HDHomeRun Live TV App for Kodi on Android - HD Problems

[inforiculturist]

Does anyone here run the HDHomeRun Live TV App on Kodi on an Android TV stick/box?

The Problem: HD ("Broadcast" 1080p MPEG-2) video streamed directly from the HDHomeRun Prime (with CableCard) will stutter and freeze and eventually just stop working. It feels like the system can't handle it. SD signals work just fine.

My Equipment: I've got the Tronsmart MK908 (v3 and v5 boards) with Sabrent USB-G1000 gigabit network adapters (limited by USB2 max speeds), running Finless 1.8 ROM with solid 3A power adapters, running across a switched gigabit network with a QNAP TS-220 NAS. Running Kodi 14.2 Helix.

The SD channels work fine, but not the 1080p HD channels. Also, my (mostly dumb) TV plays them just fine (using DNLA) - as does my computer using Kodi or another video player. Streaming Blu-Ray content to Kodi on my MK908s work just fine. To me that demonstrates that it's not my gigabit switched network, rather the device itself.

I first tried their stand-alone HDHomeRun VIEW app ($2). In the settings is a "use hardware decoding" checkbox that is unchecked and greyed out. I couldn't turn it on. Searching around, apparently these devices don't have a license for MPEG-2 decoding or something like that, but if that's the case, why can I play MPEG-2 otherwise fine in Kodi?

I've tried the new HDHomeRun Live TV App for Kodi, but have the same results. I've tried turning off hardware decoding in the Kodi settings, which gives different but somewhat similar results, and tried each of the 2 available hardware decoders, but to no avail. It's starts up fine but then appears unable to stay abrest of the stream.

I'm open to any thoughts or advice. Besides "fixing" the problem on these devices, I'm open to other solutions as well including a new box that might better handle these streams. And yes, I did a bit of searching around here, Kodi's site (discussion pretty much focused on traditional computers), and elsewhere, but seemingly no answers, and few questions. I'm willing to try most anything - unless these things just aren't setup for that. I'm also looking at some of the newer devices, especially if they would be able to make this a non-issue. Many thanks.

[clarkss12]

Does anyone here run the HDHomeRun Live TV App on Kodi on an Android TV stick/box?

The Problem: HD ("Broadcast" 1080p MPEG-2) video streamed directly from the HDHomeRun Prime (with CableCard) will stutter and freeze and eventually just stop working. It feels like the system can't handle it. SD signals work just fine.

My Equipment: I've got the Tronsmart MK908 (v3 and v5 boards) with Sabrent USB-G1000 gigabit network adapters (limited by USB2 max speeds), running Finless 1.8 ROM with solid 3A power adapters, running across a switched gigabit network with a QNAP TS-220 NAS. Running Kodi 14.2 Helix.

The SD channels work fine, but not the 1080p HD channels. Also, my (mostly dumb) TV plays them just fine (using DNLA) - as does my computer using Kodi or another video player. Streaming Blu-Ray content to Kodi on my MK908s work just fine. To me that demonstrates that it's not my gigabit switched network, rather the device itself.

I first tried their stand-alone HDHomeRun VIEW app ($2). In the settings is a "use hardware decoding" checkbox that is unchecked and greyed out. I couldn't turn it on. Searching around, apparently these devices don't have a license for MPEG-2 decoding or something like that, but if that's the case, why can I play MPEG-2 otherwise fine in Kodi?

I've tried the new HDHomeRun Live TV App for Kodi, but have the same results. I've tried turning off hardware decoding in the Kodi settings, which gives different but somewhat similar results, and tried each of the 2 available hardware decoders, but to no avail. It's starts up fine but then appears unable to stay abrest of the stream.

I'm open to any thoughts or advice. Besides "fixing" the problem on these devices, I'm open to other solutions as well including a new box that might better handle these streams. And yes, I did a bit of searching around here, Kodi's site (discussion pretty much focused on traditional computers), and elsewhere, but seemingly no answers, and few questions. I'm willing to try most anything - unless these things just aren't setup for that. I'm also looking at some of the newer devices, especially if they would be able to make this a non-issue. Many thanks.

I believe your mk908 is a RK3188, if that is the case, there is nothing yyou can do to help it. Streaming HD live channels, 1080i and 720P in mpeg2 TS format is hard for these boxes to do. The newer Amlogic boxes do play those streams flawlessly. I have a Tronsmart Vega S89H and a MK808B+, they both play the HD CHANNELS flawlessly from my HDHomeRun tuners. I am even using that $35 Android MK808B+as my PVR backend and frontend

[clarkss12]

Using my android boxes and my HDHomeRun tuners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrMMrX_Jvp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yRp0j-6xmE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y-E4sQSb94

[inforiculturist]

Thanks for the info and the links. Glad my analysis wasn't off; appreciated the confirmation. I'd read somewhere that the RK3288 were able to work just fine, too, but reading the forums has made me leary of the Rockchip devices of late, but also don't want to go Wintel either (even if the Pipo looks good). Guess the M805, S802 and S812 are the way to go. If the Amlogic M805 is enough to run your PVR on 3 channels using OpenElec/Kodi/TVHeadend, then I'll probably go that route cheap as they are, although I write my stuff to a NAS instead of local data space, so may need something that does Gigabit, although theoretically the USB2 Gigabit NIC should be able to handle it. Mainly use these as the smarts for our TVs, access to our local library, and to watch recorded stuff, and now connect directly to HDHomeRun devices (was considering a cut the cord scenario, so appreciate the video on that). Am trying hard to abandon my last "heavy" CPU for HTPC - a Windows box that does the PVR side of things. I watched your videos, the last one being the most informative for me, although it looks like from the first video that perhaps there is an OpenElec PVR that is different from the TVHeadend PVR. I haven't yet put Linux on any of these, but I'm not afraid to try. Will move forward after reading a few more posts. Thanks again!

[clarkss12]

That $35 MK808B Plus is an awesome little device, makes a great PVR backend (and frontend). I purchased this USB gigabit Ethernet adapter to use with it, and I get very good transfer speed with it. (http://plugable.com/products/usb2-e1000). I use my older Synology NAS as my recording destination.

[inforiculturist]

FWIW, I did get an MK808B Plus - actually 2 of them. They are both the v3 with the ap6212 wifi. I'm still playing with them, first with Android front end since that's what the family will use, then I'll setup one with OpenElec for the PVR backend. Since I'm using the Finless ROM 1.1 (no wifi support on these v3's) I'll respond more thoroughly about this setup in that thread).

But I did want to note for the record that the HDHomeRun View app (v20150624.1 with updated firmware on Prime unit) still stutters. I did make sure that hardware decoding was turned on (to access the settings for the app since you can't do the triple-finger tap the app wants, you have to disconnect network access so it can't find a device, then when starting the app, you'll be prompted for settings; however I still couldn't turn on the MPEG2 Hardware Decoder - unknown if a Finless ROM issue).

However, the good news is that the HDHomeRun Live TV app in Kodi works fine - at least on 15.0 beta 2 Isengard. At least mostly; I do find idiosyncracies periodically with a channel here or there, but haven't further addressed those specifically. I do see buffering occur on the 1080 channels but then it works fine - with an audio sync adjustment here and there.

Thanks again for the helpful responses. Onward through the fog, as they say here in Austin, TX.

[clarkss12]

Thanks for the update. I think you will find running a DVR on OpenELEC will work great.