HDHomeRun network proxy

These Python 3.x scripts allow you to run your HDHomeRun tuner on a different network from the network where your HDHomeRun apps are running.

I use these scripts to allow me to watch TV in one location that has poor TV reception via a tuner in a different location that has good TV reception.

The 2 proxies

Each Python script implements a proxy.

The app proxy runs on the network where the HDHomeRun tuner is and acts as if it is the HDHomeRun app running on that network.
The tuner proxy runs on the network where the HDHomeRun apps are and acts as if it is the HDHomeRun tuner running on that network.

The proxies communicate with each other via a TCP connection.

How it works

When an HDHomeRun app starts up, it broadcasts a discovery request. Normally the tuner would receive this request and reply with information that tells the tuner how to connect to it. However broadcasts cannot be received outside of the network that they originate on, so when the tuner and the apps are on different networks the tuner will never receive the discovery request broadcast.

The tuner proxy script listens for these discovery request broadcasts on the app's network and forwards them to the app proxy running on the tuner's network, and relays the reply back. This allows the apps to find the tuners so they can communicate.

Note that only the broadcast packets are relayed. The proxy does not do anything (and does not need to do anything) with the video data. If you can connect to your tuner's status page from your remote network, the video data should be able to flow, once the HDHomeRun app discovers your tuner (with the help of these scripts).

Setting up routing between 2 private networks is beyond the scope of these directions, but as a hint, I use WireGuard as the VPN so that the tuner's network is reachable from the app's network. This works for the TCP connection between the proxies and for the video data. My WireGuard connection has around 19 Mbps bandwidth and can easily handle multiple video streams.

Running it

The scripts depend on Python 3.x. Any version should work.

Copy the contents of this repo onto a machine on the same network as your HDHomeRun tuner, and onto a machine on the same network as your HDHomeRun app.

On a machine on the same network as your HDHomeRun tuner run:

python3 hdhomerun_app_proxy.py

On a machine on the same network as your HDHomeRun app run:

python3 hdhomerun_tuner_proxy.py my_app_proxy.network.address

... where my_app_proxy.network.address is the address of the machine where you started the app proxy.

Testing it

You should immediately see from the output of the scripts that the tuner proxy has made a connection to the app proxy.

Now run an HDHomeRun app. You should see that the tuner proxy receives tuner discovery packets from the app, and that the app proxy is forwarding them to the tuner.

Running it with Docker

This is a more advanced way to set up the proxies. You don't need to do this, it's just very convenient if you know what you're doing.

The advantage of Docker is that the scripts will be restarted on failure or reboot and you don't even need to have Python installed. I run these on Raspberry Pi 4's on each end.

On the tuner side

On a Linux machine running on the same network as the HDHomeRun tuner, run this script:

#!/bin/bash

# Set this to point to where the app proxy is running.
app_proxy_host=suzypi.susan.internal.simeoncran.net

container_name=hdhomerun_app_proxy

script_path=$(realpath $(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"))

docker run -d \
       --name $container_name \
       --network host \
       --restart unless-stopped \
       -v "$script_path":/usr/src/myapp \
       -w /usr/src/myapp python:3 python3 ./hdhomerun_app_proxy.py $app_proxy_host

To view the logs:

docker logs hdhomerun_app_proxy

To stop the container:

docker stop hdhomerun_app_proxy

On the app side