I have Xfinity for my internet and the package I have gives me around 20 channels. So your are able to watch Verizon FiOS channels with your HDHR Extend? Did you have to do any activate with Verizon to get that to work or was it just plug and play?
Yup, did the same and it works well (minus it thinking that Itâs Always Sunny In Philaphelia is going to be coming on CSPAN on 5 Sep but Iâm betting on @tmm1 and @maddox to get the DVR situated by then.
I really hope they work on the bandwidth/quality of the channels, theyâre really blocky.
edit: hopefully itâll get better⌠at least Nick over at the SD forums said that was high on his priority list.
Yep. Saw that too. Willing to give them some time. Should improve. Pretty cool so far.
Yes, plug and play. However, Iâm using a Connect (not Extend). I typed the wrong thing earlier. I rent nothing from Verizon, no router/modem, Cable Box, or CableCARD. It depends if the channels you get are unencrypted or not. The easy way to find out is to run a cable directly from the wall into a TV with a Clear-QAM tuner (most HDTVs have them), then run a channel scan on the TV. The channels your TV picks up will be the same you will get with an HDHR Connect. It may be the same with an Extend, but I canât confirm that. I donât think you need the Extend though when using cable. Itâs main purpose is to transcode OTA signals to a lower bandwidth.
Yes, and soon.
What are everyoneâs thoughts on price? I really like the idea of HDHR Premium. Especially because it will work with the Channels app. It is currently $35 for 45 channels. But Direct TV Now is offering 65+ channels for $40. Granted, you get more concurrent streams with HDHR Premium. But I feel like the price should be a little more competitive OR they should offer more channels. Thoughts?
The main selling point for me is the DVR option. I get to keep my recordings and they wonât turn into a streamed version with permanent commercials and there is no limit to the amount I can record.
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I am completely fine with the price if itâs good quality and reliable. I like the idea of having my own physical DVR. Some of the streaming services replace your ârecordingsâ with on demand versions, or prevent you from skipping commercials which is frustrating. I have been most satisfied with PS Vue, but may switch to HDHRP just to have one beautiful Channels interface for everything. 
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I will have to try plugging my cable directly into my TV. Thank you for your help johnmarkdyer!
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I think the price is perfectly fine. Thereâs no limit except what I put on my storage for the DVR, and Channels makes it way better with comskip. Itâs just missing some key channels but if they add those Iâll prob stick with it.
dtv has an advantage with on demand, network app access and for me Fs1 and Nbc sports, but thr dvr is crap. big Draw to hdhr for me
I subscribed today. I went to https://shop.silicondust.com/shop/ logged, in selected Premium TV Service Activation then added to my cart.
I did find an issue with the guide mapping. It seems the following channels are West Coast feeds even in the East Coast. Donât know if that is permanent or just a temporary issue. Makes scheduling recordings an issue as the guide shows the East Coast based on my location which it should be. Other channels are East Coast
USA
FX
SYFY
Paramount
TruTV
Comedy
Discovery
Bravo
Animal Planet
MTV
VH1
CMT
Disney
Nick
FreeForm
Some of the feeds coming from SDâs new service are PST even if you live in EST. I believe theyâre working on this, but itâs best to contact them directly about it.
I did. Wanted to make sure you guys were aware. Figured that could be a problem with the DVR. Thanks
What a creative solution to delivering premium channels! If they add some more - e.g. BBC America - I might give it a try, but right now it doesnât make sense for me.
@tmm1 & @Maddox : I notice that channels are delivered with AVC/H.264 encoding. For streaming outside of the home, could you please set it up such that the transcoder just does a passthrough, i.e. doesnât transcode the actual data, but maybe changes the wrapper? For the web app in general, just having a âpassthroughâ on the dropdown would be a nice option (with the caveat that most browsers canât play MPEG-2 content).
This is exactly how the streamer already works. It considers your preferred data rate via the settings in the app, and if the videoâs data rate is lower, itâs just passthrough.
The premium channels are 720p 2.5mbit. If your quality settings are higher than that, the video will just be remuxed into the streaming format without any transcoding.
Excellent, thanks! I only have MPEG-2 right now, and am running it on a low powered ARM server, so didnât know about this.
2.5Mbps for hd streams, that is really poor. I only have prime tuners, can anyone post screen shots or report how much of a difference they see in the video quality?