@carchey said:
I have a Motorola RNG150N cable box with an M-Card. Can I connect the output from the cable box to a HDHome Run Connect box?
I’m not 100% what an M-Card is, but if it’s a CableCard you theoretically don’t need the cable box. I have a CableCard plugged into my HomeRunPrime and use it to record…sometimes. IME, the bugs are still being worked out of the Plex DVR, but theoretically anyway…you shouldn’t need the box if what I am describing is accurate.
Now, in reality…I haven’t found a reliable “Live TV” solution for Plex yet and even Silicon Dust’s own HDView app is problematic, IME.
For now I still use my cable box and FIOS provided DVR for most things because it JUST WORKS. At some point I’ll revisit the PlexDVR options and try it again when it reliably records in a compressed format that doesn’t take up about 7GB of HDD space per hour of show.
I love Plex and want to use it for 100% of my needs. It’s getting there!
@carchey said:
Hello, I’m looking for some device recommendations. I’m trying to identify the best way to connect my cable box to HDHomeRun.
I have a Motorola RNG150N cable box with an M-Card. Can I connect the output from the cable box to a HDHome Run Connect box?
I’m using Plex as my DVR. Will I be able to see all the channels based on my Xfinity subscription?
Do I need the HDHome Run Prime box? Will the M-Card cable card work with the Prime box? If yes, do I just take the M-Card out of the cable box and install in the Prime box?
You will need the HDHomeRun Prime to work with cable service. It’s currently the only HDHomeRun device that works for cable. You should be able to remove your cable card from your cable box and put it in a HDHomeRun Prime and get it to work, but you’ll likely need to call your cable company to get it activated. Cable Cards typically can’t be moved from device to device without the cable company’s help. With this setup, you will get all the unencrypted channels you are subscribed to. For most cable providers, this means you will lose your premium movie channels, but everything else will be OK.
CableCards in general, and Comcast specifically are a little tricky. In general, Comcast restricts the cablecards in their boxes to only work in their boxes. That said, you can go to your comcast store and get one - the rental is usually comparable to or cheaper than the cable box. Once you do, you’ll need to activate it with comcast - that means you need to provide them with three numbers: the CableCardID (which is usually printed on the card itself), the Host ID, and the Data ID. You can get these from the utility screen of the tuner. In my experience (and I’ve been using CableCards for the better part of a decade), the hardest part of dealing with them is finding the right person on the phone who knows what they’re doing to activate it. Good luck!
Have plex dvr working with my old HDHomeRun. Is there a way to schedule recording via my Roku yet? Looking forward to the next releases of plex dvr. You rock plex.
@WCTschumy said:
CableCards in general, and Comcast specifically are a little tricky. In general, Comcast restricts the cablecards in their boxes to only work in their boxes. That said, you can go to your comcast store and get one - the rental is usually comparable to or cheaper than the cable box.
Comcast has a dedicated cablecard activation page now with a dedicated number to call. I have used it twice now (had to call, the online process never worked for me) and they have had me up and running in 5 minutes flat.
Also note that with Comcast, your first cablecard has to be free and any others they can charge you as much as a box but then they are required to give you an equipment credit on your monthly bill which should bring the cost down to a couple bucks a month. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
@hstamas said:
Also note that by law your first cablecard has to be free and any others they can charge you as much as a box but then they are required to give you an equipment credit on your monthly bill which should bring the cost down to a couple bucks a month. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
I wasn’t aware that the first cable card had to be free. Is there anywhere I can point Verizon to, in order to argue my case to get a free cable card? The FCC web site (https://www.fcc.gov/media/cablecard-know-your-rights) doesn’t seem to refer to a law that requires the first card to be free.
@hstamas said:
Also note that by law your first cablecard has to be free and any others they can charge you as much as a box but then they are required to give you an equipment credit on your monthly bill which should bring the cost down to a couple bucks a month. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
I wasn’t aware that the first cable card had to be free. Is there anywhere I can point Verizon to, in order to argue my case to get a free cable card? The FCC web site (https://www.fcc.gov/media/cablecard-know-your-rights) doesn’t seem to refer to a law that requires the first card to be free.
My bad it looks like this is a Comcast thing:
Will I be charged to use a CableCARD?
The first CableCARD in a retail CableCARD device is free to Comcast customers. If a second CableCARD is needed for the same device (as is the case with certain older model TiVo devices), a charge will apply.
_
I know that they cant charge you for a full price of a converter box without giving you an equipment discount though.
Are there any sort of configuration guides to detail the settings required for the particular HDHR models? I have an Extend and have been struggling to get the DVR functioning. Separate forum post over here for reference; https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1454378#Comment_1454378
I have the Hauppauge WinTV quadHD which is “supported” and it’s a 4 tuner card, however, I can’t seem to get a straight answer as to why my PMS is seeing it as 2 cards with 2 tuners each. I’m running the latest build of PMS. I’ve posted a message about this under the DVR forum, but the only person to reply just repeated what I already knew and said in my original post. So I’m waiting for someone from Plex Dev to chime in on the issue and clearly answers as to why PMS only sees 2 tuners on 2 card when there’s only 1 card with 4 tuners.
I have the Hauppauge WinTV quadHD which is “supported” and it’s a 4 tuner card, however, I can’t seem to get a straight answer as to why my PMS is seeing it as 2 cards with 2 tuners each. I’m running the latest build of PMS. I’ve posted a message about this under the DVR forum, but the only person to reply just repeated what I already knew and said in my original post. So I’m waiting for someone from Plex Dev to chime in on the issue and clearly answers as to why PMS only sees 2 tuners on 2 card when there’s only 1 card with 4 tuners.
The WinTV QuadHD tuner is two devices (dual tuners) sharing one PCIe interface. Look in Device Manager and you will see that it is two separate devices. Other programs will show it the same way. This is by design and has nothing to do with Plex. It doesn’t affect the ability to use all 4 tuners at once.
I have the Hauppauge WinTV quadHD which is “supported” and it’s a 4 tuner card, however, I can’t seem to get a straight answer as to why my PMS is seeing it as 2 cards with 2 tuners each. I’m running the latest build of PMS. I’ve posted a message about this under the DVR forum, but the only person to reply just repeated what I already knew and said in my original post. So I’m waiting for someone from Plex Dev to chime in on the issue and clearly answers as to why PMS only sees 2 tuners on 2 card when there’s only 1 card with 4 tuners.
The WinTV QuadHD tuner is two devices (dual tuners) sharing one PCIe interface. Look in Device Manager and you will see that it is two separate devices. Other programs will show it the same way. This is by design and has nothing to do with Plex. It doesn’t affect the ability to use all 4 tuners at once.
I understand that and did as you mentioned to add the second phantom card. However, what bugs me is that the applications can come with the card all see it was one single card w 4 tuners not 2 by 2. If a junkie little program like WinTV 8 can do that why can’t PMS make it easy to see it as a single unit and treat it as such? It’s just a technical sticky point and doesn’t make adding a “quad” card easy and required “technical geek” level intervention that the average home user doesn’t want to get into. If Plex wants to put PMS into every home, they are going to have to work to fix issues like that this one to shield people from technical hurdles to get it up and running.
Are we at the mercy of the EPG? I’m having a bear of a time with sports events (baseball) which I’ve scheduled to record but rarely maintain 30 minutes of video before closing out. Some recording are 2 minutes or less. I have yet to record an entire game!
I’m experiencing challenges with selecting specific programs via the program guide for recording. By way of example, here in the SF Bay Area, I want to record a 6am news show called “Today in the Bay” (NBC 11.1). The program guide only shows it at 4:30am (which is one instance of the show). For comparison, Tivo programming correctly shows 4:30am and 6am, and I can select either.
Is this a bug or am i doing something wrong?
I’m using latest build 1.8 of OS X Plex Server. Using HD Homerun Extend.
I know it is simply the way things are now, but I have to ask. I have two HDHomeruns - one uses OTA and the other runs on my cable subscription via cable-card (HDHR Connect and an HDHR Prime). Are there future plans or a technical reason why I can’t run both on the same Plex server? I’m currently running two Plex servers on my FreeNAS to make it work, but it just feels a bit clunky and now I have to manually update two servers instead of just one. Other than the simple evolution of my TV watching habits (cable vs antenna) I like the flexibility of 5 tuners vs 2 or 3…So thats why I’m even trying to rock them both simultaneously.
@jdd561 said:
I know it is simply the way things are now, but I have to ask. I have two HDHomeruns - one uses OTA and the other runs on my cable subscription via cable-card (HDHR Connect and an HDHR Prime). Are there future plans or a technical reason why I can’t run both on the same Plex server? I’m currently running two Plex servers on my FreeNAS to make it work, but it just feels a bit clunky and now I have to manually update two servers instead of just one. Other than the simple evolution of my TV watching habits (cable vs antenna) I like the flexibility of 5 tuners vs 2 or 3…So thats why I’m even trying to rock them both simultaneously.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the question or a NAS setup is different, but I currently run 3 SiliconDust tuners on a single Windows10 Plex server. I have a CableCard-equipped Prime, an old 2-tuner and I just got a connect. They are all set up as a single DVR in Plex.
If your Cable TV provider and OTA channel lists are the same and you can map all the channels correctly you shouldn’t have an issue. I have a Prime connected to local Cable TV for local channels rebroadcast, no cablecard in the device. Also have 2 Connects and a Dual for OTA connected as well. All of the devices are configured in DVR on the same Plex Media Server. I can also use all of them for recording shows. Of course the local channels rebroadcast by Cable TV company are on the exact same station channels, for example 10.1 is a local NBC station I see the same channel number coming in from Cable TV and OTA so no issue with channel mapping between the different devices.
@johnm_ColaSC said:
Of course the local channels rebroadcast by Cable TV company are on the exact same station channels, for example 10.1 is a local NBC station I see the same channel number coming in from Cable TV and OTA so no issue with channel mapping between the different devices.
So does that mean if you put a cable card in the prime that it wouldn’t work? I’d like to do the same thing that @jdd561 is trying to do: 1 prime with cable card and 1 OTA tuner. it seems like it would just list multiple channel numbers for the same channel if the channel numbers are different on the tuners.
What I had/have going on, is that if I run the Prime and Connect both on the same server, only the channels common to the two (the broadcast OTA networks) will be allowed to become ‘active’ channels for the DVR (I can get ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX both OTA and off of the cable card). For example, ESPN/TBS/USA which I can get on the tuner otherwise, won’t work in Plex because they are obviously not OTA.
I can do it just fine running two Plex servers on my NAS, but I can’t help but wonder how much CPU horsepower is being lost and when my first library management crisis may occur!
