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Access Live TV Sources from 2 different locations


OBXMan

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I have two homes that I pretty much get all my Live TV from my Emby Server.  At the location where I have my Emby Server I have a HDHOMERUN prime connected to my Verizon FIOS TV.  At the other location, I have an HDHOMERUN DUO (I think) connected to an antenna because I want to have the local stations from this alternate location.  The goal is to use my emby server, click on live tv and in the guide see all the channels from both HDHOMERUNS.  So theoretically, I just need my server to see the remotely located HDHOMERUN Duo.  The HDHOMERUNs do not like to hook up to anything not on the local LAN so I don't think there is an easy solution to this.  I loaded WireGuard onto a Router and plugged the HDHOMERUN Duo into it and created a connection between my two locations.  My EMBY server found it and while it worked, I don't think the router had sufficient power to manage the stream effectively since the channels were constantly interrupted to reload.  Guess I could buy some beefier hardware.

The other idea I had was to use TVHEADEND.  From what I have read, you can connect TVHEADEND and use the HDHOMERUN as a source.  TVHEADEND does not appear to have the local LAN restrictions that the HDHOMERUN has so I think the Emby Server would be able to find it without running it through a VPN.  I got TVHEADEND installed OK but it doesn't seem to see the HDHOMERUN.  I think I need to install a dbvhdhomerun driver (my server is UBUNTU 20.04)  but I haven't been able to figure out how to do that.  Despite my lofty goals, I'm pretty much stuck doing whatever you smart people post without really understanding why much of it works, once I had to start compiling etc.  YIKE.

Looking for ideas or someone to tell me I'm barking up the wrong tree and just need to settle for changing APPs to watch locals.  Not sure it matters, but I use ROKUs to access Emby.

And by the way thanks to all you folks that make it possible for schmucks like me to be able to use these products by providing all the how to's and assistance.  The Emby community is pretty awsome.

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With the HDHomerun you do need to create a VPN between the sites and it will work.  You need enough upstream bandwidth on the remote side to push the number of tuners that could be in use. Do you know what the upstream bandwidth is on the remote side?  I've ran an HDHomeRun this way for a couple of years and besides the VPN dropouts that happen on occasion it works pretty well.  VPN is best done on the router, else you need to isolate the HDHomerun to it's own network which can then use DHCP from a computer acting as a VPN.  Can be finicky if you don't know networking.

You can also setup a Live TV server like TVHEADEND, NextPVR or Channels DVR which can all compress the feed down and convert the video to h.264 to use less bandwidth.  With these approaches you wouldn't need the VPN but would need to setup port forwarding so you can get to the proper ports remotely.  Each of these software package can generate an M3U file you can load right into Emby.  The problem with this approach is that a remote computer is needed to run the software and with windows updates and reboots can be glitchy at times if you're not used to remote work on computers and know how to handle reboots.

A third approach and my favorite would not use any software, wouldn't need VPN and would not use the HDHomeRun either but instead would replace all of that with a Vbox Gateway device about the size of a cigar box or a Shield TV.

The advantages of the Vbox Gateway is that it has a 4 port tuner built in it and is an Android TV box similar to MiBox-S or Shield TV so the person who is hosting your HDHomeRun can use it on a TV to connect to your Emby Server (TWO FOR ONE).  It also has a built in web server as well that you use to manage the box and the tuners as you do not use the Android UI for this.  So the box can be used for Android TV playing Emby while being access on the web interface and no one knows the difference.  It has some unique features the HDHR don't have such as being able to pick the audio track per station you want.  So if you're in the USA and only speak English you can choose that language only and not be sending the Spanish audio tracks across the Internet saving a bit of bandwidth.  You can also transcode the stream as well making it smaller and easier to transport.  It's fully internet ready to stream Live TV if you setup the port forwarding so it's super simple to access remotely and pull the M3U files (EPG as well if needed).

Once setup the Vbox just works and there is nothing to fiddle with. No VPNs, No extra software and no computer needed. Downside is a new device but you do get a very good Android TV unit as a side benefit for the person hosting the box to use.

I've got HDHomerun Primes & Quatro as well as the Vbox and could do a demo with you if this would help at all. I could even let you try using the streams for a couple of days to test out except for Sunday as it will get used for NFL football games.  You could then test it with a few recordings and/or watching live. :)  If you'd want to spend a few minutes going over this let me know and we can set something up in the evening or early morning before "normal work" EDT (New York City time).

Carlo

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  • 1 year later...
knobert

Carlo and OBX @cayars

Has anything changed since this post 2 years ago?  I am looking for a solution to share our home teams games with my friends in the states. I was thinking something similar to OBXman's idea, but we have ATSC here.

 

 

 

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To be honest these days there is usually an easier method that might be available to you.

Check with your carrier to see if they have online TV you can watch.  For example where I'm at both Verizon and xFinity/Comcast allow watching remotely with an account.
If you have something like this available I'd try that out first.

If not using Emby should work decently if you have good upload bandwidth.

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