What's the difference between the FDFX-4K and the TECH5-4K

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

I plan to control the tuner using only hdhomerun_config from linux or essentially the API from libhdhomerun.so.4 once I write the Tcl extension

[jasonl]

TECH devices support static configuration, where the device automatically tunes specific channels and begins streaming them, typically used by operators of systems that need to take in local broadcasts for various purposes (cable providers, hotels, companies that monitor broadcasts and advertisements, and so on). If you plan to be controlling the tuners directly, the HDHomeRun device would be the right choice.

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

Thanks. I'm waiting on an FDFX to show up, then I'll play with it to see if suits my needs. Does the FDFX work with libdvbtee so I can scan for PSIP/EPG data? The issue I need to solve is that I use an antenna rotator and some DiSEqC switches for multiple antennas, so I need to make my own DLNA control-point with a channel list and (hopefully) a filled-in guide. Will the HDHomeRun app running on Roku support ATSC 3.0 encryption eventually, but using it as a DLNA renderer?

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

Or I could have an FDFX on each of the antennas. Would it be possible to have a call-out via SOAP so I can get notified when a channel is being streamed? This would be so I can turn the fringe antenna to 36 degrees to get 8.1 from Sacramento or 137 for that station in Monterey Bay, for example. I guess I'd need to lock it to only using one tuner at a time and also not scanning guide data when idle.

[nickk]

Best in this situation is to have two fixed antennas, each one feeding a HDHomeRun. If each HDHomeRun has a different set of channels found/enabled the app and DVR will show the super-set of channels and pick the correct HDHomeRun automatically.

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

I need the rotator as everything is around me. The furthest station I can get is 92 miles away and isn't even listed in TVFool

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

Or I could make a proxy that goes in between the tuner and the DVR/client software to pull out the info I need. That's a bit hacker-ish, but not outside how far I'd go. I had to do this to my Onkyo ATMOS preprocessor to fix a DLNA renderer bug as it wasn't advertising that it had volume control capabilities

[nickk]

The big advantage of using multiple antennas is that you can record multiple things at once.

Start by figuring out which channels you can receive with the rotator that you actually care about. Then you should be able to work out the minimum number of angles on the rotator that get you all the channels with reasonable signal quality. The antenna doesn't need to be aligned perfectly and achieve best signal quality on every channel. Hopefully you will only need two antennas.

Nick

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

The multiple tuner recording capabilities I see as benificial only on an omni setup, not a highly directional fringe antenna that is going for DX with 2 edge blocking such as this one that I can only get during the day when the sky is ionized properly that I also might need to selectively turn on a preamp for. I would like to have the hooks needed so I can control a rotator.

I'm not asking for DiSEqC or that failed multipath tuning standard CEA-909, just a software hook

I had this same discussion about 12 years ago with a lead developer at TIVO, too. Just to be clear, I take this as a DX challenge as I can already get KVIE from Comcast. The bigger challenge will be for me to get anything from Fresno.

[kyl416]

FYI, TVFool's data import broke in 2018 when the FCC made changes to their database to indicate spectrum sharing, so you're looking at highly outdated pre-repack predictions, and many early spectrum stations are missing entirely from their results. Most stations changed RF numbers and others took advantage of the maximization window to change tower sites, antenna patterns and power. i.e. your example of KVIE increased their power in 2021 and TVFool's data is still listing their 2009 facility.

Try using the RabbitEars Search instead, where you can also increase the search radius distance up to 110 miles to include those distant stations that TV Fool's report never gave you.


The HDHomeRun tunes to the station the moment you make the request, so your use case might not work for stations that can't be decoded until your antenna rotates as most players will timeout if they don't get any decodable audio and video streams, and the HDHomeRun will give a 503 Service Unavailable HTTP error with "X-HDHomeRun-Error: 807 No Video Data" in the response headers if it can't decode the station at the time of the request. The channel list for each unit also only includes the channels it detected at the time of the scan, so everytime you rotate your antenna and force a scan it will remove the stations it can no longer detect, so you would either need multiple units or use a 3rd party viewing app like VLC or Kodi and manually tune by RF and ProgramID:
i.e. http://hdhomerun.local:5004/auto/ch9-1 for KVIE 6.1

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

Thanks. I image I'll be monitoring tuner quality with

Code: Select all

hdhomerun_config <id> get /tuner0/status

examining ss for fine tuning position when I crawl the rotator

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

Yes, the TVfool db dates back to 2022 and misses many changes especially the new ATSC 3.0 lighthouse from Sutro Tower. This is lovely, thanks

[kyl416]

The 2022 date on the TV Fool output is misleading, the FCC data set they have is actually from 2017. I just tried a generic San Francisco report from TV Fool, it's still listing all the pre-repack RF numbers. It still lists KOFY's 568 kW signal from Sutro even though they sold their spectrum and have been hosted by KCNZ-CD's 15 kW signal from Mount San Bruno since July 2018, and it still lists KCNZ-CD under its pre-August 2017 callsign KFTL-CD. It also doesn't reflect one of the biggest tower site changes, KRCB's May 2020 move from UHF 23 at Sonoma Mountain to VHF 5 at Sutro.

Thanks. I image I'll be monitoring tuner quality with

Code: Select all

hdhomerun_config <id> get /tuner0/status

examining ss for fine tuning position when I crawl the rotator

If you have Windows or Linux, try using the hdhomerun_config_gui application when rotating. It gives you a real time display of the raw signal strength, signal quality (SNR) and symbol quality and lets you quickly change RF numbers and open up VLC to the selected subchannel.

[davygrvy@pobox.com]

Sweet! I don't even need to write anything yet

[JDazell]

Thanks. I'm waiting on an FDFX to show up, then I'll play with it to see if suits my needs. Does the FDFX work with libdvbtee so I can scan for PSIP/EPG data? The issue I need to solve is that I use an antenna rotator and some DiSEqC switches for multiple antennas, so I need to make my own DLNA control-point with a channel list and (hopefully) a filled-in guide. Will the HDHomeRun app running on Roku support ATSC 3.0 encryption eventually, but using it as a DLNA renderer?

You may want to seriously take a long look at the Televes SmartKom intelligent combiner. It may solve your multiple antenna issues. There is an excellent review on YouTube.