Limiting access to HD Homeruns used by Channels Server

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

I've got my HD Homeruns and Channels DVR at my parent's house, and I use it remotely, but they prefer to just use the digital tuner on their TV.

They recently got a new Samsung TV, and when he was trying to get his OTA channels working on it, best I can tell it somehow accessed one of the HD Homeruns (I haven't gotten on site yet so I am working from the details my dad gave me, but have seen this on TV's before where they detect the HD Homerun on the network). Anyways, the one he grabbed is one I have hooked up to a antenna specifically configured to receive low power VHF signals, so on that unit I have all other channels disabled except the 2 channels (and their subchannels) that are difficult to pick up. Then the other HD Homerun has all the rest of the channels enabled, with the 2 low power VHF ones disabled.

So in his mind, all of a sudden he was only getting 2 channels (and their subs) and so did a rescan on the TV, and it somehow forced a rescan at the HD Homerun. This picked up some new channels and luckily did none of the spotty channels were low enough to get disabled during the rescan.

Anyways, this is not ideal. I am wondering if there is anything that can be done to prevent this from happening, giving Channels exclusive use of the HDHR's (this would mean you would have to feed all streams through Channels, which is happening by default in this case, to prevent the apps from getting the feed straight from the HDHR).

If not, I am thinking of putting them on a VLAN with the Channels DVR server. (EDIT from earlier more difficult setup) I was thinking I couldn't put the Channels DVR on the same VLAN with them, but realistically since they aren't interested in running the Channels app and just want to use the antenna fed directly into their TV, that would make the most sense.

#2

It's probably DLNA. My Samsung TV finds my Hdhr's as well but I just ignore them. You could put it on another vlan so it couldn't be discovered but in short of that, you probably will have better luck disabling them on the TV.

#3

Simplest would be to unplug the tv from the network and a tuner scan on the antenna input of the tv. Leave it off the network all together. Unless they use other apps on the tv

My guess is the DLNA hdhr popped up first and he clicked on it. You might be able to “forget “ the hdhr in the tv settings. If not a simple hey dad don’t select this option if it appears and show him how to select the antenna input. Once on that input they usually stay there even through power cycles.

Last if none of that works, put the TV on a VLAN with rules to segregate it. You will have less headaches with remote stuff if it’s not on a vlan. So leave your dvr stuff alone and vlan the tv

#4

Yeah i forgot about that part. My Samsung has the internal tuner channel and then the HDHR channel when you channel surf and the HDHR would always come up first.

#5

Thanks both of you, I knew there was something that allowed the Samsung TV to pick up the tuners with little configuration, DLNA it is.

I'm gonna see if I can permanently forget the devices once I can get on site. The problem with telling him not to select it or leaving it on the antenna is that he does use other apps on the Samsung TV..... but its the type of thing where he knows just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to stay out of trouble. There are a lot of moments where I think 'I have no idea how you got this working miraculously in the way that you did, because everything was done wrong and you accidentally misconfigured everything to work together'.

I just checked my Samsung TV (around the same age as his) and it doesn't allow me to disable the feature altogether.

If not I will have to go the VLAN route for the server and HDHR's as:

  • TV can only connect via WiFi due to location
  • ISP router doesn't have VLAN functionality or any sort of port isolation, and I can't replace it because he just shelled out cash for it when the rep talked my Dad into it, and it does actually have a good WiFi radio in it
  • I am already effectively 'renting space' from him for my Channels DVR server, so I don't want to hijack and reconfigure his whole network

Since the TV is stuck on the ISP router's network, and my equipment was wired, that was why I was thinking of putting them on the VLAN. I have an old router which does support all the features I need, so I am thinking this might work despite the potential double NAT issues. Its an old Peplink Balance and I have used them for VLAN's behind existing networks before. Worse it will do is not work, and I fall back to the 'please don't touch this' route.

#6

The isp router most likely has the ability for a guest network. Set one up and choose to isolate it from the LAN. Connect the tv to the guest network

#7

Duh. Thank you. Problem solved.

1 Like
#8

As an aside, to the suggestion of instructing not to touch it... I had said yesterday I would be down in the morning to help, and not to do a channel rescan until I was there. I get a text this morning saying 'I fixed it, did a rescan and they were all there'. So I am guessing he found the Antenna fed channels, or the other HDHR with the bulk of the channels on it (set up for UHF).