[sub3]

Regarding "series link" recording, if you are trying to find it exactly as it's offered on cable or satellite PVR's, that might be a little bit hard to find. What you will typically see is a way to set it so it will record a show at a specific time, or within a specific range of times (could be "any time") or one specific channel, or a group of channels (or any channel). But what I have not found, at least in TVHeadEnd, is a way to say that if a specific episode has previously been recorded to not record it again.

NextPVR will also scheduling shows that you've already got (or have deleted recently), as long as you're using an EPG source that provides the necessary show identifiers.

[oldtvwatcher]

NextPVR will also scheduling shows that you've already got (or have deleted recently), as long as you're using an EPG source that provides the necessary show identifiers.

I wonder what would be considered the necessary show identifiers. In North America, I could see how those might or might not be available, possibly depending on the method used to acquire EPG data. This is one feature I sort of wish TVHeadEnd offered, but then again there needs to be a way to specify that you want to record a show even if it appears to be a duplicate, so for example if you get a bad recording and there's another feed of it later in the day or week, it won't stop you from recording that additional feed.

[sub3]

NextPVR will also scheduling shows that you've already got (or have deleted recently), as long as you're using an EPG source that provides the necessary show identifiers.

I wonder what would be considered the necessary show identifiers.

In North America most people use Schedules Direct. This includes "programID", which is a unique show identifier.

In North America, I could see how those might or might not be available, possibly depending on the method used to acquire EPG data. This is one feature I sort of wish TVHeadEnd offered, but then again there needs to be a way to specify that you want to record a show even if it appears to be a duplicate, so for example if you get a bad recording and there's another feed of it later in the day or week, it won't stop you from recording that additional feed.

In NextPVR, this logic to avoid recording duplicates only applies to scheduling from recurring recordings. You can always explicitly schedule a one-off recording of a show. NextPVR's own UI also has a 'forget' option if you find a recording wasn't what the listings said, which will cause the app to rerecord that episode.

[oldtvwatcher]

NextPVR will also scheduling shows that you've already got (or have deleted recently), as long as you're using an EPG source that provides the necessary show identifiers.

I wonder what would be considered the necessary show identifiers.

In North America most people use Schedules Direct. This includes "programID", which is a unique show identifier.

I would disagree with your blanket assertion that most people use Schedules Direct, simply because it is a pay service and many people prefer to use a free service. I know some proponents of Schedules Direct like to think that it's the only way to get accurate listings in the USA, but that's simply not the case. For example, Some hints for getting free-to-air satellite channels into the Electronic Program Guide in Kodi or XBMC (or another frontend) discusses a method that works equally well for satellite or terrestrial stations in the USA and Canada.

Using that method, each program apparently has a unique tag that appears like this in the .xml file, however I do know know which (if any) PVR software will recognize and use this tag.

<episode-num system="dd_progid">SH00132968.0000</episode-num>

Where the actual numbers are different for each episode. If that's the same thing as your "programID", it shouldn't make any difference, otherwise if the software requires different xml tags you could probably use sed to change the tags before the software reads in the .xml file, assuming you know what the PVR software is expecting to see.

In North America, I could see how those might or might not be available, possibly depending on the method used to acquire EPG data. This is one feature I sort of wish TVHeadEnd offered, but then again there needs to be a way to specify that you want to record a show even if it appears to be a duplicate, so for example if you get a bad recording and there's another feed of it later in the day or week, it won't stop you from recording that additional feed.

In NextPVR, this logic to avoid recording duplicates only applies to scheduling from recurring recordings. You can always explicitly schedule a one-off recording of a show. NextPVR's own UI also has a 'forget' option if you find a recording wasn't what the listings said, which will cause the app to rerecord that episode.

Cool. So that is one area where TVHeadEnd is a little behind the others, in that AS FAR AS I'M AWARE you can schedule recurring recordings but it offers no way to skip previously recorded shows. Main reason I use it is it's the best PVR I have found that runs under Linux, where as far as I know the only real choices are TVHeadEnd and MythTV, and as I noted, MythTV just seems to have too many quirks and over time became harder to work with rather than easier, IMHO.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. In TVHeadEnd, if you create a "DVR AutoRec" entry, when scheduling a recording you have some "Duplicate Handling" options:

Record all (the default)
Record if different episode number
Record if different subtitle
Record if different description
Record once per week
Record once per day

[sub3]

I wonder what would be considered the necessary show identifiers.

In North America most people use Schedules Direct. This includes "programID", which is a unique show identifier.

I would disagree with your blanket assertion that most people use Schedules Direct, simply because it is a pay service and many people prefer to use a free service. I know some proponents of Schedules Direct like to think that it's the only way to get accurate listings in the USA, but that's simply not the case. For example, Some hints for getting free-to-air satellite channels into the Electronic Program Guide in Kodi or XBMC (or another frontend) discusses a method that works equally well for satellite or terrestrial stations in the USA and Canada.

As far as I can tell most people in North America do use Schedules Direct these day. I know that's definitely the case for NextPVR users. Sure there are other guide options. Lots were using mc2xml, but that option went away a few months ago when Microsoft changed their backend data provider. There is some using zap2xml, but I've not encountered many.

The broadcast EPG is also an option. With ATSC they're only required to transmit 6 hours of listings, which is so little it's next to useless. With QAM they're not required to transmit anything, so the cable companies rarely do. For the record though, NextPVR does also support the ATSC EPG (and DVB EPG, and XMLTV and Schedules Direct).

Using that method, each program apparently has a unique tag that appears like this in the .xml file, however I do know know which (if any) PVR software will recognize and use this tag.

<episode-num system="dd_progid">SH00132968.0000</episode-num>

Where the actual numbers are different for each episode. If that's the same thing as your "programID", it shouldn't make any difference, otherwise if the software requires different xml tags you could probably use sed to change the tags before the software reads in the .xml file, assuming you know what the PVR software is expecting to see.

Yep, thats the same attribute. It's programID in the Schedules Direct json interface. It's <episode-num system="dd_progid"> in xmltv files. NextPVR supports it in xmltv files. There is some more rules around that number relating to duplicates, based on first two characters, and the trailing four digits

[oldtvwatcher]

In North America most people use Schedules Direct. This includes "programID", which is a unique show identifier.

I would disagree with your blanket assertion that most people use Schedules Direct, simply because it is a pay service and many people prefer to use a free service. I know some proponents of Schedules Direct like to think that it's the only way to get accurate listings in the USA, but that's simply not the case. For example, Some hints for getting free-to-air satellite channels into the Electronic Program Guide in Kodi or XBMC (or another frontend) discusses a method that works equally well for satellite or terrestrial stations in the USA and Canada.

As far as I can tell most people in North America do use Schedules Direct these day. I know that's definitely the case for NextPVR users. Sure there are other guide options. Lots were using mc2xml, but that option went away a few months ago when Microsoft changed their backend data provider. There is some using zap2xml, but I've not encountered many.

Well, you've encountered one more - I use it and it works very well once you figure out how to use it, which really isn't that difficult. I've never cared for Schedules Direct because a couple of years ago one of their proponents was on one of the forums (I think the MythTV one but I can't recall for sure anymore) trying to say that if you didn't use Schedules Direct you were basically doing something underhanded; he sort of insinuated that it was illegal to use anything else. When in reality it was an obvious ploy to try and scare people into using their pay service. I don't know for sure if it was an actual representative of the company or just an overzealous proponent, but that really rubbed me the wrong way and I decided then that I'd never use their service, and I have not regretted that decision. But also, I just like zap2xml because it's an open source Perl script, so you can look into it and see what it's doing and even possibly tweak it a bit if you find a need to do so.

If most NextPVR users are paying for something they could get for free, it could be because they simply don't know that they have an alternative, or it may be that some would rather pay for the convenience of using a service that's a possibly bit easier to set up. Or it may be that they think it's a better service somehow, just like some people think that the higher priced a cable is, the better it is. Everybody makes their choices for their own reasons, but I would hope they at least know there are alternatives.

The broadcast EPG is also an option. With ATSC they're only required to transmit 6 hours of listings, which is so little it's next to useless. With QAM they're not required to transmit anything, so the cable companies rarely do. For the record though, NextPVR does also support the ATSC EPG (and DVB EPG, and XMLTV and Schedules Direct).

I believe that was recently added to TVHeadEnd as well, though you might have to use a nightly build to get it, I'm not sure. I do agree that the ATSC EPG aren't all that useful but personally I'd use them before I'd use Schedules Direct (can you tell they really ticked me off a couple years ago?).

Using that method, each program apparently has a unique tag that appears like this in the .xml file, however I do know know which (if any) PVR software will recognize and use this tag.

<episode-num system="dd_progid">SH00132968.0000</episode-num>

Where the actual numbers are different for each episode. If that's the same thing as your "programID", it shouldn't make any difference, otherwise if the software requires different xml tags you could probably use sed to change the tags before the software reads in the .xml file, assuming you know what the PVR software is expecting to see.

Yep, thats the same attribute. It's programID in the Schedules Direct json interface. It's <episode-num system="dd_progid"> in xmltv files. NextPVR supports it in xmltv files. There is some more rules around that number relating to duplicates, based on first two characters, and the trailing four digits

I had originally thought that TVHeadEnd didn't recognize those but after more digging I realized they do, so I edited my previous post to reflect that. I'm going to try using the "Record if different episode number" option on some of the shows I record to see if it really will skip duplicates, though obviously I won't know until one of them goes into reruns.

[stevellion]

I used to use MythTV, but spent a lot of time just updating, meddling and spending a lot of time implementing and maintaining.
I switched to tvheadend about 2 years ago, maybe a bit more and it's always been a breeze in comparison.
I don't doubt that MythTV may have more features, but if you're using Kodi as a front end, all you need is a clean, simple, efficient and reliable back end.. That's tvheadend.

[tdecurtins]

If you havnt already choosen something, I found that DVBLink was the best backend pvr. Yes it does cost money but its well worth it. I find that it matches WMC performance and options better than any other one. It really does have a lot of good features.

[rykr]

Thanks for the response. It seems dvblink doesn't support cable card

[gt2690b]

you can get wmc on windows 10 and still use serverwmc on it..

http://lifehacker.com/get-windows-media-...1729919907

lately ive been messing with pi 3 and tvheadend but the epg guide (using zap2it) doesnt format the colors in the guide right and the programs icons are not there either as compared to serverwmc.. id like to use the pi as backend just for lower power it uses vs my w10 i5 machine... anyone got any pointers for a better EPG experience for tvheadend?

[rykr]

wmc on Win10 doesn't really work. It might work for somethings but I never could get it to work for recording tv or serving extenders.

[ClayMontgomery]

The combination of MediaPortal TV-Server with the SchedulesDirect EPG is fantastic for Kodi users in North America. The guide data is the most complete and reliable solution in North America. SchedulesDirect does cost $25/year, but it's worth it. This is also the best route for former users of Windows Media Center that want to stay on Windows. And there is also a detailed installation guide that covers the whole integrated system:

http://montgomery1.com/htpc

[DirtyRat]

While some of the below information is still relevant please know: I moved back to WMC after a brief (about 1 week) stint with Kodi. While my reasons to depart Kodi were possibly fixable, in my current situation I didn't have the time to iron out all the kinks. I was frustrated with my WMC remote not responding in a familiar fashion, live TV not playing correctly in Kodi, but it would in NPVR, and NPVR was not an acceptable fallback as changing channels took 3 seconds, and skipping around in recorded TV was buggy. Perhaps had I the time and knowledge I would've gotten all this to work properly, but I'm posting this update as I fear this post may have influence somebody else to think this was a simple solution. Didn't turn out to be the case for me. Setting it up and getting it 'usable' wasn't bad, as read below:


(Original post)
My humble 2 cents, which should be taken with a grain of salt. (1st post here)

I just migrated from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I've held off most of the year to preserve my WMC DVR functionality, as WMC was abandoned beyond 7. I almost decided to let the free 10 pass me by, and just stay with WMC, as it worked, and worked well. (I never encountered the guide interruption that some people did.) Anyhow, system instability due to years of tinkering around with stuff in 7 left me wanting an overhaul. I picked up an SSD, dropped in a clean install of 7, and moved straight to 10. Then I began my first interactions with Kodi.

My limited understanding of Kodi was it was a basic media player which could provide DVR functions given a proper backend was already installed. I've been told NextPVR is the simplest backend solution.

I installed NextPVR. This was mostly painless. I then installed Kodi, it linked easily to NextPVR and voila, a WMC replacement is born. The lack of a TV guide was the next hurdle. I've read many use Schedules Direct, however I cut the cord to avoid fees and the such. A bit of luck lead me to a very useful article on zap2xml:

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...mp-Zap2xml

So +1 on people avoiding Schedules Direct. zap2xml was a bit finicky to setup, but I blame a typo in my batch file path names for most of that. Then, after finding by default Kodi seems to limit the guide to 3 days, I was able to stretch the guide to 8 days out. Which is more than WMC gave often. I believe you can go farther, but 8 is plenty.

In summary, I'm a NextPVR user for a backend, but largely because I didn't know so many other options were available. Setup was simple, EPG was a bit tricky, but that sounds like the norm for USA folk. I am a bit discouraged by the difficulty for setting up Series recordings on Kodi. This may simply be a learning curve, as I have made Timers which look for keywords, or Recurring (guide), but neither seems as efficient as WMC's 'Record Series' option.

I won't turn this thread into a self help plea, but if anybody knows of effective ways to record with NextPVR/Kodi please private message me.

[J876]

I have been using TVHeadend for years on my Linux box and NextPVR for Windows boxes.

[rpcameron]

Although not the easiest to set up, Tvheadend is quite light on its resource needs. I transitioned to Tvheadend (I'm using 4.1 because I needed the Auto IPTV functionality to work around its lack of support for HDHomeRun Prime boxes) from MythTV.

MythTV was also relatively easy once running, but it also took some setting up. Also, to set it up you need to use its (quite heavy) Qt-based interface. (I eventually had to move on from MythTV because there were problems with Qt 5.6 which carried over to MythTV 0.28, which requires Qt5.) However, since moving over to Tvheadend there are a few features that I miss, such as metadata lookups from TMDB/TVDB for recordings, and more fine-tuned settings for tuner priorities for both live TV and recording.

Yet, despite some of its shortcomings, I feel that Tvheadend is probably the best lightweight solution for a DVR presently. (Unless of course your hardware is supported by VDR: that's probably an even lighter-weight solution.)

In response to ClayMontgomery (and the posting about NA guide data): You posted in your blog tutorial that SchedulesDirect is the only real provider of guide data in North America, and only offers it for programs that are open source. While true, there is another source of guide data for commercial applications: Perc Data. Perc Data uses Gracenote as their guide source, the same as SchedulesDirect, and they are for commercial uses. I believe Perc Data is $30/yr, so it is competitively priced to SD, and will work for paid solutions such as DVBLink.