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eastavin · 2016-08-07, 17:16

We have decided to give up satellite tv and pvr and need your advice. Our need is to be able to record live tv once a day using an Astc Tv card or attachment and play it back once a day with the same appliance like reliability we have enjoyed for the last 10 years from our proprietary satellite tv supplier. While we are computer savvy we don't want a system that will require us to invest time fixing things just to keep it running for this purpose.

We have zero preconceived notions about os's, devices and software. All we desire is rock solid reliability day in day out with no need for support. We don't even require system updates after install as these are perceived to break working pc or box based systems. We are even ok with not connecting the internet if so recommended to eliminate all the headaches associated with trying to make one gizmo do too many things.

Which of the many kodi versions should we use (os agnostic), which of the many pvr options should be used and which Astc tv device to enjoy rock solid support free recording and playback of USA based broadcast tv? The slate is literally blank and so is the cheque. If there is no such solution combo in the kodi world that would be nice to know too as I guess the only alternative would be to stick with satellite or cable a little longer.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Ed.

eastavin · 2016-08-13, 18:22

Hmm so its been a week and there is no input?

Does this imply that it is unreasonable for a newbie to think that once setup there can be any combination of Kodi and PVR that can work day in day out without hours of ongoing tech support?

**bry** · 2016-08-13, 18:26

Missed this. Yes. Librelec and an hdhomerun connect or extend will do this for you just fine.

Sent from my XT1254

rpcameron · 2016-08-13, 20:13

If you want something truly appliance-like, your best bet is a Tablo or TiVo. Tablo does not include a harddrive, but they do have a Kodi video add-on to access your content from other devices that mimics the Tablo interface. TiVo includes a harddrive, but you need a special device from TiVo to access your main device's content on remote clients.

The other real difference between the two comes from subscriptions/pricing. The Tablo does not require a subscription ($5/mo; $50/yr), but with one you get 2 weeks of guide data instead of only 24 hours, as well as series recording options. TiVo on the other hand requires a subscription, which is $15/mo.

If you want an appliance-like experience, then I recommend an appliance device. And while you may not want to deal with system updates, it is foolish to not do so. Appliances, such as the Tablo, TiVo, and even STBs from your cable/satellite provider, all receive system/OS updates; they just tend to happen in the background automatically without user intervention. Maintaining a patched and up-to-date system is very important for the safety and security of your network.

dgeezer · 2016-08-14, 13:25

OK. I'll go out on a limb here. This is another non Kodi solution. Check out SageTV . It is an open source project but the software has been around for at least 10 years. I have been running it on a very basic Linux server which does nothing else. It's an Asus chromebox running Ubuntu with a 2tb USB drive attached.

There is an android tv client which runs almost perfectly on my Nexus Shield TV. I have used SageTV to record the Olympics 12 hrs a day. With all the rewinding skipping etc playback has been great. No crashes and no problems. My Kodi pvr setup is not good for playing back "in progress" recordings.

The traditional way, which is what I did for years, was to run SageTV on Windows and purchase their proprietary extenders (HD300). This was as close to a true appliance experience as you can get but still have comskip etc. available. If you are starting from scratch and mostly want OTA recording this is a possibility.

eastavin · (This post was last modified: 2016-08-27, 19:28 by eastavin.)

Thank you for the ideas. Very helpful. I like the Sage TV suggestion. 10 years successful use of software is a good track record. I will also have a look at librelec

I have tried Linux and android boxes with Ota and pvr included from big box stores but so far none have the bug free experience one used to enjoy with yesterday's vcr. Not bad but not bug free. A short coming of most I have tried is the Ota epg is used to setup your recording.... good... but on playback the show is represented by a time and date code rather than by the name of the show. A fail from a design point of view. Android boxes loose all your recording timers when the power fails.

A few years ago I bought the Epvision Phd-vrx appliance which turned out to be the single biggest waste of money in my career of buying electronics due to the buggiest firmware I have ever experienced (even with all updates applied). So this makes me a tad leery of other devices with proprietary firmware.

Appliance like reliability to me means with the same reliability as your cook stove but not necessarily packaged as such.

The acceptance test I like is quite simple.. can my wife setup a recording of a TV show without calling me, does it record reliably and can she play it back without daily support issues?

If anyone has any further ideas they would be appreciated.

**negge** · 2016-09-04, 10:09

You could also take a look at the Wetek Play and Wetek Play 2, they come with an option to use an ATSC tuner. Combined with tvheadend as a TV backend the whole setup is usually quite solid, I have many completely non-technical friends using it without problems.

eastavin · 2016-10-04, 22:39

Well the best solution I have witnessed so far is the Hauppauge WinTV8 app with either the xbox usb astc tuner or the dual tuner usb. It records every day without missing a beat. If there is a serious bug I have not yet found it. Only drag is there is no kodi client for this.

I tried NextPVR with Kodi 16.1 but it crashes randomly while playing back recorded video and has also crashed while playing live TV. Some days its good and other days its not. Here is one bug I reported playing back video "Error. Exception caught on main loop. exiting " but learned from the assigned person that they have no idea what causes it and no fix is planned for Jarvis or 17. http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/16930

Also see that NextPVR is requiring DirectX9 which is incompatible with windows 10. I imagine this causes other issues like loading the cpu with a software workaround.

If someone knows of another potentially stable windows 10 kodi and pvr combo would be glad to give it a go.

sub3 · (This post was last modified: 2016-10-05, 21:20 by sub3.)

(2016-10-04, 22:39)eastavin Wrote: Well the best solution I have witnessed so far is the Hauppauge WinTV8 app with either the xbox usb astc tuner or the dual tuner usb. It records every day without missing a beat. If there is a serious bug I have not yet found it. Only drag is there is no kodi client for this.

I tried NextPVR with Kodi 16.1 but it crashes randomly while playing back recorded video and has also crashed while playing live TV. Some days its good and other days its not. Here is one bug I reported playing back video "Error. Exception caught on main loop. exiting " but learned from the assigned person that they have no idea what causes it and no fix is planned for Jarvis or 17. http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/16930

As the guy that wrote both Hauppauge WinTV8 and NextPVR, I can assure you - for the majority of users, you're going to get much more reliable/stable performance out of NextPVR than WinTV. Sure there are quirks when using it via Kodi, but you're not using Kodi with WinTV, so not comparing apples for apples. Much of the quirks in the Kodi side are things that are out of my control. Using NextPVR's own UI might be an option for you.

eastavin · 2019-02-15, 18:20

To close off this thread.. 3 years later I can attest that the most stable easiest to use solution I have found was NextPVR via its own built in UI, a Hauppauge USB tv tuner connected to a roof top antenna and a free EPG using zap2it and zap2xml. Works everyday, looks and acts as close as one can get to a satellite PVR box and in my experience does not need any more maintenance than allowing the occasional version update when it comes along once a year or so. I would give it the "appliance like stability award" if there was one. Smile

I have been a happy user for several years now.

If I ever get the urge to try and connect it to Kodi again its good to know that feature continues to exist and has grown over the years.

jmooremcc · 2019-03-28, 13:15

NextPVR has a Kodi add-on that will let you connect to nextPVR running on your PC. I've done this using a Raspberry Pi running Kodi which connects to my back end PC that is running nextPVR.

sub3 · 2019-03-30, 12:52

(2019-02-15, 18:20)eastavin Wrote: To close off this thread.. 3 years later I can attest that the most stable easiest to use solution I have found was NextPVR via its own built in UI, a Hauppauge USB tv tuner connected to a roof top antenna and a free EPG using zap2it and zap2xml. Works everyday, looks and acts as close as one can get to a satellite PVR box and in my experience does not need any more maintenance than allowing the occasional version update when it comes along once a year or so. I would give it the "appliance like stability award" if there was one. I have been a happy user for several years now.

Great - that's nice to hear. Thanks.