HDHomerun Premium TV Service

[pvrfan]

In case you haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere, the good folks at Silicondust have introduced a premium over-the-top service that will deliver some channels over the internet and accessed through recent model HDHomerun Connect or Extend hardware. Currently includes 45 channels and cost is $35 per month.  Essentially, the service *adds* these channels to the OTA channels that you can already receive with this hardware.  Demo channels are now available after the latest firmware update. 
 
https://www.silicondust.com/premium-tv/
 

 
As you may know, SiliconDust has been developing a DVR system to work with their HDHomerun hardware.  The Premium TV service works either with or without SD's DVR application.  
 
The video below mentions that Plex and Kodi will be able to access it.  The MythTV project should be able to support as well.  Apparently the video is currently 720p30, H264 format at about 1GB per hour.  Reports seem to indicate that SD is still fine-tuning the video encoding and may be able to improve the quality.  There will soon be East and West Coast feeds but it is a bit of a jumble at the moment.
 
https://youtu.be/YetNR_fFm3k
 
Service is now available in the USA and is 'coming soon' to Canada.  For me, in Canada, it might be pretty interesting if the package of channels is comparable and the price not too high.  It may give me the option to timeshift a bunch of channels that I currently can not--I almost never watch live TV.
 
Craig

 

[Smarty]

Thanks for the info.....
 
....Seems to me that this price is REALLY HIGH compared to the $12 - $20/month that you can get Vaders or Necro streaming IPTV for...and they offer more like 300-500+ channels....  Run those through Plex and call it a day....   

 

[cobra]

Both interesting posts... seems like SD is trying to compete with the cable market.  (Maybe their pricing reflects the licensing cost of their channels?)

 

[JimS]

Interested in options to get some cable channels and currently just have OTA due to high cost so these are interesting options.  Currently use MythTV for DVR so would prefer that or something similar.  Need to investigate IPTV...  Just got a SiliconDust box.

 

[pvrfan]

Interested in options to get some cable channels and currently just have OTA due to high cost so these are interesting options.  Currently use MythTV for DVR so would prefer that or something similar.  Need to investigate IPTV...  Just got a SiliconDust box.

 
There was a thread on the mythtv-users mailing list where it was reported that someone got Myth working with Premium TV using some scripts and the 'external' recorder.  Really, a proof of concept.  At least one of the devs is interested and is exploring adding more robust support.  As with all such things, it may come to pass...or not.  I'm keeping an eye on it!
 
For background, Myth is still using the old Silicondust API to interface with any and all HDHomerun tuners.  Previously, the main advantage of the new API was that multiple apps could share access to the pool of tuners by locking and unlocking.  No one has been sufficiently motivated to replace the existing (working) code with something using the new API.  However, the Premium TV service also needs the new API so that provides some real motivation.
 
Craig

 

[pete_c]

Yeah here still using older HD Homerun boxes with MythTV.  Over the years have shut down the cable HD Homerun HDHR3-CC box and just using the OTA Homerun HDHR3-US box.
 
MythTV is currently connected to Model: HDHR3-US OTA tuner which works well.
 
Most live TV streaming now is from the directly connected to TV Kodi box(s) running now Ubuntu 18.04 which is more appliance like than the garbage Android boxes out there.  The Amazon Prime Kodi plug in now works fine these days. 
 
That plus have Roku connected TV (mostly in the off state these days) and Direct TV (keep due to WAF) and cable TV (off these days).
 
Tested the Kodi to HDHomerun plugin and it doesn't work with the HDHR3-US tuner as documented.
 
The MythTV box has run for years with no problems but it is getting way long in the tooth. 

Looking on Ebay this morning for a used HDHR4-US connect and see the prices mostly below $50 so I might add one here for use with Kodi.