Good Day.
I’m trying to determine the differences between HD Homerun “Extend” and “Connect”. Connect looks newer as it supports 802.11n (versus ac for the Extend). Both are out of stock on Newegg, although available on Amazon (I thought I read somewhere that these devices were being discontinued but I can’t find that reference). The Connect is about $100 where the Extend is about $180.
On siliconDust’s website it says that the Connect can “watch live HDTV on up to 2 devices simultaneously on your wired network.” Is there a limit to just two, or this device can only stream HD quality on max of two connected devices? Questions: can it stream to other devices in SD if the max 2 HDs are taken?
Do those two HD streams have to be connected via ethernet?
What happens when you only access via wireless?
We currently have indoor antennas attached to each TV, in addition to Roku which accesses Plex via a Intel NUC with an i3 chip and an NAS attached for storage (these are all ethernet to each other and the router which we use for the Rokus in the house). I’d love to put an antenna on the roof (or has anyone tried one in the attic?) and stream OTA tv to the Rokus in the house.
I would bite the bullet and get the most capable HDHR available because, hopefully, it will be in use for some time. You wouldn’t want to buy something you’ll need to replace in two weeks. Amazon is way better than NewEgg due to the almost bullet-proof return policy.
I think you can pretty much forget live TV on a Roku. I also believe that live TV via Plex DVR is not yet ready for prime time… those forums are not for the public so I have no idea what the status is on that.
I can however tell you just about anything you want to know about Antennae because I’ve built, installed, erected, hacked, altered and blended about every antenna capable of receiving from or transmitting to the atmosphere a signal across an extremely wide range of RF frequencies for more than 40 years (and have the RF burn scars to prove it - LOL).
If you are receiving TV signals with antennae at the TV locations (let’s call 'em rabbit ears 'cause that’s what they are) then it’s extremely likely a decent antenna in the attic will serve you well providing you don’t have a metal roof on the house. If you do you can forget that noise.
Modern roofing materials (that are not metal) do attenuate TV signals to varying degrees so it’s likely attic antennae (you may need two depending on what TV Fool says) will have to be larger than one operating in the wide open spaces, but the advantages of an attic installation become immediately apparent to most citizens the first time a magnum electrical storm passes overhead. One bolt from the blue (a glancing bolt even) can render ALL your junk into disassociated atoms (smoke/vapor) in an instant… no… quicker than that - and also set the house on fire. Generally considered a bad thing.
If you’re pretty good with wires a whole-house OTA Antenna system is doable with a little aid and research. A professional installer (or any decent electrician in possession of those skills) can handle it for you at a reasonable cost - and get all the protective bits in place at the same time. All the protective bits in the universe won’t even slow down a lightning bolt, but it could prevent a fire and give you a false sense of security. I’ve also had some experience with that. When you live under an antennae farm - stuff happens.
Questions? Ask away.
Here’s your first stop on the information highway: http://www.tvfool.com/
Plug in your location and attach the image and we’ll get started.
@dmayo2 said:
Good Day.
I’m trying to determine the differences between HD Homerun “Extend” and “Connect”. Connect looks newer as it supports 802.11n (versus ac for the Extend). Both are out of stock on Newegg, although available on Amazon (I thought I read somewhere that these devices were being discontinued but I can’t find that reference). The Connect is about $100 where the Extend is about $180.
The Extend is able to transcode the stream on-the-fly where the Connect can not.
This feature may be of interest to you if your PMS is running on a NAS or other type of low powered device where it may struggle to do the transcoding. Or for Live TV viewing over your WIFI network if you do not have a strong 802.11AC network. The Extend can lower the bitrate of the media to allow for streaming over slower WIFI networks.
On siliconDust’s website it says that the Connect can “watch live HDTV on up to 2 devices simultaneously on your wired network.” Is there a limit to just two, or this device can only stream HD quality on max of two connected devices? Questions: can it stream to other devices in SD if the max 2 HDs are taken?
Do those two HD streams have to be connected via ethernet?
What happens when you only access via wireless?
I learn something new every day, but I won’t hesitate to point out that a Roku connected to a TV Set is a Roku connected to what is probably the best way to watch live TV as most of those things have tuners in them. It’s a small matter to push the button on the remote to switch from the Roku to the tuner, but… I’m an old school kind of guy.
@JuiceWSA said:
I learn something new every day, but I won’t hesitate to point out that a Roku connected to a TV Set is a Roku connected to what is probably the best way to watch live TV as most of those things have tuners in them. It’s a small matter to push the button on the remote to switch from the Roku to the tuner, but… I’m an old school kind of guy.
That’s very true, but someone my not have a coax pulled to a room where a TV is located, so using this Plugin helps in that situation, or on a device that does not have a tuner (computer monitor).
I do agree, though, that if you have the signal there use that instead of the the plugin.
That way you’re not tying up a tuner in the SD device
and by the way, @JuiceWSA , I saw that picture of your antenna array in a thread recently…
Impressive, it looks like a scale-model of the International Space Station
@hthighway said:
and by the way, @JuiceWSA , I saw that picture of your antenna array in a thread recently…
Impressive, it looks like a scale-model of the International Space Station
Oh, that’s not mine… that is just one of my favorite OVERKILL antennae images and it is indeed impressive.
A little back-story on that array:
The guy built it in an attempt to receive some signals from stations (though the trees and over the hills and dales on the way to grandma’s house) that were over the horizon way out of line-of-sight. The results were less than spectacular to say the least. When one starts stacking antennae in an array the dbi multiplication factors don’t come together in the way you think they should and when signals simply don’t exicte an antenna adding more antenae doesn’t really help. It’s a math thing.
What did happen is that closer signals absolutely pinned the tuners and any dropouts in signals that did excite the array were gone, baby gone…
My favorite reference image…:
I’m a little crazy (in case you haven’t noticed) and I also live alone (as this will no doubt demonstrate) and here is a little antenna array I built and duct taped to an entertainment center when the previous landlord wouldn’t have anything to do with an exterior antenna (bastid).
Here is the current, more reasonable and traditional installation of a DB8 aimed at the local translator - that got hit by lightning a couple of years ago and is currently only broadcasting at 15 watts… the DB8 has the tuners pinned. It’s only 3 miles from here:
I’ll definitely go the route of the attic antenna (hopefully I can find one that if the reception is not sufficient, that I can then put it outside on top of the roof – it’s an asphalt shingle roof in Michigan).
To clarify about streaming live tv…I don’t have coax going to every room that has a tv, so I’d like a device that can take the OTA signal and send it to my tvs. If I can get a DVR as a bonus, that’s cool.
I see that the Extend can transcode. That info wasn’t evident on SilconDust’s website. My plex server is an Intel NUC i3 and Plex has no problems transcoding my video formats and pushing them to my Roku devices (two 3s, and one Amazon Fire non-stick).
@dmayo2 said:
I’ll definitely go the route of the attic antenna (hopefully I can find one that if the reception is not sufficient, that I can then put it outside on top of the roof – it’s an asphalt shingle roof in Michigan).
If you provide a TV Fool report for your location I can suggest an antenna that has a really good chance of working well in an attic under a shingle roof and in a worst-case-scenario will absolutely blister the available signals if a ‘free-air’ installation becomes necessary.
Since I’m not there with several models in the back of the truck to cover the bases and since local impediments to reception exist in every installation I’ll try to make the best suggestion I can.
A professional installer (worth his salt) can, for a modest investment, take care of the whole-house OTA system to be done with it once and for all. It’s no more involved than having a cable guy come out and install cable to every TV in the home - that can happen in an hour or so, but if the various apps and methods to get live TV to the unwired locations works for you - that too is fine.
If you are lucky enough to have had Cable at some point (but have seen the error of your ways - LOL) it is quite possible the wiring already exists and all that’s left is plug your transmission line into their stuff… food for thought.
I have received your TV Fool report image and will copy the pertinent bits from our PM here that may help others.
You are basically living ‘under the towers’ and you do have wanted signals originating from two different primary directions and across two bands - UHF and VHF High - I recommend the Channel Master 4228HD: https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-CM-4228HD-High-Antenna/dp/B000FVVKQM
Also note on this page the Wineguard DS-2000 mounting apparatus that can be screwed into and hung from a rafter upon which to mount said antenna. It can also be mounted from the floor up… to be determined when you get up there. The mount is very flexible.
From the images in my post above you can see I am using an Antenna Direct DB8: DB8e 8-Element Bowtie Attic Outdoor HDTV Antenna
At first glance they look rather similar, but note the Channel Master has a continuous reflector where the DB8’s reflector is split.
What this means is that the Channel Master is better equipped to receive VHF High because the reflector is cut closer to the length necessary to receive a High Band VHF signal. Add to that these signals you’re wanting to receive are quite close it is quite possible you can sneak the antenna a bit between these two directions to receive all of your LOS signals. The worst case is you’ll have to pick one direction or the other and in that case you would, of course, aim the antenna toward the most signals.
If I lived where you do - and since I’m a little whacky in this regard - I would install two Channel Master 4222HDs diplexed together with equal lengths of coax into a backwards oriented ‘splitter/combiner’ then to a distribution amp and aim each in a different direction… but that’s me and that’s because I already have two 4222HDs and the availability of those models seems to have been compromised recently - in that they aren’t available… for some reason.
A distribution amp may be necessary, depending how many separate runs you have and in that case a simple/cheap/effective amplified splitter can be found just about anywhere.
I also recommend you use high quality press on F connectors and the appropriate tool to press them on with.
… and there you go.
I will add that if it is possible to aim the antenna toward the desired signals through the eaves instead of through the shingles - that would be the best way to go. The 4228 is a high gain antenna, but giving it the least amount of stuff through which to see the targets would, of course, be a good thing.
Also note - Hot Tip #79:
Do not ‘kink’ coaxial cable. The impedance of Coax is set by the distance between the center conductor and the shielding. Kinking the cable alters this distance and can set up a Standing Wave issue that will effect it’s ability to deliver signals in a negative way.
@JuiceWSA
I’ve finally ordered a 4228HD and will be installing in my attic. Planning on running the coax down the side of the house and input it where the defunct cable co’s comes into the house (remove their’s and replace with antennae), which then goes into the basement and into an EDA-2100, then splits out to about 7 runs throughout the house (so the splitter is after the amp). This was all there when we bought the house last year.
Distance from antennae to basement’s EDA-2100 =~45feet. Then each run after the split less than 20’. I will probably only need to split it to two runs.
Well I hung my 4228HD antennae in the attic. Read that it has a 180º reception range, so I pointed it at about dead east (90º) . Bam. That was easy. Getting every channel (range is 15 miles for a station located 10º from me to 33 miles for one 110º).
Hi All. My first post in the forums. I was looking at the TiVo Roamio and then was reminded of the Plex DVR system. I love Plex so I will probably go this route. Back to the important stuff. I live in Arizona about 28 miles from South Mountain which is where most, if not all, HD OTA Tx antennas are. Like most other residents I have a clay tile roof. I have access to my attic and could find a way to get coax where I need to go. I also have a dish setup on my eaves outside that already tie into the coax of the home that would make this even easier to setup.
I am looking for suggestions from users that know more about this than I do. @JuiceWSA and others, if you have the time, please toss out any ideas.
Back to HomeRun, I will probably be offloading the encoding to another machine so the Connect will probably work. Any reason to go Extend if I offload encoding?
If you’re replacing the Dish Setup, you can commandeer it’s lead in wire and any internal splitters to use for your own purposes. If Dish is still in use - you’ll need to run new wires. These two systems can not share transmission lines.
I see from your tvfool image you have one Line of Sight (LOS) station (PBS) that you should be receiving on your dental work, the rest are some flavor of 1 edge. Only 28 miles or so, but apparently there’s something rather large between you and the transmitters. It’s possible tvfool has miscalculated, but I rarely find this to be the case.
Tile roofing is very dense, so a larger antenna and exterior location are highly recommended. @dmayo2 was able to use the Channel Master 4228 - a 4 bay, but I would recommend a Channel Master 4248 - 8 bay. Unfortunately they are out of production. The Antennas Direct DB8 is a similar design as the 4248, I have one and it’s a great antenna for $63:
Recommending antennae remotely is a tricky bidness, at best, but if there’s a snoball’s chance at receiving these 1 edge signals the DB8 should at least show a spark of life from them. UHF is definitely LOS, in that it’s not very ‘bendy and bouncy’ like Low Band VHF was - prone to ricochet off something to get where it was needed - that ain’t gonna happen with UHF. You’re either going to get it, or you’re not.
Amazon’s return policy is Bulletproof, so if the DB8 shows signs of life, but leaves something to be desired, you can start throwing money and aluminum at the problem with the purchase of a MAGNUM antenna of some sort - to be determined later when you report what’s going on.
If the DB8 produces only a blue screen with no heartbeats or brainwaves the patient has died. My condolences.
Signs of life would trigger more intense explorations into the possibilities. Trying to reanimate a deceased subject almost always turns out badly when the villagers storm the castle with torches and farming implements. Ugly.
You can receive PBS right now on a coat hanger. You probably have one hanging in a closet. I recommend a metal coat hanger. Those plastic ones just don’t work.
@JuiceWSA thank you very much for your response. I am not sure how I left out this little tidbit, but you are correct. There are some mountains about 3 miles from me, possibly in the way. I would guess they are 700ft tall. This is one of my hesitations. I will get that antenna and try it out… if it doesnt work Amazon will get it back. Thanks again for your help.
