Silicon Dust networked OTA tuner support?

[teknikal2]

Does anyone else think this would be a great idea?
http://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHom ... 253&sr=1-1

It's the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual networked HDTV tuner...
It has 2 tuners that can be shared to any device on the network. Is it possible to create an app for roku that could access this tuner, display a channel list, and let you pick a live OTA channel to watch? I understand that it wouldn't be possible to do dvr functions, but I'm fine with that.

Benefits:
-No need to distribute the HDTV antenna signal to each tv in the house
-No need to switch TV inputs
-TVs could be placed where you don't even have a coax jack - or a cat5 jack (if wireless roku is used)
-TVs do not need to have an ATSC tuner - and I have a few TVs that don't.
-Display could just be a monitor and not have a tuner at all


Pete

[CalvinMcGowan]

Does anyone else think this would be a great idea?
http://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHom ... 253&sr=1-1

I believe this is a no-go with the Roku, mainly because in order for the device's output to be accessed, software must be installed on a Windows, Mac, or Linux OS based computer.

[teknikal2]

Counldn't an app be written for the roku to access the Silicon Dust device and request the stream?

[Burkhardi]

Counldn't an app be written for the roku to access the Silicon Dust device and request the stream?

I think that is how it works with the Roku HD1000 (aka PhotoBridge). Ask TheEndless, he should know (he wrote that app).

[scyber]

Counldn't an app be written for the roku to access the Silicon Dust device and request the stream?

I think that is how it works with the Roku HD1000 (aka PhotoBridge). Ask TheEndless, he should know (he wrote that app).

It's my understanding that the HDhomerun accepts commands on the packet level, which is a much lower level of protocol than the Roku SDK provides. There is no simple http interface for issuing commands to the HDhomerun (this could be overcome by using a proxy server on a PC).

In addition, most of the HDhomerun streams would be Mpeg2 (unsupported). Also I believe it streams via udp or rtp, both are protocols that are unsupported by the RSP.

[teknikal2]

Well, that's a bummer. It sounds to me that this would be technically possible at the hardware level, but the roku SDK doesn't support the necessary functions. The HDHomeRun might be better suited to google tv.

[ThePhantom]

Well, that's a bummer. It sounds to me that this would be technically possible at the hardware level, but the roku SDK doesn't support the necessary functions.

No, it's more like that you're asking for a Yugo to perform in the Indy 500.

Besides interface limitations, you're asking the Roku (a ~$50 device) to guzzle down a 18 or 36mb/s MPEG2 stream. As discussed elsewhere here (http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=32967&p=210401#p210401), ain't gonna happen...

[scyber]

Well, that's a bummer. It sounds to me that this would be technically possible at the hardware level, but the roku SDK doesn't support the necessary functions.

No, it's more like that you're asking for a Yugo to perform in the Indy 500.

Besides interface limitations, you're asking the Roku (a ~$50 device) to guzzle down a 18 or 36mb/s MPEG2 stream. As discussed elsewhere here (http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=32967&p=210401#p210401), ain't gonna happen...

Actually teknikal2 is pretty much correct. The hardware platform the Roku is built on is capable of decoding HD MPEG2 streams, it is just not currently supported in the Roku software platform.

[TheEndless]

Counldn't an app be written for the roku to access the Silicon Dust device and request the stream?

I think that is how it works with the Roku HD1000 (aka PhotoBridge). Ask TheEndless, he should know (he wrote that app).

When I wrote that, the HDHomeRun was accessed entirely via TCP. Unless that's changed (and more specifically, unless they've added an HTTP interface), the Roku SDK doesn't currently expose the necessary components for that type of communication. Also, as others have noted, OTA HD is broadcast in MPEG-2, which isn't currently supported by the Roku, either.

[SolveLLC]

Counldn't an app be written for the roku to access the Silicon Dust device and request the stream?

I think that is how it works with the Roku HD1000 (aka PhotoBridge). Ask TheEndless, he should know (he wrote that app).

When I wrote that, the HDHomeRun was accessed entirely via TCP. Unless that's changed (and more specifically, unless they've added an HTTP interface), the Roku SDK doesn't currently expose the necessary components for that type of communication. Also, as others have noted, OTA HD is broadcast in MPEG-2, which isn't currently supported by the Roku, either.

Here's the EyeTV info.

I started digging into the EyeTV mac application that I use on my iPad to watch TV from my HDHomeRun

Here's the first query that the iPad app does to get the channel list.

http://IPADDRESS_OF_THE_EYETV_APPLICATI ... D_CHANNELS

This returns a file with these results.

{ "total": 17, "channelList": [{"channelNumber":8, "logicalChannelNumber":8, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"KCCI-HD", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":11613, "displayNumber":"8-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYAsrYGAAAAQAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":8, "logicalChannelNumber":8, "minorChannelNumber":2, "name":"KCCI-SD", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":17774, "displayNumber":"8-2", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYAsrYGAAAAgAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":11, "logicalChannelNumber":11, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"IPTV", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":11622, "displayNumber":"11-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYAxEoGAAAAwAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":11, "logicalChannelNumber":11, "minorChannelNumber":2, "name":"IPTV Learns", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":21072, "displayNumber":"11-2", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYAxEoGAAABAAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":11, "logicalChannelNumber":11, "minorChannelNumber":3, "name":"IPTV World", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":18974, "displayNumber":"11-3", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYAxEoGAAABQAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":13, "logicalChannelNumber":13, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"WHO HDTV", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":11830, "displayNumber":"13-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYA0AIGAAAAwAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":13, "logicalChannelNumber":13, "minorChannelNumber":2, "name":"WHO 24 Hour Weather", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":19584, "displayNumber":"13-2", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYA0AIGAAABAAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":15, "logicalChannelNumber":15, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"KYOU Digital Television", "providerID":5, "providerChannelID":64424574979, "displayNumber":"15-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYB08YGAAAAwAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":16, "logicalChannelNumber":17, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"KDSM HDTV", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":11625, "displayNumber":"17-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYB2aIGAAAAwAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":16, "logicalChannelNumber":17, "minorChannelNumber":2, "name":"KDSM theCoolTV", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":19452, "displayNumber":"17-2", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYB2aIGAAABAAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":23, "logicalChannelNumber":19, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"KDMI-TV", "providerID":5, "providerChannelID":81604444167, "displayNumber":"19-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYCAqYGAAABAAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":23, "logicalChannelNumber":23, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"KCWI-TV", "providerID":5, "providerChannelID":98784313350, "displayNumber":"23-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYCAqYGAAAAwAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":39, "logicalChannelNumber":39, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"ION HDTV", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":24377, "displayNumber":"39-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYCYGYGAAAAwAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":39, "logicalChannelNumber":39, "minorChannelNumber":2, "name":"Qubo", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":24374, "displayNumber":"39-2", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYCYGYGAAABAAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":39, "logicalChannelNumber":39, "minorChannelNumber":3, "name":"Ion Life", "providerID":103, "providerChannelID":24373, "displayNumber":"39-3", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYCYGYGAAABQAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":41, "logicalChannelNumber":41, "minorChannelNumber":1, "name":"HSN", "providerID":5, "providerChannelID":176093724673, "displayNumber":"41-1", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYCbB4GAAAAQAAAAA="},{"channelNumber":11, "logicalChannelNumber":0, "minorChannelNumber":0, "name":"", "providerID":0, "providerChannelID":1, "displayNumber":"42", "serviceID":"AAAAAKAEAzGYAxEoGAAAYwAAAAA="} ] }

Tune the channel:

http://IPADDRESS_OF_THE_EYETV_APPLICATI ... PAD_PLAYER

From this, you can build a HLS stream.
http://IPADDRESS_OF_THE_EYETV_APPLICATI ... _main.m3u8

This stream works just fine on the Roku.

Obviously, there's more to discover, and it will take a bit of critical thinking to figure out how it all works, but as you can see, it's quite doable.

[EdNewman]

Anyone ever get any further with this?