[hazzy6000]

Hi

I live in the UK and I need some help setting up Live TV/Recording with Freeview on Kodi. I am hoping to do it with a Raspberry Pi as antenna decoder/'backend' rather than a PC and i was hoping someone can give me step by step instructions on what tuner card to get and how to set everything up.

To start off, I would like to do it with Freeview (standard antenna mounted on side of house), but i also have cable through Virgin Media. If it is possible, could I also have instructions on how to do it with Virgin Media V+ box (with IR blaster etc...).

I hope someone can help,
Harry

[Prof Yaffle]

I'd suggest you start with PVR (wiki). Have a good read of that.

In terms of using a Pi as a backend, that limits your software choices to Linux (obviously), so you're really looking at MythTV or tvheadend. It's been a while since I tried the former, but the latter is pretty lightweight and should work fine on a Pi.

Tuners, you're into USB because of the distinct lack of slots for anything else. DVB-T2 is what you're after, DVB-C if you want cable - I think the PCTV 292e would do both, but be aware you need kernel 3.16+ if you want the drivers pre-installed.

If you want to watch encrypted channels, though, you're into a legal minefield which isn't appropriate to this forum, so that's a conversation with other people in other quarters. Free-to-air is fine.

You won't easily get step-by-step instructions, I'm afraid... community help tends to assume you're in the hole up to your waist and prepared to keep digging when you need some assistance. So, I'd recommend doing some reading and research - maybe ask on the respective IRC channels for 'who uses a Pi and how have you got it configured as a backend', and you'll find your knowledge quickly increases. There are a couple of UK cable tvheadend users - and several Freeview users - on #hts/Freenode, perhaps pop over and see who's there.