What is the status of CableCARDs / HDHomeRun PRIME these days?

What channels are you trying to get?
NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, CW, ION, MyTV, and many more related subchannels can be obtained without any subscription and with much less work than you have already put in to your cablecard endeavor.

1 Like

If you are within OTA range, sure. I'm in the Daytona area and can't get crap. That's not a supportable blanket statement in other words.

All you need to hunt a report from rabbitears.info to figure out what antenna you need. Some antennas are junk out there and you won't get much with them so that's also a factor

Yeah but installing a large 20 ft. outdoor antenna (what I and many others would need) is not easy or all that cheap and looks like crap in a nice subdivision. So it's way more work than cablecard, not that it matters now since CC's are going away.

Thank God for HDMI Encoders and what's left of TVE then!!

I disconnected my Prime tuners (temporarily) to see if I can function without them ... so far between XFINITY TVE, Tubi and Friendly TV it appears to meet my needs. I also have 4 Firesticks using XFINITY Stream with ADBTUNER.

I happen to be lucky to have great OTA reception with just an indoor antenna.

3 Likes

Just also wanted to add that days after I closed my account, I got an email from Optimum that they were discontinuing cablecards. So looks like I made the right choice for sure. ABD tuners look like a good option, but also look really complicated. I never worked with docker before or coding. So it's a stretch.

1 Like

I know what you mean. My first thought on ADBTuner/AH4CH was wow...that was really inventive.
My next thought was that Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson would be proud. All that to watch TV.

2 Likes

Exactly dude... not worth it to me unfortunately. And in the demo, the load time for the channel is nearly 10 seconds. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it really is. I've just resorted to using YTTV app for their channels, and Channels app for others and antenna. Is what it is.

I use adbtuner with YTTV and Onn devices and my load time per channel is 5 seconds. I could see channel surfing possibly being an issue but i havent done that since the 90's. Ive had zero issues with my setup....

With all the devices you connect to make this work, what is your electric cost?

I take it you're asking about the cost to run an HDMI encoder and streaming sticks as an alternative to an HDHomeRun Prime with a CableCard. Since I run mine all off of PoE, the data is right at hand -- so I can answer one part of the question:

screenshot-unifi-dream-machine-se-2024_09_27-07_02_04

So about 13 watts for the sticks + encoder, or about the same as 2 RaspberryPis. At our rural co-op rates, which run about 16 cents per kWh on-peak, and 8 cents per kWh off-peak this time of year, monthly cost would be around 45 cents.

Stick draw goes up by about a watt max when actively streaming. Encoder draw can increase by a watt or two if multiple ports are active.

I have a similar set up, but with Chromecasts. They have a similar power draw to the fire sticks.

(Side Note: I really like that view. Is that part of the Unifi app or is that through a dashboard?)

UniFi-Dream-Machine-SE Port Manger view for an individual switch:

2 Likes