Alex Roth wrote:
> HDHomeRuns, while very useful devices, aren't always the right solution.
>
> A long-range WiFi link may or may not be able to sustain the 15+Mbit/s throughput needed to maintain the stream, especially in all weather conditions. If you do your initial tests on a sunny day, you may find a month down the road that your system no longer works, and you're out the cost of the device.
If the WiFi link is that unstable you are going to have problems anyway. A single HDHomeRun is a lot less expensive than some other tuner device AND a computer (even if it's a Raspberry Pi) AND a SD card (and Raspberry Pis can kill SD cards in a relatively short time, so it may not be just one). If it were me, I'd rather keep it simple and put my money into better WiFi antennas if it comes to that. I know some people just love to do things the hard way, maybe they enjoy the challenge or something, and if that's what floats your boat feel free to do it that way. But I just figured that maybe the OP wasn't a glutton for punishment.
I think your concerns about the connection are overblown, but here's an easy test. Take a laptop to the remote site and connect it to the WiFi using a network cable and transfer a 3 GB file from one end to the other. If it takes longer than a few minutes you may have a problem. Normally it should transfer in a couple minutes, give or take a little and depending on the speed of the network interface in the laptop. Also run a ping test to the other end to check for packet loss; hopefully you won't see any loss.
Even if the system ultimately no longer works you are not "out the cost of the system", you are only out the cost of the HDHomeRun, and you can recoup much of that by selling it used on eBay. However, if it's a case of the link only being unreliable during major bad weather events (like heavy downpours) then that would be a reason to put a computer at the remote site, but in that case you'd want to run TVHeadEnd on that computer, so even in that case you could still use a HDHomeRun. The difference in that situation would be that instead of having the TVHeadEnd backend at the house you'd put it up on the mountain, so that even if the WiFi were temporarily interrupted it could still record shows, which could then be played back after the weather event passed. The only problem I see in doing that is that it will up the power requirements somewhat, since now you will also have to power a computer (to run TVHeadEnd) and a storage device (hard drive or large capacity SSD).
If weather doesn't really affect the WiFi connection (other than maybe a small percentage of packet loss) then it would be better to keep the backend in the climate-controlled house rather than in some equipment hut that's probably not heated in the winter (nor cooled in the summer if the elevation is low enough that you get hot summer temperatures).
The real issue is that the backend has to go one of two places, either on the mountaintop or in the house. If it goes on the mountaintop then you can't watch TV when the WiFi link isn't working, but it will still record anything that was scheduled to record. On the other hand, if it's in the house, it's not going to record anything during a WiFi outage no matter what kind of tuner you use. I'm not saying that the speed and reliability of the WiFi link will never be an issue, but I have a feeling the real problem is going to be in the winter when the solar panels and the antennas (depending on the type of antenna used) start collecting snow. If the solar panel stops sending power, then you aren't going to be able to watch live TV or record any new shows until the issue is resolved. But if the TVHeadEnd backend is at the house then at least anything previously recorded can still be viewed.
What being attempted here is quite interesting but it would be better if there were some way to run power and a fiber optic line up the mountain, however I suspect the OP probably doesn't own all the land in between.
> In addition, spending ~$120 for a device which solves the problem just as well as a technical solution with half the cost isn't what everyone is looking for.
Really? What, pray tell, is your $60 solution? Remember to include all the costs, for example if you need on-site storage that has to be included to make a fair comparison. And also, Amazon is selling the HDHR4-2US models for $84 as I write this (https://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHR4-2US-HDHomeRun-CONNECT-2-Tuner/dp/B00GY0UB54). It's only if you want the model that converts video to H.264 that you'll pay more than double that, and honestly the OP doesn't need that unless the WiFi link is either really slow, or has a lot of packet loss. I don't know what model you're looking at with a $120 price, but that's far too much to pay for the stand two-tuner model I'm talking about.
If you are thinking that by locating the computer on the mountaintop you can get away with a cheaper tuner, keep in mind that first of all many cheap tuners sold on eBay won't receive ATSC signals (they are designed for the DVS-T standard signals used in other parts of the world, and the only reason they are sold in the USA and Canada is because some people used them as Software Defined Radio tuners, for receiving FM radio and certain other types of signals). You have to get a tuner that's ATSC capable, and then you'd be sticking it into something that's possibly going to be exposed to temperature extremes. I can't envision where there would be any scenario where this would work any better, or be any less expensive in the long run than just using a HDHomeRun as your tuner, but if you know of some way to pull this off I'd love to hear it. I get it, you did it the hard way and you are proud that you figured it out, but there's no reason anybody needs to make it that difficult in a situation such as the one the OP described.