SiliconDust USA, Inc.

HDHomeRun Tech Configuration Utility Operations Manual 02/17/2012

SiliconDust USA, Inc. 2011-2012

Contents

Software Requirements Getting Started Adding Devices Network Discovery Adding a Device Manually Navigation View Source View Device View Device Settings & Configuration Network Settings System Boot Configuration Source Group Details Creating a New Group Tuner Settings and Configuration Running a Channel Scan Tuning a Channel Program Identifiers (PID) Advanced Channel and Program Selection Plot Sample User Preferences Utilities Backup & Restore Firmware Upgrade Spectrum Analyzer Debug Console

Requirements
PC running Windows 7 or later. Wide screen display is recommended.

Getting Started
The following document describes how to use the HDHomeRun Tech Configuration Utility. A graphical tool for setting dual tuner TECH3 and 8 tuner TECH3. If this is your first time using the , please download and install the latest version from the SiliconDust website. Download the latest version here : http://www.silicondust.com/support/tech/ Start the Tech Configuration Utility by selecting Start / Programs / HDHomeRun / HDHomeRun Tech Configuration Utility.

Adding Devices
On start-up, the Tech Configuration Utility will attempt to discover installed Tech devices on the network. Any previously saved devices will then be polled for their current status. If the IP address has changed for a device, the configuration will be updated to reflect this information.

Tech Configuration Utility Initial start-up screen. Newly discovered devices are added to the navigation tree.

Device Discovery From the main menu, select Device / Discover to re-run network discovery after the program has already loaded. Auto-Discovery mode may also be enabled in the user preferences section covered later in this document. Adding a Device Manually The user may connect directly to an HDHomeRun Tech device if the IP address is known. Select Device / Add Device from the main menu. Enter the device IP address where indicated. If the device is online and accessible, it will be listed in the search results.

Using Network Discovery to Add a Device.

Adding a Device Manually

Source & Device Navigation View Pane

Newly discovered devices and tuners are added to the navigation menu on the left. The Source View tab contains a list of available tuners. The Device View tab shows the physical devices on the network. Source View Tree Tuners are automatically grouped by the type of input signal into a default Source Group. Example: US Broadcast, US Digital Cable, HRC Digital Cable. Source groups share a common Channel-Map and Channel List. Custom source groups may be added by the user to further organize a logical group of tuners.
Example: the 8 tuner rack unit can accept four unique signal inputs. Using more than one directional broadcast antenna can give better overall coverage of the available stations.

Tuner Status Icons Offline Ready Tuned Streaming

Source Navigation View

Device View Tree Devices are grouped by location. This can be a physical or logical grouping. Example: San Francisco, Building A, VLAN 1. Newly discovered devices are added to the Default location group. The user may create additional locations using the context menu by right-clicking in the Device View pane.

Device Navigation View.

Device Details and Configuration

Select a device from the Device View Menu to view and change it's settings. This opens a new device tab in the main window.

Device Details Window

This page provides the general device status and the existing configuration settings. The user may create a custom name for each device. Network Configuration If using DHCP, the current IP address will be displayed. Un-check this box to manually set the network information. All fields must be populated before saving. **Warning: It is possible to make the device inaccessible by supplying invalid network settings. In this case it will be necessary to connect an network cable directly from your computer to the device in order to correct a problem. Once new network settings are saved, the device will reboot and be unavailable for up to 10 seconds. The Tech Configuration Utility will attempt to find the device on your network for up to 30 seconds after changes have been applied. System Boot Configuration System boot configuration settings will be loaded for each device. These are configuration settings flashed to the device and allow the device to maintain state after a power cycle. For example,

streaming a specific channel/program over the network. The boot configuration also serves as a way to maintain concurrency when multiple users may be configuring the device. The boot configuration will always override locally stored configuration values. The boot configuration panel displays differences between the existing device settings and what will be written to the device upon saving. It's a good idea to check these values after making changes to associated tuners.

Source Groups
Source groups are a way to combine resources by input signal type. They share a common ChannelMap and Channel List. Custom source groups may be added by the user. See the Source View section for more information. Clicking on a Source Group from the navigation menu opens the group details page. This displays a list of all the tuners belonging to this group, the channel-map and channel-list. The channel list will be unpopulated until a scan has been performed by one of the tuners in the source group. Any changes made here are applied to all tuners in the group. New tuners added to this group will inherit the existing channel-map and channel-list. Changing the channel map requires running a new channel scan. The user may define a custom name for each source group. By default, it will use the selected channel map description.

Source Group Details Panel for Digital Cable.

Adding a Source Group Select Source / Add Group from the main menu or right click in the Source View tab to create a new source group. Enter a unique name and click save. Set the group channel map if necessary. The default is US Broadcast. Once created, drag and drop existing tuners into this new group via the Source View menu tree. To delete an existing source group, first move all tuners to another group, then right-click on the source group and select Delete from the context menu. Example Deployment: Inputs 1, 2, and 3 of an 8-tuner (4 input) TECH3 are connected to a north facing antenna. The six tuners physically associated with these inputs are all organized under a single source group called North Antenna. The remaining input is connected to a south facing antenna. The remaining two tuners are added to a source group appropriately name South Antenna.

Example of custom Source Groups

Tuner Details and Configuration

Each tuner can be tuned to a single channel and provide one multi-cast or uni-cast stream over the network. It is best to consider a tuner to be independent from the device and as more of a network resource. Select an available tuner from from the Source View menu. This opens up a new tuner details tab in the main window.

Tuner Status and Configuration

Running a Channel Scan

It's a good idea to run a channel scan before attempting to tune or stream a channel. This will populate the channel list for all tuners in the same source group. Depending on the channel map this process can take 2-5 minutes to complete. As channels are found they will be added to the source group channel list and are immediately available to the other tuners. After the scan is complete, be sure to save your settings. This will ensure the scan results are available the next time you run the Tech Configuration Utility.

Running a Channel Scan

Tuning a Channel After completing a scan, the channel list consists of Channel / Program combinations. Select from the drop down list to tune a Channel / Program.

Selecting a Channel / Program

The status indicators show over all health and strength of the signal.

Signal Quality Status

Program Identifier (PID) A digital broadcast channel may contain one or more program streams. It usually makes sense to filter the data stream to include only the desired programs, limiting the amount of data sent over the network . When a new channel is found, the program will attempt to detect the available programs. If program data is unavailable, no filtering is applied, otherwise the system will generate a channel list that filters each program individually. See the advanced tuning section for more information on PID filtering. Advanced Channel and Program Selection Click the Advanced button to show additional tuning options. A channel may be tuned using the default values for the channel map or by frequency. Filtering by PID: The HDHomeRun supports arbitrary hardware PID filtering: Format: 0x0000 0x0000-0x1FFF 0x0000-0x1FFF 0x0000 0x0030-0x0033 0x1FFB

Example:

When filtering by PID the stream is filtered but otherwise unmodified.

Using the Advanced Options for Channel Selection

The filter is cleared to pass-all (0x0000-0x1FFF) when a set channel command is received.

Streaming Once a channel is tuned and the locked, the stream panel will be displayed.

Select the desired transmission type, protocol, target address and port. If another tuner is actively streaming, an alternative address/port combination will be chosen. Click start to launch the stream.

Streaming a Program. Previewing with VLC plug-in.

Once the stream is started the status icons will change to show a live stream. The stream bit-rate is displayed and the preview options will become available. In order to view the stream, a compatible player must be installed. Supported players are QuickTV, Windows Media Player and VLC. VLC is currently the only player that supports previewing from within the Tech Configuration Utility. Player settings are found in the preferences section.

Plot Sample The Tech Configuration Utility provides advanced diagnostics for service providers and general signal analysis. The plot sample tool give a visual indication of the signal quality and strength. Click the Plot Sample button to launch the tool.

ATSC Plot Sample

QAM256 Plot Sample

User Preferences
Application settings are modified by selecting File / Preferences. The auto discovery and refresh options are for enhanced diagnostics and are usually unnecessary. The video preview / player settings are used by the tuner details panel for stream previewing. Make sure the program directories are correct if problems occur. **Note: video players must be installed by the user. No players are installed with the Tech Configuration Utility.

Application Preferences Panel

System Tools and Utilities

Backup and Restore User preferences and program data are stored in an XML document called 'settings.xml'. This file is normally located in the c:\users\(user name)\AppData\Local\SiliconDust\TechConfig\data The Backup and Restore utility is used to create a backup of this user data and other program specific information. Select File, Backup/Restore from the main menu. Use the backup feature to save a compressed copy of the data folder. The restore feature allows the user to restore either the entire directory or only specific files from a previous backup.

Backup and Restore Utility

Firmware Upgrade For the latest device firmware, visit: http://www.silicondust.com/support/tech/ Download the appropriate bin file to your computer hard drive. From within the Tech Configuration Utility, select Tools / Firmware from the main menu to open the Firmware Update panel. All available devices are displayed along with the current firmware version. Click the Select button and open the firmware file from your computer. The Auto Update check-box will flash all devices listed. Otherwise, the click Flash to update each device manually.

Updating the device firmware on multiple units

Spectrum Analyzer The spectrum analyzer tool provides additional diagnostics for advanced users. Select Tools / Spectrum Analyzer from the main menu. Choose an available tuner from the drop-down menu located in the upper right of the main window. Adjust the frequency settings as desired and click start.

Debug Console The debug console provides additional network diagnostic information. Located at the bottom of the main window. Click the debug bar located at the bottom of the main window to hide/show the console.

For more information and product support, please visit the SiliconDust website. http://www.silicondust.com/support/tech