Wishlist for next generation

Joe User · Joined: 20 Oct 2008 Posts: 1

One wish I have would be firewire STB drivers that work with the HDHR drivers. All new STB's have firewire, and many HDHR users have cable, so the market is there.

Basically, it would be a modification of the HDHR drivers to use firewire as a video/audio source. Could be sold as an add-on for current HDHR owners.

mlord · Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 27

I would really like to see a better RF front-end in the HDHomerun.
The current XC5000 silicon tuner chip, used by the best cards on the market, really blows the HDHR away.

I've been trying for over a year to pull in a distant PBS OTA station here, with both a Gen1 and Gen2 HDHR unit. No go. Not even close.

Picked up an HVR-950Q USB dongle the other day, and BOOM! There it is, perfect reception on all subchannels. The big difference? the teensy USB dongle has the XC5000 silicon tuner.

This would be a great upgrade for the next gen HDHR.

gjvrieze · Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 12

stephenju · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 54

Build-in web server with Flash streaming. This will require a lot of processing power to do the transcoding from TS to Flash. But it will make this thing super compatible with almost anything with a web browser and Flash plugin.

Maybe a build-in DLNA server? That will only require the server code and repacking TS to MPEG2/4 since the clients are responsible of the MPEG decoding. Channel changing UI could be an issue.

aber76 · Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

My biggest wish is for a better tuner chip. If you can't get a good signal, all other features are useless!

brbeaird · Joined: 21 Sep 2009 Posts: 5

My wish list:

1.) Option to output h.264 format. Lots of processing power needed, but HUGE disk space savings without loss of quality currently given by MPEG2.

2.) Somehow accept CableCards to decrypt channels. Not gonna happen, I know, but that's why it's called a *wish* list. Smile

whurlston2 · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 1048

nickk · Silicondust Joined: 13 Jan 2004 Posts: 7979

Right... short answer is that transcoding MPEG2 to H.264, even keeping the same bitrate (filesize) will look worse than the original MPEG2.

Best to keep in the original form.

brbeaird · Joined: 21 Sep 2009 Posts: 5

I see now that what I wrote was confusing. My emphasis was on space saving without losing quality. What I meant was "HUGE disk savings without losing any quality; it would look the same as we currently get with MPEG2."

But honestly what I didn't think about was having to convert from the original stream. I forgot broadcasters themselves are still using MPEG2, which would indeed be pretty inefficient having to convert. I wonder how many years it will take for something like h.264 to catch on. Not like storage is expensive anyway...I just like the idea of having a file take up 1/3 the space it takes now.

rfutscher · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 33 Location: Northern Virginia

nharris · Joined: 27 Sep 2006 Posts: 63

edimax · Joined: 17 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

Hi - the only thing that prevents me from buying the device - it is the missing cablecard.
In denmark you need a card to recieve channels, that are not part of the standard packages from the provides. The channels are sports channels, Canal+ channels etc.
When can we expect a device with a cablecard reader or at least a usb interface so a card reader can be attached.

Regards,
Henrik

dpreiner · Joined: 09 Nov 2009 Posts: 1

The only thing keeping me from buying this is the lack of NTSC. i have a few different machines, and would love to have this somewhere on my network available to use by any of my machines, especially my laptop. I have a USB tuner for my laptop, but it is completely impractical to be tethered to a coax cable just to watch basic cable stations. I wouldn't necessarily care if adding this required them to drop ATSC or ClearQAM. I've got a Tivo for recording any HD station I want, I want a network tuner to unwire my laptops.

The Blue Button · Joined: 12 Nov 2009 Posts: 4

CI-interface for CAM support should be the higest priority to be able to watch encrypted channels.

And on the software side Windows 7 Media Center support for DVB-C is also very important.

scrambler · Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 72

I have one question / suggestion for the upcoming cable card system.

For people who connect their HDHR directly to the PC, it would be nice to have two gigabit internet ports on it. One to go to the PC, and one to plug in another HDHR, so we can daisy chain the new cable card 2 tuners system with another one, or with the current 2 tuners one, without needing a second internet port on the PC, or using a hub.
Looking forward to the new CC system.
Thanks for listening Smile