Using the HDHomerun Record Engine 2.0

This is a generalized guide to the Record Engine and its use in the different platforms with a D-pad remote control. There are more ways to navigate in the different platforms {Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Android}and client device ability.

I assume you have installed at least one Record Engine device and your client is working with live TV. You can check that by opening http://my.hdhomerun.com/ where you should see any SD tuners listed and one HDHomerun RECORD, all will be in their own access box.

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Open the HDHR app on your client device to live tv. There are two ways to access the record engine from live tv. First try using the up or down arrow of the D pad. This will open the action bar and slices guide in live tv.

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You should see an action bar on the bottom and a list of a few channels on the right near the one you are on called the slices guide. On the action bar is a hamburger icon on the right side, navigate until it is highlighted in green and click on OK or Enter. This will direct you to the Recorded Home page… The second way to get to the record engine is to use the back button on the remote while in live tv to go directly to the Recorded files homepage.

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You should now be in the Recorded file home page and see the Menu bar on the top portion of the screen. From left to right: Live, Recorded, Discover, Tasks and a settings icon to the right of local time. Clicking on Live exits this area [the Record engine] to the last active channel. The Record engine opens on your recorded files home page by default. But the menu bar options remain available at all times you are in any part of the record engine. Bring you to the home page for which ever section or direct to live tv. The return [or Back] button should also move you back into the area last visited. Discover is where you go to find upcoming shows and Tasks is the area where you manage established recording tasks.

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In settings you currently should find four items minimum: Account Information, Starting Page [option for app to open in Live tv vs. on the Recorded home page], send diagnostics and Early access to new Features [beta firmware updates – warning such updates may create issues]. Additional items may include shrink for tv screen, use AC3 pass through when possible or control master volume level [this depends on what device playback is perceived by the system]. It is expected that this area will add more items of choice in the future. The send diagnostics button only remains on for 10 days and only needs to be on if you want to collect data on silicondust servers to help them diagnose any issue you may be having.

How to Setup a Recording or Search for a Show
Navigate to and click on Discover.

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You should now see a list of tiles 5 wide of what is Now showing. Below the Menu Bar and a search line you will see Now in the center and to the right the next time frame. You can move about the tiles with the D pad arrows.

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If you navigate on to one of the show tiles and move the cursor to the right to the 6th unseen tile a new set of 5 tiles that are beginning in the next time frame will appear [half hour breaks of shows]. That time frame will now be in the center with Now to the left and the next time frame to the right. All shows in a time frame are listed in the 5 tile wide column. You only need to move the cursor down to reveal the other shows. In the Now showing section when searching tiles in a time frame you may need to scroll down till no more options are revealed. You can move to the right to the next time frame [or left when available] at any spot in the tiles.

You can also search in three other general categories; Shows, Movies or Sports. Each area will list the next two weeks of future shows. When looking at Tiles while doing a search the tiles with a red record dot are setup to record.

Click on the Shows group in the Discover home page.

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When you find a show of interest, click on the tile when highlighted and expanded. On the top of the screen you will be presented with information on the selected show.

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Then next you may have up to three option boxes; Watch Now, Record Series, Hide. Then you will see the first found airing highlighted in green. By hitting enter or OK you will set that show to record as a “one off” recording. You should not see any other shows listed get a red dot. If you navigate to Record Series button and click it will open this Window.

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Here you can set the padding, or how much time to allow for extra recording before or after the scheduled time of the show. Then you will see the option to record All Episodes of a show or the Current Season. Click on Current Season.

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You should see the current seasons shows with a red dot. This does not mean that it will record all the shows with a dot. Under this option any new season show aired in the past 90 days not yet recorded should record. After recording the first airing of one of a particular episode it will not record it again unless direct to do so when deleted. But should repeat recording daily news shows even if the last recording still exists when set to All Episodes or Current Season. Click on Delete Task, it should kick you back to the previous tiles section.


SEARCH
Search lines exist for Recorded and Tasks are for existing files in those areas only where the Discover area covers all your channels for two weeks. Currently the Record files search reacts to what is typed in real time but Task needs to be completed and entered. When using the search in Discover it may help to use a generic category like music or awards. At other times you may need to be very specific such as 61st Grammy Awards or whatever the airing channel has named it this year. Sports programs are better organized generally.

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Currently using for example ‘NFL Football’ or ‘College Football’, as a search, you should find all the matchups for the next two weeks available to record. Find any matches of interest. By clicking on the specific game and selecting your team, then all the games they have in this search category will be scheduled to record in the future. For NFL all days across network shows are included [Monday, Thursday & Sunday night along with preseason games *]. If you search your favorite team name [City/Name or State/Mascot] it should bring up the master file. Once you have your team set up then down the road anytime they play they will be recorded. But you may need to create new tasks for some sports events like the Superbowl, World Series [pro and college], and World Cup [of whatever sport]. Championship matches often show TBA, which should be auto filled. Keep in mind the record engine needs to be updated to schedule a recording and in this case suggest your record engine have internet access all the time.

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As seen in this FIFA example when All Teams button is selected you can set it to record all matches or specific teams. When you select a specific match that involves two particular teams you get an option to follow one or both of the teams and record all their future games [this should transcend seasons so you only need to set it once].

Tile Management; the Hide feature.
The Hide feature is best used in a general search area [such as Shows or Movies] rather than the Now Showing choices of tiles displayed [unless that is a time slot you do not want to watch that show]. Removing a show in shows will delete it from view of all time frames. It’s a house keeping tool if you want to use it. It takes time to remove items you know you would not watch from a list of others you would. Do it a little bit at time, be brutally honest with yourself. You will have to deal with seasons for a year to set up all your shows and teams. And screen out the ones you won’t watch. The benefit. It will be easy to notice new show tiles in the new season. If you think you went too far you can always do a keyboard entry to look for a specific show by selecting Search and un-hide it or enter “.hidden” to reveal a list of all hidden tiles. [This does not affect the Slices guide found in live tv.]

Recorded File
Click on Recorded on the menu bar and it will open recorded file access.

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Files are organized by rows of tiles. The top row of tiles is what was recorded last from left to right. The next row is Shows, then Movies and last is Sports; all in alphabetical order left to right. Click on a recording tile and a list of show recordings in file is given.

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Highlight a showing and select it. The show will either start a playback or resume [a thin green bar will appear below the title to indicate how far it has progressed] a recording that has been partially played. If you move to the circular arrow on the left and click on it the show will start at the beginning rather than resume. To delete it, highlight just the trash can on the right and select.

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You will be given three choices: Delete = delete and do not rerecord, Rerecord = delete & rerecord, and Cancel action [return to previous]. When you delete the last recording of a show in a file you delete the file. The page should reset to the Recorded file home page. Removing a file from outside the system will result in a rerecord at some point in time [if aired in the future]. Deleting a recording file does not necessarily delete the task. All tasks must be set with internet access as such commands are in the cloud and set or corrected online. You should not need internet once recordings are set or deleted.

Other Means to Set a Recording.
The Red Button that resides on the information/action bar while in live tv is a quick link to creating a one off recording. Click on it from a live TV and a recording will start. Live tv will continue during this as if nothing happened.

Via Slices Guide– When your using the live TV guide you can right arrow when a channel is highlighted and it will pop out with a description and the next show to come. You can click on any next show in the list [or any future shows] and it will take you to the recording setup page in Discover to setup that show.


Managing Tasks
Click on Task, here you can look at and manage recording settings. Series and Sports Tasks are “stacked” with the last set recording entry on the bottom. All of these types will have a hamburger icon to the left of the file name. Any recordings that are one off will be at the top of the priority list and have a record date and time shown. The next one to record will be at the bottom of the list of one offs. The next show will be the one at the top of the priority list of Scheduled shows and have a hamburger stack to the left of the title. In the below screen there are 9 One Off recordings and the time it will record to the right of the name.

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The series and sports listings are movable and the higher they are on the list of such shows the greater the priority. To move a task move the cursor down to the task then left arrow so only the hamburger of that task is highlighted and click OK. The bar representing the task will shake side to side. You can now use the up and down arrows to move the task up or down the priority stack. Nothing has a higher priority than the one off recordings. Press enter/ok or back to exit moving the task.
To edit a task highlight the bar of the specific task and click on OK. Then will be your series selection switch; All and Current season. So if you missed a show you can try to collect some reruns but may need to use all. Another item that can be adjusted here is padding.

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When looking at Tasks section you will see that one off recording rules tend to stick around for up to 24 hours after they have been recorded [this is normal they will disappear on their own]. Currently though if a recording has started and you change your mind it is possible to stop the recording by going into the recorded file in process and deleting it.


FAQ/FYI –
How to Remove Channels
post by GetMatt » Tue Sep 27, 2016 5:37 am
“If you go to my.hdhomerun.com when connected to the same network as your DVR you'll see your tuner(s). Go to the channel list for each tuner and you will see a star next to the channels. Clicking on those will toggle them between:

Grey Star - Normal
Gold Star - Favorite
X - Disabled

If a show is set to record and airs on two channels at the same time it should record from the Favorite channel. But disabling the other channel works great.”

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Special Features

Tuner Priority – At this time there are no user settings for this. When multiple types of SD tuners are in standby the structured hierarchy for US devices to be used if available is - Connect - Extend - Prime. Where multiple tuners of the same type are used the oldest device typically is engaged first.

Channel Priority –other than selecting a specific airing of a show as a “one off” recording there is no way to set a channel priority for recording a show or select local channels over cable [or reverse of that] as a sporting event subject to blackouts.

Deleting a show within a few hours of it originally airing on one channel may get you a rerecord by another channel [even though selecting not to rerecord when deleting should block that permanently].

Multiple clients can watch the same channel and only use one tuner. Time shifting is very basic with D-pad left being 10 seconds back and right is 30 seconds forward and pause being the only basic functions. But each client watching the same channel has independent control of its stream. But will only go back 5 minutes total or if paused long enough, and enough on board ram, up to 1 hour forward. This works with DRM {digital rights management} marked channels for Cable users with the Prime tuner.

Currently W10 [pc, tablet, xbox one], Google certified devices [nvidia shield tv, mi box, airtv, cell phones], Apple iOS based devices and MAC are the only platforms that the HDHR DVR supports DRM content for live playback only. Live time shifting of DRM content currently can hold up to 60 minutes of a show with 5 minutes back. [warning : not all tablets will support DRM, or “android tv” set top boxes].

Updated 7/25/19

guruuno
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Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:22 pm

Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by guruuno »

WHERE on an OS X (Apple) and/or Windows is the destination/local directory to save recordings setup from? I cannot find in my OS X Catalina any place to inform the application as to what media/hard drive to save to.

signcarver
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by signcarver »

Have you tried looking at the instructions... https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/dvr:mac

If you scroll down to the advanced section you will see how to specify the engine to stop, modify the config, and restart the engine...

For windows you specify on install or you can edit the registry.

ddodge13
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by ddodge13 »

how come there's a red X next to my DVR it shows
HDHOMERUN RECORD
X Version 20200225

I'm thinking it probably needs to be updated. but when I click the version it takes me to a page that looks like a page with instructions but the page seems broken because its an empty page with 3 bubbles that show step 1, step 2, and step 3 but they're all blank and lead nowhere.

signcarver
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by signcarver »

0225 is a couple of versions back (though i'm not sure latest July version is everywhere)... there was an android only one in March, then a beta and release in May, I believe the July version is available but as beta but no changelog for it. Update the engine, usually the same way you installed it.

Note there has been a change ever since March that changes the way the engine reports recordings that may be incompatible with some 3rd party tools.

NedS
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by NedS »

ddodge13 wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:17 pm how come there's a red X next to my DVR it shows
HDHOMERUN RECORD
X Version 20200225

I'm thinking it probably needs to be updated. but when I click the version it takes me to a page that looks like a page with instructions but the page seems broken because its an empty page with 3 bubbles that show step 1, step 2, and step 3 but they're all blank and lead nowhere.
Repeat the installation steps for the platform that you installed the DVR on (NAS, PC, Windows, etc). All recordings and settings will be preserved.

ddodge13
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Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 9:49 am

Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by ddodge13 »

That's part of the problem also... I cant find the download for any version, the page is not working properly. Can you share a direct link to a newer version?

NedS
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by NedS »

https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/dvr:storage

It looks like you're using a NAS, so you'll probably want to run the NAS installer again: https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/dvr:nas ... windows_pc

ddodge13
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by ddodge13 »

Thank you.

alangant
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by alangant »

Suggestion: The UI for setting up a new recording (task) has changed. If you set up a series recording, you can only have 1 for that show. This has changed from the previous UI, and the interface could use some explanation here.

Thanks for providing such a valuable service!

Mediaman
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Re: User Guide to HDHR DVR 2.0

Post by Mediaman »

Update to guide coming soon!

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