Kodi Community Forum

After getting my OpenELEC RPi working with TVheadend, I had a thought about how this works and just wanted clarification.

As I understand it, Kodi is pretty much a standalone program. TVheadend allows you to connect Live TV to a Kodi system. So, as I see it I can have a basic Linux box with TVheadend installed on it without Kodi and still be able to stream live TV, correct? I would simply configure OpenELEC to connect to the server just like I do now but instead of it being a Kodi server, it's just a Linux box, right?

Hope I explained this right. I know when I had Plex, I had to have Plex server in the backend and then I could have different clients as the front end. I don't think Kodi works like that. I think Kodi is a stand alone app that allows you to connect to different shared sources, such as TVheadend or a SMB share for media.

Correct me if I am wrong.

You are correct. Works like a charm!

Sweetness! Here's my plan. Use OpenMediaVault as my shared NAS for local media. Install TVheadend on it and use my RPi with OpenELEC on it to be the front end.

Can't wait to set this up and test it!

Quick question. Which distro works best on an RPi, and do I need to buy the MPEG2 license for the Live TV?

OpenELEC is leaving You with least options of customization or side-loading any apps. There has been recent fork of that distro into LibreELEC which is somewhat quickier in adopting new Kodi versions. There is also OSMC which will allow for more side-loading. But, if You plan on running just Kodi with its addons - OE will be just fine.

MPEG2 license is needed for watching MPEG2 coded content (RPi doesn't have enough CPU for SW decoding of MPEG2). It doesn't matter if it is through LiveTV or from Your library. So, the question is what will be Your source on TVH server and will You be doing some transcoding on it. Nevertheless, license is 2,40 GBP, so ...

Gotcha. I'm thinking of giving OSMC a try. I'm doing OTA in the US with ATSC so not sure what the stream is coming in, although I'd wager it is MPEG2. The license is cheap enough so I'll just get the license and be done with it.

I actually love LibreELEC with my Rpi. It's very close to OSMC - they share a lot of backend code. There's a vibrant support community and simple installs.

You will need the mpeg2 license for live tv in the US.

If you want to be cutting edge...the LE 8 alpha builds have been working pretty well on my Rpi3. The LE 7.0.2 build is rock solid. There are TV/PVR upgrades as part of Kodi 17 (LE 8 builds) that make the system perform faster.