Silcondust DVR - WMC Replacement?

1911Shootist

1911Shootist

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
1,803
Has anyone been using the Beta version yet? How was setup?

This looks like a promising solution to eventually replace WMC and phase out my HTPC for a HDHomeRun/NAS/Roku4 setup. The only deficiency I've seen mentioned so far is the lack of ability to pause live TV, which is a pretty big issue for a cord cutter like me. Has anyone else researched or heard of other issues? Product info from SiliconDust has been lacking.
 
No grid EPG - and no planned one.

Requires constant internet connection. If your internet or their servers go down, automatically no TV guide, and recordings will only continue for 3 hours once connection has been lost. Also they have hinted that watching already recorded copy-once content will require an internet connection as well (ah, see you do OTA - but it's important for others to know).

My opinion - stick with WMC.

You could always buy access now though - they started selling it to the public before the gave it to their $30 backers (prob cause they need more money, lol). They're also 2 months (at least from what they say) behind schedule for RTM.
 
staknhalo said:
No grid EPG - and no planned one.

Requires constant internet connection. If your internet or their servers go down, automatically no TV guide, and recordings will only continue for 3 hours once connection has been lost. Also they have hinted that watching already recorded copy-once content will require an internet connection as well (ah, see you do OTA - but it's important for others to know).

My opinion - stick with WMC.

You could always buy access now though - they started selling it to the public before the gave it to their $30 backers (prob cause they need more money, lol). They're also 2 months (at least from what they say) behind schedule for RTM.
Click to expand...

I can deal with that, as long as they get copy once working. I have TWC and every fucking channel is copy-once. I have yet to see confirmation they have it working. As soon as they do, count me in.

If they don't, then I'm finally cutting the cord on cable and the fiance will have to deal with it and find another source of some of her more obscure shows.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
I can deal with that, as long as they get copy once working. I have TWC and every fucking channel is copy-once. I have yet to see confirmation they have it working. As soon as they do, count me in.

If they don't, then I'm finally cutting the cord on cable and the fiance will have to deal with it and find another source of some of her more obscure shows.
Click to expand...

I think the first test of the copy-once flags will occur when the view client comes out. Kodi doesn't support copy protection so even if the recording software can there are no clients to view it. It's been a month and a half since the last release update so hopefully in November they can finally drop a useful build.

As for the guide, if they are smart they will throw in the towel and just end up including one. When half of the forum posts are clamoring to put in a guide it would be silly to ignore the feature request.
 
Yep. It must have a grid EPG and ability to pause live TV before I'll even give it a chance. Streaming recorded shows via Plex is another key feature, but not an issue with OTA.
 
Wait, didn't the Kickstarter pitch include graphics for an EPG?

EDIT: Went back and looked, they have what at first glance looks like an EPG, but in actuality is just browsing through recordings and doing a sort of guide search.

I never even considered that their DVR offering wouldn't include an EPG. That is just the most basic of things a DVR solution needs to do, hell I even attributed most of the yearly subscription fee to the costs of running the guide back end. The fuck are you paying them yearly for if they aren't providing a guide?
 
Erasmus354 said:
Wait, didn't the Kickstarter pitch include graphics for an EPG?

EDIT: Went back and looked, they have what at first glance looks like an EPG, but in actuality is just browsing through recordings and doing a sort of guide search.

I never even considered that their DVR offering wouldn't include an EPG. That is just the most basic of things a DVR solution needs to do, hell I even attributed most of the yearly subscription fee to the costs of running the guide back end. The fuck are you paying them yearly for if they aren't providing a guide?
Click to expand...

Oh, they provide a guide, but it's not a grid epg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkMqcWkFQ0&feature=youtu.be&t=3m15s

They have argued with users this is somehow better than a grid epg found on every single other DVR ever that everyone already knows how to use.
 
Last edited:
staknhalo said:
Oh, they provide a guide, but it's not a grid epg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkMqcWkFQ0&feature=youtu.be&t=3m15s

They have argued with users this is somehow better than a grid epg found on every single other DVR ever that everyone already knows how to use.
Click to expand...

Ugh.. hideous, that's only useful if you already know exactly what you want to record. Doesn't look like you can pick a channel and scroll through the upcoming programs. That's one of the things I like doing with a channel or two, see if there's anything interesting coming up.

Yick, well... that was a waste of $30 it looks like. That'll teach me to piss away money on kickstarter.

Fortunately only a couple channels are Copy Once so I can stick with nicer solutions like NextPVR.
 
They sent a survey out to some of the kickstarter participants which mainly asked how often do you use a guide to pick out or record what you want to watch so maybe there's still is hope.
 
Ryokurin said:
They sent a survey out to some of the kickstarter participants which mainly asked how often do you use a guide to pick out or record what you want to watch so maybe there's still is hope.
Click to expand...

They sent this to another member on twitter:

CRvOWAJUAAAmsgi.jpg


https://twitter.com/BrianKReynolds/status/656345048951468032
 
staknhalo said:
Oh, they provide a guide, but it's not a grid epg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkMqcWkFQ0&feature=youtu.be&t=3m15s

They have argued with users this is somehow better than a grid epg found on every single other DVR ever that everyone already knows how to use.
Click to expand...

So they have all the information they just refuse to give us the grid to view it on? That is fucking asinine. I don't know what their UI is coded in, but that is like a week of work to code something up to get a simple normal grid EPG.

The guide shown in that video is completely useless for anyone who doesn't know what they want to watch.

Welp this is one more reason for me to move forward with my WMC server plans and making Microsoft pry Win7 from my cold dead fingers.
 
Their new setup is actually quite nice and the lack of a grid doesn't worry me as much since the latest update. I would say try it before panicking.

Trust me when I say I was also on the guide is a must side of things, and now I am on the "guide would be nice" side of things but could live with the current setup. I have actually found a few shows I never would have bothered to look at with the WMC guide.
 
Erasmus354 said:
So they have all the information they just refuse to give us the grid to view it on? That is fucking asinine. I don't know what their UI is coded in, but that is like a week of work to code something up to get a simple normal grid EPG.

The guide shown in that video is completely useless for anyone who doesn't know what they want to watch.

Welp this is one more reason for me to move forward with my WMC server plans and making Microsoft pry Win7 from my cold dead fingers.
Click to expand...

Yup to all of that.

y0bailey said:
Their new setup is actually quite nice and the lack of a grid doesn't worry me as much since the latest update. I would say try it before panicking.

Trust me when I say I was also on the guide is a must side of things, and now I am on the "guide would be nice" side of things but could live with the current setup. I have actually found a few shows I never would have bothered to look at with the WMC guide.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately that applies to you and only you though. Not for all the people who still need one. Glad you can use it though/at least, don't get me wrong. Just does nothing for all the others.
 
Last edited:
I'd still love to try it, but that entails replacing my working HTPC setup with their tuner ($150), program ($60?), a NAS (~$450), a client ($130), and remote ($90?). In all, it could be a great solution, but not something I'm can just spend $900 on and hope it works. I could go lite and try it based on my desktop, but I'd still need to invest $250+ to give it a go.
 
Yeah, after what we now know about it - do not drop that kind of investment into it. Wait until you have the means and then check if anything has changed to see if 'stay on WMC' is still the recommendation. To go all in on it now, with what you yourself would have to - it would be totally 100% unwise is the nicest way I can put it :)
 
y0bailey said:
Their new setup is actually quite nice and the lack of a grid doesn't worry me as much since the latest update. I would say try it before panicking.

Trust me when I say I was also on the guide is a must side of things, and now I am on the "guide would be nice" side of things but could live with the current setup. I have actually found a few shows I never would have bothered to look at with the WMC guide.
Click to expand...

My only question is, is it easier to find programs to record? It was a big pain in the ass to try to setup new shows for this season because they wouldn't show up in a search. I was only interested in their DVR in the chance that Comcast ever encrypts their channels, but something has to give, a guide or a good search.
 
One other (pay) option is Emby... I'm tinkering with it now but it does give you a grid I believe. I have a full WMC setup, myself.
 
As it is currently Emby is kind of clunky if you are looking for a 10 foot interface. Theater does NOT support grids currently, and although they are talking it up on their site they've been promising a version that does for well over a year.

I currently use the NextPVR plugin for Kodi. It's nowhere near great, but it's workable.
 
Emby has a great grid guide for their Android app. They don't have it on their Roku app yet, and I haven't tested any other options for it because I don't use Emby for media consumption on my PC's (I still use WMC when on a PC). It seems to work ok, lately I have been having some issues with streaming live TV to my android devices though, and a really odd problem with the Roku where it was tuning to the wrong station.
 
I've fully transitioned to Emby, just because there isn't a better all-in-one system out there without jumping through hoops and configuring 3 or 4 different programs to work with each other. So far the experience has been 7/10. I'm using Emby Theater on all my HTPC's, and Emby for Android and Kindle on my mobile devices. The only thing that gives me problems sometimes is Emby Theater because they seem to release updates which break functionality every few months, then quickly correct it. I'm dealing with it, but hoping that the "re-write" of Emby Theater will fix it all. But waiting for two years of the re-write has disappointed me. I'm about ready to jump ship from Emby, but after trying several other back ends and front ends, I'm still not finding anything that works much better with my very large media collection + live TV.
 
Wait a second. You can set stuff to record in the future but you cant pause live TV?

I can understand why they require a live internet connection for copy once content and anything else you DVR. Those were the terms they were given in order to comply with the requirements to receive and display copy protected content with their system. But let think about it logically, if you dont have internet you wont have TV anyway, given how fiber and cable works these days. The requirement for play back is a little strange but I guess thats how they ensure the DRM is being adhered to.

The ceton card works almost in the same way. You need to have open ports in your firewall and an active connection or else in like 5 hours it resets its play ready status to red and WMC loses the tuner. Granted, you can still watch recorded content. Even the copy once content because the DRM management happens on the machine, not remotely.
 
Last edited:
Pausing live TV will come whenever they start routing streams through their DVR engine. I'm guessing that will happen whenever they finish view.
 
w1retap said:
I've fully transitioned to Emby, just because there isn't a better all-in-one system out there without jumping through hoops and configuring 3 or 4 different programs to work with each other. So far the experience has been 7/10. I'm using Emby Theater on all my HTPC's, and Emby for Android and Kindle on my mobile devices. The only thing that gives me problems sometimes is Emby Theater because they seem to release updates which break functionality every few months, then quickly correct it. I'm dealing with it, but hoping that the "re-write" of Emby Theater will fix it all. But waiting for two years of the re-write has disappointed me. I'm about ready to jump ship from Emby, but after trying several other back ends and front ends, I'm still not finding anything that works much better with my very large media collection + live TV.
Click to expand...

I gave up on emby theater about 6 weeks ago. I still use emby as my meta data manager, Andriod client and roku client but I front the HTCP with Kodi. there are several skins that are emby integrated or you can just have kodi read all the nfo data emby writes. WAF went way up when I went to this config. Much better than just kodi or just emby
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top