Reviews:
 ·Cox HSI
| [AZ] SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime on Cox Phx. install experience So you have a home server and you're comfortable with a FILE share. You've networked your printer and having that as a shared resource is fine too. Certainly you have WiFi and that's shared...
But what about a shared TUNER on your network? What's more, what if it had a cablecard/tuning adapter to get your premium channels?
That's what the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime does. For $199 you get a little box that accepts connections from your LAN, a power supply, has a slot for an M-card, and attaches to a tuning adapter.
For my install I was bidding farewell to a TiVo HD - it's been replaced by a pair of Premieres. Anyway, I already had a cablecard and tuning adapter.
Before I called I'd wired everything up and had waited for the light to stop flashing on the tuning adapter. (That's essentially step 1 of the HD HomeRun quickstart guide.) At the time you call you are quite a few minutes away from seeing video on your computer.
Step 2 is installing the software. This is just like installing a new HP printer - LEAVE THE CD IN THE BOX and download the latest software. I installed the software last night.
Run the HDHomeRun Config app for the first time. It will do the firmware update to the device. Wait for it to complete... and then look at the Device tab. It will have a Device Webpage link - clicking that will open the HDHomeRun's built-in webpage which will be showing the pairing message from the cablecard. That's where you'll find the cablecard number, host ID and the toll free number to call.
I called Cox's cablecard hotline and told the operator that I was moving a cablecard to a new device and that I would need to re-pair the card to that new device. FYI - they refer to the combination of a tuning adapter and cablecard as an occurrence. Confirm that your cable card ID (numeric, on the pairing screen) matches with the STB SN on the back of the connected tuning adapter - and that they're on the same "occurrence" in Cox's system.
Give them the cablecard number and host ID. Encourage them to send all the authorization hits that they're willing to send. These authorizations are generally instantaneous. But you pretty much have to take it on faith that it went through since you're nowhere near seeing video yet.
Yes, I am suggesting you should end the call before you see video. You can always call back. (It was not necessary for me to call them back  )
Now you run Windows Media Center... go to the extras library and to the digital cable advisor. Follow those steps.
Step 4 of the installation is the most difficult. If you get an error about PlayReady - google the error message. In my case the fix was running a utility that reset all things DRM on Windows 7, something called ResetDRM. ResetDRM has some very picky instructions - follow them to the letter. You may need to restart your PC before ResetDRM works correctly. You may also need to download PlayReadyPC_x64 (if you're running 64-bit Win 7) and install it. Getting the DRM stuff is critical, and you know its right when you see the message that PlayReady activated properly.
I glossed over a LOT of steps in that last paragraph. It's not hard to setup Media Center, just let it interview you. The crucial things are it should be reporting the correct number of tuners (in my case 3) and it should get past the PlayReady step. If you have to cancel and start over its no big deal, just go back into settings and start over. The PlayReady DRM will probably have you cussing a blue streak and bleeding out your ears before you finally see it activate.
Note that if you arbitrarily start over a few days after you've gotten everything working, you're likely going to orphan all of your recordings and render them useless.
Will it work over wireless? Yep - over wireless N it seems to work fine if I'm close to the router. Wired is optimal, obviously.
So far so good. I just have to get accustomed to the fact that I have two recorded video "domains" in my home now, due to copy protection. If it's on TiVo Premiere, it has to stay there. If I recorded it on Windows, it has to stay there. The only exception is for the broadcast channels because of Cox's silly "just because we can" copy protection. |
