A few months back I already discussed on a forum the possibility to use a linux based router to be able to use your Amino STB and htpc at the same time. This weekend I finally had some time to play around with dd-wrt, and within a hour or two, I already got it working.
The main problem was the DHCP request to the IPTV Network. When using a windows htpc, you must let the STB to the DHCP request, and then spoof the MAC address, and copy the ip of the STB to your windows network configuration. But when your STB receives a new ip-address, your windows htpc does not work anymore.
When using linux, it would be possible to spoof the MAC address, and change the DHCP request on linux, so your linux htpc will retrieve a correct ip address, and iptv can be used on the linux htpc. This works without any issues on my linux htpc for months now. But with this setup, you can’t use the STB anymore.
So with my new setup, it should all be possible. Setting up a dd-wrt router, which retrieves a ip-address through a DHCP request with a Amino vendor class option. Then the STB and linux htpc can request a ip-address throught DHCP from the dd-wrt router. The dd-wrt router is using an igmp proxy to let multicast flow between the IPTV network and the network of the STB and htpc. And it all works together very nicely.
I still see a maximum of 5 IPTV streams in the XMS network. I started with one HD stream on the STB. dd-wrt was showing around 14mbps on the WAN and LAN side. Then I started recording a few HD streams on the linux htpc. When I had a total of 5 HD streams (1 on the STB, and 4 on the linux STB), I saw a total of 66.5 mbps on the WAN and LAN side of the dd-wrt router. When starting a fifth recording on the htpc, I saw no change in the used bandwidth of the WAN or LAN side of the dd-wrt router. On the linux htpc, I only saw a black screen. When I put the STB in standby mode with the remote control, I saw the bandwidth drop to around 52 mbps for a few seconds and then come back to 66 mbps, and suddenly the stream on the linux htpc started playing. This proofs to me that the IPTV network has some kind of limit of 5 IPTV streams. I don’t know if this is a maximum per MAC / IP address or a maximum per fiber connection.
In my new setup if appears that the STB and my linux htpc can easily be used at the same time without conflicting each other or giving any other problems. It should also be possible to use a windows htpc, but I don’t have a windows htpc, so I could not test it. To see more information how to set this up see my IPTV Router page.