For those waiting for the HDHR Prime 6

Basically, no useful info, I imagine it will come out some time in 2019, but if you've been holding your breath, probably time to stop ...

SiliconDust is confident that they will release the HDHomeRun Prime 6, their six-tuner CableCARD tuner, in 2019. While we’d all like a more specific date, there’s a lot more that goes into releasing a CableCARD tuner than these other products. The piece that can take the most time is certification from CableLabs, and unfortunately, they haven’t gone through this yet.

I hope they have started the certification process but it's not clear from the article.

I'd love it to come out, but in the meantime I'm just using two Primes. Saving on the monthly bill from Comcast would be nice, though.

"The piece that can take the most time is certification from CableLabs, and unfortunately, they haven’t gone through this yet."

Yeah, unfortunately that is terribly vague. Have they even started it yet? Are they close to finishing? Article doesn't tell us much.

I think I expressed this before, in SD's forums: Given that cable TV is a declining market: I wonder if they haven't crunched the numbers and begun to suspect bringing that product to market may be good money thrown after bad? Especially considering the problems with executing on DRM.

Depending upon the cost the product to make, and the whatever sales looked like for the Prime 3, there may still be a market for this product. I know I want one. But more seriously, the decline of cable TV will be slow and take quite a while. Netflix still has a DVD service :wink:

@tmm1 has there been any thought to partnering with other companies? I love the Channels interface compared to every other streaming service, but hate what SD is pulling here with their Prime shenanigans. I want to keep watching TV with YOU guys, and don't really care where the content actually comes from.

This isn't great news. I currently have a 3-tuner and still testing Channels DVR in my household. We have a TiVo Roamio Pro with 6 tuners and have TiVo minis deployed throughout the house. At some point, I'd love to transition to a 6-tuner Prime w/ Channels DVR . At worst, I'd have to overpay on eBay for a 3 tuner and pay FIOS an extra $5 per month.

Have you been given any prerelease hardware to test?

No we don't get any pre-release hardware.

Any updates on this? Channels team.... have you given any thought to creating or licensing your own hardware?

We are a software company and have no idea how to make hardware.

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As expected, one of the mods in their forum is signaling that the Prime 6 is not going to be released in 2019.

This has been evident for months, but they simply refuse to be honest with their customers, continually stringing them along as long as they can.

I've rarely seen a company so thoroughly treat their customers with disdain the way SD does.

SD is a hardware company with no idea how to make software. :rofl:

Friendly reminder: The previous generation 3-tuner HDHomeRun Prime is readily available on eBay at reasonable prices.

Having only 3 tuners isn't so bad now that Channels Plus supports TVEverywhere :slight_smile:

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Looks like Prime 6 is dead for now ... I am sure glad Channels has implemented TV EveryWhere.

SD Announcement.
To our customers and anxious fans of the HDHomeRun PRIME model and the upcoming 6 tuner version HDHomeRun PRIME6

When we launched the original PRIME 3-tuner model, there were years of development, testing, tweaking and certifications. No one knew of this because it was just released, and the units are still working today ("HDHomeRun devices just work").

We are still very excited as we plan and develop the updated generation, adding full CableCARD support of 6 simultaneous programs. We had been premature on a few occasions in announcing this product creating expectations from our fans (and the occasional dramatic naysayers).

There have been chipsets that were sold off and killed in the middle of our dev (twice). And delays due to normal development that many don't know nor deem relevant beyond "just give me my PRIME!" and we respect and love that passion.

I want to assure all of our customers and fans that we are still deep in development of the upcoming PRIME6 and we will announce only when the time is right and when we are in mass production. There will be no casual updates or dart board dates to appease the masses. A lot goes into developing new hardware, and as I have said before, "if this one was easy, everyone would have one on the market."

All of us at Silicondust want an HDHomeRun PRIME6 in our homes as much as our supporters. Keep watch and sign up for our mailing list, or follow us on social media so that you'll be the first to know when we are ready to release more information.

The dedicated forum people who actually help the company develop the product/software don't even get a courtesy heads up.

Unreal.

Curious as to people's thoughts: What would be their motivation to having stopped selling the PRIME 3 tuner when they haven't rolled out their replacement product? Are these just not big sellers in general?

No one except Silicon Dust can know for sure, but my hypothesis is that HDHomeRun mostly appeals to cord cutters. It is almost a necessity for using multiple TVs when people are doing free OTA HDTV. The Prime is really like an afterthought, since people with cable already have a way to get a channel guide to all of their TVs. Most cable plans already have a DVR too. So really, the Prime is just a way to use what you already have, possibly with a discount by using a different guide and DVR provider. But for the cord-cutters, we have no Channel Guide and no DVR already... we aren't replacing something else, we are getting a new service through the HDHR system that did not exist in any way before.
Guessing that these thoughts are valid, the big sellers would be the Connect DUO and Connect QUATRO, and the DUAL, EXTEND, CONNECT, etc products that offered service to cord-cutters before that.

They ran out of parts for the PRIME. The company who makes the CPU in the PRIME was acquired and that chipset was discontinued. So there are literally no more of them to be able to build more PRIMEs.

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