Anyone serving Live Cable TV through their Plex Server?  I've heard about this HD HomeRun Player/DVR system (https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/101755/hdhomerun-viewer, but wondering if anyone has it working and if its been a hassle or easy...

 

Thanks!

Jeff...

Don't use Plex, but I do have 3 HD Homerun Primes and I can certainly attest to their reliability.  HOWEVER ... I have to wonder whether or not you can actually stream channels with CCI codes other than "Copy Freely".  Some cable providers (mine unfortunately is one of them -- Time Warner) mark EVERYTHING as Copy Once ... so you can only watch recordings on the system it was recorded on unless you have a valid extender.    I record all my live TV on a Windows Media Center box, and use Xbox 360's as extenders, and this works perfectly --  but I don't know if Plex can handle the CCI encoding.

 

I don't see any mention of this in the thread you referenced ... but you might want to ask before jumping in.  You need both an HDCP enabled playback monitor and the appropriate CCI code to watch protected content.

 

... of course it also depends on your cable provider ... if most of your channels are marked "Copy Freely" there shouldn't be any issue at all.    Note that most providers (all the networks and most cable channels) do NOT require more restrictive CCI marking ... but many cable providers do it anyway.

 

 

Currently Windows Media Center (MCE) is the only available software that can handle CopyOnce material in the US.

 

SiliconDust has their attempt of a beta of DVR software that is supposed to handle CopyOnce recordings. It may only be available to those who contributed to their kickstarter campaign. It doesn't seem as nice as MCE though. Part of that is due to patent restriction relating to a Grid View Guide. The other part, my opinion only, is they don't have anyone capable of designing a proper user interface and user experience aimed at 10 foot view or WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).

The Silicon Dust attempt at a DVR hasn't been well received at all.  I've been following it this year, and it has not been well received.    It's only available to the Kick Start contributors ... and while I was planning to do that after it got to the release stages, the feedback has been so consistently bad that I haven't bothered.    Windows MCE is far better ... and, quick frankly, works very well as a DVR.    I've got 3 Homerun Primes (9 tuners) and 3 Xbox 360 extenders scattered around the home, and it's a superb "whole house DVR" setup.

 

I just read through a bit of the SiliconDust DVR forums and ouch, their software looks down right non-usable for much of what I would consider to be critical use cases.

 

Their conflict resolution seems completely missing.

Their recording via the guide is completely missing, you need to directly search for the show you want to record.

Their searching for sporting events is completely horrible, searching on "college football" doesn't even show what teams are involved!

Also its likely the recordings can be overwritten by another program because of current software limitations on recording names.

The support for NFL Football is horrible, it seems they do not support show categories like other products like Tivo does, so you have to search for show names like "Thursday Night Football" or "Sunday Night Football" or "Monday Night Football" instead of "NFL Football".

They still have issues with their recording engine and DRM  (CCI - Copy Once) material.