I did a channel scan via the HDHomeRun Plus’ web page less than an hour ago.
By the way, what’s the relationship like between the Channels team and the Silicon Dust team? The don’t even mention the Channels app on their web site, and they say that the only way to stream to the Apple TV is from their iOS app via AirPlay. Are you guys not even on speaking terms?
We work closely with the SiliconDust team and they’ve always been very helpful when it comes to integrating with their hardware.
Maybe you should request that they mention the Channel app on their web site. They seem to mention every obscure piece of software that can stream from their HDHomeRun devices except for any Channel app on any platform.
Actually, I found a page that mentions the Channels app. Never mind.
Try adding an attenuator or a couple of splitters daisy chained to reduce the signal strength. Although not explicitly mentioned in the SD changelog (so this is just a guess), I believe that one of the firmware updates increased the sensitivity of the tuners. I usually see the issue mainly on FIOS since their signal is usually strong anyways, but have had some luck with other providers as well.
Personally, I think SD doesn’t actively advertise Channels as they are a bit jealous of all this two-man team has accomplished in a short period of time vs their own efforts for the last 2-3 years,
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How is a particular tuner out of the three HDHomeRun Prime’s tuners assigned to the streaming application, such as the Channels app on tvOS?
Every time I try to stream from the Channels running on Apple TV4, the same tuner is invoked (rightmost LED). However, every time I try to stream from the Silicon Dust’s Mac app, the tuner with the leftmost LED is assigned.
Maybe my problems are related to the particular tuner in my HDHomeRun Prime? The InstaTV app running on this Apple TV4 is having the same stuttering, freezing, and pixelation issues as the Channels app. It seems that a Mac running the Silicon Dust’s app is not having these issues, but it invokes a different tuner in the same HDHomeRun Prime unit.
Thank you.
Channels on Apple TV attempts to allocate the last tuner first. This was an old feature to help live friendlier with older apps like EyeTV which had weird issues. Most any other HDHomeRun client out there uses first tuner first.
Seems like the Channels app on the iPhone also allocates the last tuner - same as the Channels app on Apple TV?
InstaTV uses the first tuner though, so if it’s also having problems that means the issue is with the network connection between your Apple TV and the HDHR.
Something of notice has just happened. I’ve been streaming the same channel (CNN HD listed as AVC HD) via the Channels app from the Apple TV4 and from my iPhone 7.
The Channels app on Apple TV4 was using Tuner 2, and the Channels app on iPhone 7 was using Tuner 1.
Video froze and stuttered EXACTLY the same way on both devices at the SAME TIME. Both devices did this in sync.
Does this help narrow down the problem?
Sounds like a wifi issue. Does the “system log” on the HDHR show any errors?
And, the same thing has just happened again. Both Tuner 2 and Tuner 1. Channels app on both Apple TV4 and iPhone 7 froze at exactly the same time as though they were streaming from the same exact source.
I’m not seeing any issues in the log.
The interesting thing is that if I stream from the Internet from the same Apple TV (for example streaming CNN from Hulu Live TV), I have no issues whatsoever. This has something to do with the HDHomeRun.
I’ve checked the interface errors in the path between the AP and the HDHomeRun. There are no interface errors.
I will try to upgrade the code on the AP.
I’ve upgraded the code on the AP, but the problem continues. I’d already changed the channel on the 802.11AC 5GHz band before I upgraded the code. Nothing has helped so far.
Have you guys heard of the happening? Could this be some sort of incompatibility between the AVC codec and the decoder in the HDHR Prime or is the HDHR Prime not decoding this stream at all?
Is the Channels app receiving H.264 codec from the HDHomeRun Prime? Are you guys using the standard Apple’s API for playing H.264 or is this your own code?
The PRIME does no decoding.
We use the Apple VideoToolbox h264 decoder on iPhone/iPad, and a software decoder on the Apple TV.
What’s strange is that h264 channels use less bandwidth than mpeg2, so network problems would be less prevalent with it.
If you run your test from before but with HDHR app and Channels, do they still both freeze at the same time?
No, HDHR app doesn’t freeze at the same time as Channels.