Wallop

A transcoding server for your HDHomeRun Prime

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:zap: Wallop :zap:

Wallop is a transcoding server for your HDHomeRun Prime.

Wallop lets you watch TV streams on your iPhone, iPad, Roku, Web, Android device. Even away from home.

Why?

The HDHomeRun Prime is an amazing CableCard TV tuner. It has 3 tuners, and makes its tuned content available over your local network. It even lets you capture these streams via HTTP with a simple CURL command!

The problem is, TV is generally broadcast in MPEG2 at bitrates hovering around 16-20mbps. This causes 3 problems:

  • These streams are usually too large for WiFi.
  • These streams are definitely too large to stream to your mobile device when away from home.
  • Basically no modern devices decode MPEG2 in hardware, leaving the devices to do it with CPU.

This means, as awesome as this device is, and as accessible as the TV streams are, it's still basically useless. It can't stream to your phone, tablet, or even over your WiFi.

The solution is simple. Take these MPEG2 streams and transcode them to h.264 at a lower bitrate. That's what Wallop does.

Usage

Wallop is more of a tool than a user facing application. It's designed to be used in coordination with other things like:

  • an iPhone app
  • an XBMC/Plex addon/channel

It has a full API that lets you kick off the transcode, pick your resolution and bitrate, and provides status of the stream. Read the documentation on how to talk to Wallop.

Via Web

Wallop DOES have some web views that you can use to watch a stream though. Just open the server with your browser to see a list of channels. Tap/click a channel to start the stream.

Just point your browser to http://localhost:8888, or whatever host it's on.

Just tap/click a channel, and it will do it's thing and start streaming.

Favorite Channels

You have LOTS of channels. To alleviate this pain, you can set which ones are your favorites. Just tap/click the star and it will be set as a favorite channel.

This should speed up getting to the channels you want.

Browser Support

Basically the only browser that is supported right now is Safari. Sorry, Google hates HLS for some reason.

Chrome won't play the HLS stream natively, and JWPlayer wants $300 per year for their player that will fallback to flash for HLS streams. Even for non-commercial use. :thumbsdown:

  • :thumbsup: iPhone (Safari)
  • :thumbsup: iPad (Safari)
  • :thumbsup: OS X (Safari)
  • :thumbsdown: Chrome
  • :question: Android

Learn More

Learn more on what Wallop can do, how to configure it, and how to set it up in the GitHub repo.