[fitzy89]

Hi all and sorry for the vague thread title, if an admin/mod can think of something better feel free to adjust it I've got a few questions before I start my build so thought I would put it all in one thread to better show what I am trying to achieve.

I live in the UK (south-east) and would like to receive DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 free to air channels as some channels are FTA on one service but not the other and vice versa. I've got a PCIe Pinnacle 7010ix with dual tuners for each type on one card.

I would like to achieve a similar EPG setup to what Sky TV offers, with channel groups (entertainment, sports, music, kids etc..) within the XBMC EPG.

I've got a Windows 2008 R2 file server with all my media, I'd like to use that for the timeshifting buffer, recordings and MySQL where necessary as the TV tuner will be installed in a separate computer with only the essential hardware for it to run. All servers and clients are connected by gigabit ethernet. I'm open to any operating system and PVR backend solution for the TV server and after trying several of the Windows backends and have had mixed results and nothing quite fitted my preferences, as it was several months ago I can't remember which backends had which issues now so I'm looking for recommendations from users who have tried several of them and can hopefully point me in the right direction.

My 2 main clients run Gotham on OpenElec with a couple of Windows laptops in the mix with Gotham as well and all run a synced library via MySQL.

I'm familiar with the MediaPortal TV server and like the configuration interface and it works flawlessly with my tuner card (I was a previous MP user for many years before converting to XBMC) but the main gripe with all the ones I tried a few months back was not being able to show groups of channels in the XBMC EPG, I could only show the full list which with over 200 channels available took a long while to navigate.

Another nice feature, while not essential would be the ability to use a softcam on the TV backend. I realise I won't get any help or advice here on setting it up but just a yes or no to if it's possible is all I would appreciate (I'm sure there's a few of you on the forums that use one).

So I guess my main question is, which backend provides the most suitable add-on for XBMC?

[rlg6767]

I'm also in the UK and do exactly what you describe. 2 Freeview HD channels using a DVB-T2 PCI card and 2 sat channels from Dreambox (could be from DVB-S2 tuner).

See my post in this thread:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=207087

In a nutshell, I use DVBlogic to aggregate my tuners/EPG and then this is distributed to multiple XBMC clients (Windows, Android, IOS). The EPG is via the Digiguide addon.

On the client side, if you use the ServerWMC addon rather than the DVBLink XBMC addon it is possible to do channel groups. If you go down this route you would need to set Windows Media Center up first with DVBLogic, create your channel groups there, and then they will pull through to XBMC. The issue with this approach is that WMC cannot record directly to a network share, needs to be a local drive. There are ways round this using virtual hard drives and iSCSI though. I can send a link if interested.

Softcam is possible, a work colleague does it but I won't talk about that here.

[fitzy89]

Thanks for your reply that's just the sort of answer I was looking for

I'll have a look at DVBLogic, is this the correct product? http://dvblogic.com/en/software/windows-...-tvsource/

So does DVBLogic, WMC and the tuner card all go on the same machine? I can use iSCSI for recording to a network share, hopefully over a gigabit network it won't lag too much.

I'm just trying to consolidate as much of my toys as possible into virtual machines on an ESXI host to save power and completely rebuilding my home network, it's a big job but hopefully the increased reliability and everything being setup properly instead of in a "that'll do" fashion will pay off

[rlg6767]

You can do it two different ways depending on whether channel groups is a must have requirement.

If it is, you will need to run DVBLogic, WMC, ServerWMC and tuner cards on same "central server" PC. Configure WMC with the DVBLogic Virtual tuners and then setup WMC for Live TV including your channel groups. You can then use the ServerWMC PVR plugin on your remote XBMC PC's, Android boxes, Raspberry Pi etc to access the central server.

If you don't need channel groups, then you can run just DVBLogic and the tuner cards on the central server. With this option you would use the DVBLogic DVBLink XBMC addon. This option natively supports recording to a network share. (This is the option I use).

You will need to download the DVBLogic Connect Server (free), the TV Source license (paid ~ £15?) which you linked in your post, and also I can recommend the digiguide addon (paid ~ £9?). You would then need to subscribe to digiguide.com (£2.99/year) where you specify what channels you want pulled from Digiuide in to DVBLogic. I think you can download a free trial of all the above bar digiguide. Alternatively I think you can pull the EPG from OTA but Digiguide is a bit more detailed though and includes things like Series/Episode numbering, thumbnails etc.

Hope this helps. Happy to offer any more advice if you're stuck.

---

Oh yeah, I record to a NAS and there are no issues at all over a 1 Gbps connection. In fact I can record mutiple HD streams at the same time with no issue.

[negge]

If you're going to use virtualization you might as well use Linux for the backend. Tvheadend is a very capable backend, it has faster channel switching than most other addons, it obviously supports channel groups, and it's free. Post in the subforum if you have any questions at all! Their IRC channel has a bunch of UK regulars as well if you have any country-specific issues or questions about that which shall not be named.

[fitzy89]

Thanks for the info negge, being that Tvheadend is free it does interest me slightly more and quick channel switching would definitely be an advantage too so I'll likely try as well. Overall the end result and features will determine which I go for so I'm not too worried about paying for things if I can afford it.

You mention that it supports groups, is that just in the backend or within the EPG as well? I guess the EPG is more client-side rather than related to the backend so thought I would post on here than their own forums. So for example I would like to be able to

Also I've never really paid much attention buy what is the CPU/RAM usage requirements on a TV server? I know it will vary depending on the software but does it require much processing power? I'll be running my ESXI host on a Core2Quad 2.4ghz machine just wondering how much power I'll have spare for other uses.

[negge]

The groups are global, meaning you can show the EPG for just one group if you want to. Tvheadend runs just fine even on Raspberry Pis and I've run it on VPSes with just 128 MB RAM.

[fitzy89]

Nice one sounds really good and definitely an option. Hopefully over the next week I'll have chance to get an ESXI host up and start testing some things. Thanks for your help so far, no doubt I'll be back in a few days for troubleshooting

[fitzy89]

Hello again

Unfortunately my tuner card is unsupported by linux so tvheadend is out of the question

On to DVBlink now, see how much I can strip down Windows to use as few resources as possible

[negge]

Windows Server 2008 R2 is pretty light, and it doesn't have Metro.

[fitzy89]

Just installed Windows and DVBLink, unfortunately I can't activate the trial license to give it a test and from reading on their forums it sounds like it's unlikely to work in a VM as the license won't activate (I guess the virtual hardware is identical to other people trying to run it in a VM so the licensing can't tell the difference between other user's installations). And with their support appearing to be quite dire, I think I may give up on that one. It's a shame as it looked so promising

Having a play with DVBViewer now