Sunday, March 18, 2007

SiliconDust HDHomeRun Qam tuner for Beyond TV

UPDATE March25, 2007:
THE HDHOMERUN IS NOW OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED BY BEYONDTV



According to the SiliconDust forums (home of the HDHomeRun Tuner), native Beyond TV
support is coming soon - possibly as soon as next week.

Silicon Dust is the maker of the HDHomeRun dual, ATSC/QAM tuner. They are currently working on the beta version of a Windows BDA driver for the HDHR device. This would allow Beyond TV users to tune unencrypted QAM and ATSC channels with the HDHR just like with any supported BTV tuner card. Nick - from SiliconDust has been attempting to get the HDHR bda driver to work with Beyond TV, but was running into errors. With the assistance of Snapstream, he seems to have solved the problem. A forum post by Nick in the driver beta thread announced the following information on Sunday (3/18) evening:

I am currently watching TV using a HDHomeRun with BeyondTV

It will take a week or so to formally finalize.

Nick


The beta bda driver currently works with MCE, MediaPortal and GBPVR. SageTV works with the HDHR using a network tuner "handshake".

I have been using the HDHomeRun on my setup for several months. While it isn't yet officially supported by BeyondTV (since it hasn't had a bda driver up to this point)Fonceur has developed an add-on called BTV Exterminator which allows BTV to use the HDHR to record shows. The main limitation with the add-on is that it doesn't allow for live tv, but it did provide everything else that was needed. My experience with the HDHR thus far has been VERY good. Another plus is it doesn't require an open slot or even an open USB port since you plug it in directly to your network router or switch.

With the addition of the beyond TV supported bda driver, LiveTV should be available soon.