Please Help a FIOS TV Addict!!

I admit it, I'm still wasting $100's of dollars on my FIOS TV quantum DVR box and service (plus all my premiums like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc.). I need help dumping this money suck. However, I am still addicted to recording multiple shows/time shifting vs streaming in general right now. I also have Amazon Fire TV, Netflix, and Hulu Plus, so I can see light at the end of the tunnel for cutting the network TV cord. I still plan on keeping the FIOS, but just for internet access to run all the streaming stuff and general internet access.

Can I get away with just what I have now, or would a HTPC be in order to view regular network stuff online and to provide DVR duties? Do the major networks require a cable service to view? Never tried. The other downside is now I'd also need to get separate subs to HBO Go, etc. Not sure I'd be saving that much then with tons of separate subs. /confused

I will get you started..

SiliconDust HDHomeRun CONNECT
AmazonBasics Ultra Thin Indoor TV Antenna - 50 Mile Range
Visit TVfool.com to get idea where most of the signals come from and there distance. This will give you a better idea what you need.


This let you receive OTA signals(aka network channels) and record them using Myth, WMC, and few others free of charge. They are networked based IE you do not need the antenna and tuner near any of the PCs. You can get live TV on an aftv stick if you side load the HDHomerun andriod app. Works perfectly plus give guide just no recording or pausing. So you have lots of options. Some of these may not work due to kids or wife. So keep this in mind as well

Edit**
I would dump hulu. Also alot content from hbo,showtime does seem to show up on amazon prime. Just not right away.

I got Hulu plus off eBay for like $20 for 8 mos. No brainer to keep it. Not that great of selection, but they had a few things I couldn't find on amazon or netflix

I use FIOS and rent a CableCard for my HDHomerun Prime (around $100-120) - FIOS charges me $2.99/mo for the CableCard, and initial setup really isnt hard at all - if you need tech help to activate (should auto activate) I would recommend the online chat, as theyll move you to someone who knows what CableCard is quickly.

You get three streams with the HDHomerun, and WMC plays well with it. Ive been saving what, $13 x2 for standard boxes and it was $30? For the DVR one ... So like $50+ a month for a few years now.

The OTA SiliconDust hardware is good too, but keep in mind how cheap a CC is a month, as well as FIOS not giving you a good discount if you drop TV altogether from them.

Not worried on the service discount. I'm getting raped on the Quantum DVR box rental/service and premium channels. All that probably adds $80-100 a month on top of the internet/phone/TV basic rate.

So you are only saving on the TV package now? Or do you still get your TV package from FIOS and no OTA channels? I assume that's what the Homerun + cable card does?

Rustynuts said:

Not worried on the service discount. I'm getting raped on the Quantum DVR box rental/service and premium channels. All that probably adds $80-100 a month on top of the internet/phone/TV basic rate.

So you are only saving on the TV package now? Or do you still get your TV package from FIOS and no OTA channels? I assume that's what the Homerun + cable card does?

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Yes, if you go the CableCard route you will only be saving on monthly hardware costs - the CableCard can decrypt everything so your channel package choices are the same as if you had boxes.

According to Verizons' site, looks like I have 'HD Preferred' channels, so that covers OTA stuff (the cablecard will decode / give you those streams so you do NOT need to buy secondary OTA antenaae hardware), stuff like Cartoon Network for the kids, Bravo for the wife, and FXX for me.

FXX is the only 'copy-protected' channel I've run into (I pay for HBO through the appletv app, not through FIOS but I assume they are the same), that just means if you record a show you can only watch it on the TV it recorded on. Any other episodes from any/all other channels you can copy/convert/put anywhere. I don't find this to be a problem since I enjoy using the FXX app anyways instead of taking up space on the HDDs.

How come the Homeruns only do OTA tuner OR cablecard, not both? I'd hate to buy one, then decide to go the other way later.

OTA units are going to give you over the air antenna support for ATSC - this is separate from your cable feed. I can't recall if they support ClearQAM or not from the cable provider on this unit.

The cable card prime unit will decrypt your premium channels, and pass through your local channels that are unencrypted. With Fios, all of your local channels should be ClearQAM. The prime unit will still use one of your 3 tuners to pass the channel through, but it is not actually decrypting. With ClearQAM, you can technically connect your Fios RF into the back of your TV and tune into these channels without additional hardware. If you want to bring them into an HTPC, nearly any ClearQAM tuner should do it.

On Fios, many of your standard cable channels (CNN, ESPN etc.) are copy freely, meaning once the prime cable card decrypts, you can do whatever you want with the recording and many PVR front ends work with these for live use.

However, there are some copy-once channels on Fios: HBO, Cinemax and cable Fox channels (Fox News, FX, Nat Geo etc.) which adds another layer of DRM. The only front end that supports playback on these is Windows Media Center (and Silicon Dust DVR soon... Hopefully).

Rustynuts said:

How come the Homeruns only do OTA tuner OR cablecard, not both? I'd hate to buy one, then decide to go the other way later.

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I assume the reason is the cost of getting CableLabs certification for the Prime device. The unit was close to $200 when it came out, the OTA devices have always been around $100. And SkidMark had a good point, for now you'll find using Windows Media Center your best bet (and I'd recommend the RecordedTVHD program addon - Enhanced Recorded TV Interface for Windows Media Center® - Includes Backdrops, Genres & Favorites! ), which means you may want to stay on Windows 7 or whatever versions of W8 had media center.

Windows Media Center does work with my cablecard on one of my Windows 10 test computers, the builds are here - [DISCUSSION] Patch WMC to run on Windows 10 final & possible alternatives - Page 336

So if I go the cablecard route, what else do I specifically need to enable DVR capability? The homerun feeds a HTPC, then what? Does WMC handle th recording or do you still need something like Kodi/Plex? I'm NOT going to rip libraries of DVDs or need streaming outside of the house, etc. Everything probably wired between the TV, fios router, homerun, and HTPC. Would like capability to wifi to tablets or whatever. #streamingnoob

I assume the homerun passes through all surround sound signals? (e.g. from my Fire TV box?) My TV is BS and only has two HMDI inputs so I had to find a "special" HDMI switch that passes HD audio to my surround system. Most switches wouldn't do audio. Had the DVR, Fire TV, and BD player hooked in. Stupid TV only has L/R RCA jacks.

Also, how many channels could I record at the same time? 3 with the cablecard unit? Does the DVR software allow that? Spoiled by my Quantum box doing 5 at a time!

WMC is all you need for DVR and live TV - but the recordings have to be saved locally to the HTPC (initially, at least). Sharing the DVR library with external devices is a different story. It's possible if it is copy-freely content (which most FiOS channels are), but there is workflow and potentially 3rd party programs you'd have to use. You can use HDHomerun view client on android devices to playback live streams if you are using a HDHR Prime.

The HDHomerun passes through everything on the native stream, so if you have 5.1 AC3, multiple audio PIDs or closed captions, it will be there. The only way this will change is if you have something transcoding the stream in between that could strip them out. For surround sound to work, you usually just have to configure some audio settings in Windows to allow passthrough/bitstreaming of the audio.

With the HDHR Prime, you can only view/record 3 channels at once. M-Card cablecards allow up to 6, but it's the Prime hardware that is limited to 3. It was rumored that they would release a 6 tuner Prime at some point, but who knows if it will ever happen. You have the option of the Ceton infiniTV6 which uses 6 tuners, but from my experience and others, channel changes are slower, they aren't as stable, and they will not necessarily work with SiliconDust external applications.

The Homerun will appear as a DLNA-ish device (it will actually appear three times, once for each tuner), you would run HDHomeRun's software on whatever computer you would want to watch the streams on. In that software you can choose auto-settings for a few different programs, but if you want to use WMC you just choose "Windows Media Center", put your zip code in, hit apply. Then you have to go through a few steps in WMC to find the tuners, give WMC a few minutes to download guide data, and you're ready to go.

Yes, 3 tuners, so you can record 3 things at a time, I rarely bounce up against this wall, most of the time its because there's a WMC open in some other room that no one's watching.

Regarding sound in WMC, I would recommend Shark007's codec package, it tells WMC to do passthrough and also allows MKV playback through WMC. I use this bundled with RecordedTVHD to present recordings prettier and easier to the fam. If you install Shark, make sure you don't install all the crapware stuff he adds on the install.

And... regarding tablet playback and the like, WMC does not serve live tv and recordings to anything out of the windows ecosystem, but if you point other server software such as Subsonic or Jriver Media Center or UMS or Plex, these will transcode the .wtv recorded files and stream to your iPad/etc. Kodi works too. I use Subsonic and iSub for my kids to access movies and tv shows easy, just started messing around with Kodi so that we can stream live TV to the pads as well. Works so far (sideloaded the Kodi app on a non-jailbroken iPad Air 2)