Win Your thoughts on Dvblogic
#1
Hi all, I'v been using LIve TV in XBMC/Kodi for some time previously on Linux TVHead and then MythTV, I recently migrated to Windows platform as I wanted to use Playon to stream Netflix and Amazon to Kodi.

When I migrated to Windows I did a bit of research on the free PVR back ends and decided to go with NEXTPVR, all seems be OK although there are a couple of issues (or rather unsupported functionality) e.g pausing live is a bit hit and miss and watching a program that already is recording from the start (where the file is growing) can not be watched from start to end.

I guess my main requirements are:

- Flawless Live TV with pause & rewind/fast forward
- The ability to watch a program from the start that is currently being recorded.
- Channel icons
- channel changes ~1-2 sec
- Some kind of artwork for programmes in EPG.
- The ability to support both of my tuners TBS6905 - quad dvbS2 PCIe and a USB hauppauge win nova t
- The ability to stream multiple LIve TV using the above tuners to multiple Kodi clients (RPI2) and changing channels with effecting any other of the clients (sometimes changing channels on another client with nextpvr will Pause live tv for a second)
- The ability to record multiple programmes at the same time
- Supporting Kodi Jarvis series recording
- my current backend platform is Windows 10 which also runs Kodi Jarvis I also have 2 RPI2 with openelec 6.1

I will of coarse continue my research on Dvblogic, I'm quite happy to pay for it if it works and meets the majority of my requirements, but I was hoping for some feedback/experiences, it would be gratefully recieved !
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#2
I have been using the dvblink backend for some time.
It can do almost all that you expect from it and quite frankly, it does a great job. Overall, i am impressed.

The drawbacks according to me are:

- channel switching through dvblink addon in openelec is flawed (cuts out on channel change but starts without problems from 'stop' position)
- PVR addon in Jarvis has bugs (timer dates and upcoming recordings displayed wrong)

This last point is no issue in Isengard and might get fixed in later versions.

As far as tuner support i guess as long as it has proper BDA drivers you're good

Almost forgot to mention that you can test a fully functional dvblink server setup without cost to see if it works for you.
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#3
Channel icons is finally coming soon on next release i think
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#4
Thanks Atreyu,

I was hoping there was a trial, just couldn't see an option on their website, I don't mind paying if it works! it's when it doesn't work I do mind!

So the timer bug is this simply a display issue? I presume the actual timer works correctly in terms actually recording programmes? if so I could live with that.

I'm a bit worried about the issue with OpenElec I have 2 RPI running OE upstairs 95% of the time they're used to watch Netflix & Amazon from a playon server. But occasionally Live TV is watched. I'll give it a go when I have some spare time to see whether it will be a major issue...

Have you tried any other PVR's?
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#5
Ive been using DVB link for 6 months now and its been working great! You will need to confirm if your tuners will work but otherwise its a very solid backend. The only thing i haven't seen on mine is the episode thumbnails on the guide. It does show a thumbnail for the recordings.

While DVB link is worth the price you also have to consider the EPG info. Im pretty sure it can pull info over the air but i would rather rely on data from the internet. I pay like $50 or $60 a year for a subscription with Percdata which dvb link has a built in addon to pull that info.

Im running my server/client on a pentium NUC and it doesnt break a sweat occupying 2 tuners at once! Im thinking about getting another HDhomerun so ill have 4 tuners which im sure it could handle. The only thing something like this doesnt handle is transcoding so you can watch live or recorded tv through the web interface.
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#6
(2016-03-06, 23:35)freddy12 Wrote: Channel icons is finally coming soon on next release i think
Channel icons are already implemented (unless ypu mean a service that gets the icons in an automated way)
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#7
@AshG: yes, the timer bug is a presentation thing, because the Jarvis PVR api changes haven't been 100% adressed (yet, i hope).
This is annoying to me, because it no longer will tell you the actual scheduled recordings but will show created rules instead.
The channel switching thing in openelec exists in this and previous versions. I am hoping Krypton will have a flawless dvblink addon with the complete dvdplayer overhaul.

I have tried different backends ( mediaportal, nextpvr, tvheadend,..). All have their strength and weaknesses.
What i like in dvblink software is that it needs little tweaking compared to free alternatives. I wanted ro get away from that.
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#8
(2016-03-07, 09:25)Atreyu Wrote: What i like in dvblink software is that it needs little tweaking compared to free alternatives. I wanted ro get away from that.

This is where my head is at the moment as well, I'm all for configuration but sometimes out of the box is good as well! NEXTPVR is the closest i've come to this so far, but it's not perfect!

Can you/someone confirm if it's possible to watch a program that is still in progress and being recorded? and be able to watch it to the end? e.g Programe "A" is recording, but i miss the first 10 minutes, i go into recordings and am able to watch the full programme from start to finish... currently with a lot of PVR's (NEXTPVR included, although I believe Myth and TVH was able to do this), you can only watch up to the point of the recording where LiveTV, in other words, using my example i would be only able to watch the 1st 10 minutes - after 10 minutes, it would stop and i would be able to watch the next 10 minutes... and so on...
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#9
(2016-03-06, 23:44)AshG Wrote: Thanks Atreyu,

I was hoping there was a trial, just couldn't see an option on their website, I don't mind paying if it works! it's when it doesn't work I do mind!

So the timer bug is this simply a display issue? I presume the actual timer works correctly in terms actually recording programmes? if so I could live with that.

I'm a bit worried about the issue with OpenElec I have 2 RPI running OE upstairs 95% of the time they're used to watch Netflix & Amazon from a playon server. But occasionally Live TV is watched. I'll give it a go when I have some spare time to see whether it will be a major issue...

Have you tried any other PVR's?

DVBLink, does give you a free trial period, don't remember how long, but long enough. Also, I used PercData for my guide data and they also have a free trial period.
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#10
(2016-03-07, 12:52)AshG Wrote:
(2016-03-07, 09:25)Atreyu Wrote: What i like in dvblink software is that it needs little tweaking compared to free alternatives. I wanted ro get away from that.

This is where my head is at the moment as well, I'm all for configuration but sometimes out of the box is good as well! NEXTPVR is the closest i've come to this so far, but it's not perfect!

Can you/someone confirm if it's possible to watch a program that is still in progress and being recorded? and be able to watch it to the end? e.g Programe "A" is recording, but i miss the first 10 minutes, i go into recordings and am able to watch the full programme from start to finish... currently with a lot of PVR's (NEXTPVR included, although I believe Myth and TVH was able to do this), you can only watch up to the point of the recording where LiveTV, in other words, using my example i would be only able to watch the 1st 10 minutes - after 10 minutes, it would stop and i would be able to watch the next 10 minutes... and so on...

Yes you can watch a recording after it has started. From my experience once you catch up with live tv and your fast forwarding it will start to get glitchy so you know you've caught up. It would be nice if it went back to play speed on its own though.
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#11
Thanks all for your feedback, i'll download the trial this week sometime and give it a go, nothing to lose aye....
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#12
I did a quick test last night, installing DVBServer on my laptop, pluging in a USB DVBt stick and setting up the addon on my main HTPC (while just disabling the NEXT PVR temporally), baring in mind the laptop was wireless and I’m using a old usb stick (the HTPC is wired into a router)... channel changing was quite impressive ~2 - 3 seconds, I’ll suspect the channel changing will get even faster when installed on the same machine using my PCIe card..... I recorded a program and managed to watch it start-end, while it was still being recorded which is a majour benifit for me - although it did take 1 minute or so for the programme to show up under "Recordings", i guess there's some kind of job that runs ever 60 seconds or soHuh Pause, FF, RW, skip forward & skip backward seemed to be quite stable...

Once i'm family free for a couple of hours i will install on my main HTPC and give it a proper test, e.g stream TV from main box as well as 2 RPI2 that are upstairs - a pretty normal Use case in my household (#unsociablekids)

Quick question i couldn’t see any setting to define where the LiveTV buffer is stored or how long it is stored for? any idea? is it the same location as where "recordings" is defined? can the LiveTV buffer be changed to another location?

I also couldn't find any content on the wiki around the Kodi add-on? the 3rd tab i think titled "trancoding" has a number input fields that i dont really understand! e.g Width, Height etc... any idea?
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#13
(2016-03-08, 13:38)AshG Wrote: Quick question i couldn’t see any setting to define where the LiveTV buffer is stored or how long it is stored for? any idea? is it the same location as where "recordings" is defined? can the LiveTV buffer be changed to another location?

In the DVBLink guide (not the Kodi one) click settings at the bottom of the page and then the Recorder tab - it's the first box.

A couple of tips for you:

Set up your channel groups as favourites in the DVBLink dialogs and in the Kodi TV settings select 'Synchronise channel groups with backends'. Ignore the channel group settings in Kodi.

Use the DVBLink dialogs to assign channel numbers in the order you want to see them in the channel guide and set 'Use channel numbers from backend' ('Use channel order from backend(s)' is unset in my config). Ignore the options to resequence channels in Kodi.

That way your channels and groups will survive new versions of Kodi, rescans of channels and rebuilds of the PVR data in Kodi.
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#14
(2016-03-08, 20:43)AndyHenderson Wrote:
(2016-03-08, 13:38)AshG Wrote: Quick question i couldn’t see any setting to define where the LiveTV buffer is stored or how long it is stored for? any idea? is it the same location as where "recordings" is defined? can the LiveTV buffer be changed to another location?

In the DVBLink guide (not the Kodi one) click settings at the bottom of the page and then the Recorder tab - it's the first box.

Hmmm so that's just for recordings, I was hoping you could also define where the buffer live TV is stored??

Thanks for the tips BTW
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#15
See:

https://forum.dvblogic.com/viewtopic.php...1eac7b723d

Thedvblink_configuration.xml is in program files/DVBLogic/DVBLink

Andy
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