[chilman408]

To my knowledge, no one has written up a solution around the mpeg2 decoding issue with the Amazon Fire TV Stick with Live TV with a windows backend.

Here is the way I did it...

Requirements-
Have a HDHomerun, Ceton or Enigma 2 tv tuner setup
TVServer application written by mcheng89 from here LINK
VLC version 2.1.2
Google Docs template to create Live TV playlist by PowerLion1 from here LINK

Steps (real simple)-
1. Unzip the tvserver package
2. Install VLC version 2.1.2 (I think this is the latest version that works)
a. Optionally enable hardware encoding in the expert menu within VLC
3. Run tvserver package (follow the installation guide inside the package)
4. Create a Live TV playlist using the Google Docs template from above.
a. However you plan on getting an xmltv file (I use zap2xml but I know others use mc2xml...), open up the xmltv file and copy the <channel>...</channel> section to the F column in the Google Docs template.
b. Adjust the settings under column D in the Google Docs template to your desire.
c. Take care that you need to add "http://" in front of the Base URL setting; for example, for ip address 192.168.1.1, you would enter http://192.168.1.1
d. Take care that you need to add a "&" after the resolution setting; for example, for 720, you would enter 720&
e. Let the spreadsheet do its thing, may take a few minutes
f. Once the spreadsheet is done crunching, copy column A into a txt file and change the txt file extension to m3u
g. Optionally, you can use wordpad to remove all "&tuner=n" from the txt file; this way the tvserver will take care of the tuner selection dynamically
5. Fire up Kodi on your AFTVs and enable IPTV Simple client and have it point to the m3u playlist you just created.
6. Cheers!! Be happy that you're no longer dealing with the mpeg2 stuttering because now your live tv streams in h264! (only downside now is no more the ability to record shows via Kodi)

All credits goes to mcheng89 for the tvserver application and PowerLion1 for the playlist creation tool.

I really hope development can continue with tvserver to eventually include scheduled recordings...but I am extremely happy with my AFTVs setup right now!

[hdmkv]

You mean FTV's deinterlacing issue? If so, wouldn't playback via VLC still have the issue (vs. using Kodi's player)? Or, do you simply mean ability to watch/record live TV via HDHomeRun? For this, you can simply use the HDHR Kodi add-on (viewing only), or use this solution for full PVR functionality (what I'm using). HDHR is also working on its own PVR solution.

[chilman408]

Actually, for me any mpeg2 content above 720p has serious stuttering on the Fire TV stick, regardless of whether I have deinterlace enabled or disabled. So this is an mpeg2 decoding issue with the Fire TV stick.

But no, it is not playing back via VLC but streaming to a client via VLC. And no, streaming via VLC does not have either the deinterlace issue or the mpeg2 issue. The transcoded stream is deinterlaced properly and encoded in h264.

I tried the HDHR Kodi add-on but that is still a direct stream solution where the stream is in mpeg2. (serious stuttering)

I have not try the DVBlink solution...does it transcode live tv? (my solution here is a free solution for windows)

[hdmkv]

I find FTV box noticeably better than Stick. Re: DVBlink solution, you can set-up up for as is (default) or transcode (option).

[chilman408]

That's probably true about the FTV box doing better than the stick in terms of processing power. However, the advantage with the stick for me is that it can be powered from the TV.

The real only short coming was the live tv decoding issue...

[Ned Scott]

Wallop is another good transcoding option for HDHomeRun: https://github.com/maddox/wallop

It should work on OS X, Windows, and Linux. I've tried it on OS X and Ubuntu and it was kind of easy to set up.

EDIT: I almost forgot to say, but getting the wallop URLs to work in Kodi takes a little extra work. I'll try to find a guide and post a link.

[andrep182]

This sounds neat. I'm gonna try it hopefully this weekend. Thanks!