Hi,
Currently I am running a Windows 10 machine as a TV server (MediaPortal) and serving all my stored content.
I am exploring the possible advantages of switching to TVHeadEnd on a LibreElec Linux system using the same hardware. TV tuner compatibility is not an issue. The system drive will be a small SSD, so I will need to use conventional hard drives for timeshifting and recording. The computer has two large hard drives installed internally.
So, currently, all of my shares are SMB. My main office PC is a Windows machine, and I use file sync software to manage all my media and backups. Windows 10 Pro doesn't have NFS support.
Rather than trying to get all of my questions in up front, perhaps it is easier to ask one thing at a time.
So, first question. If I set up the computer running LibreElec, how easy is it to configure an internal SATA3 hard drive with the correct folders, and share them using NFS (for Kodi) and also with SMB so I can connect to them from Windows?
In terms of my knowledge and experience, I have no problem with connecting to the system with SSH and using a command line. I just have limited experience with Unix filesystems and how drives are mapped.
Thanks in advance.
Mark
If you are planning on using Tvheadend, I recommend staying away from LibreELEC. It is not a full OS, and if you want to do anything (such as set up EPG grabbers that need extra Perl modules) that is slightly different from the default, you will run into issues.
If you need ease of use/setup, Ubuntu may be a better distro to start with. Tvheadend can get quite difficult to configure properly, but if you're willing to spend time researching and learning, then stick with it.
I have installed TVheadend to a celeron NUC with LibreELEC. I did find it difficult to start with. As for epg grabbers etc I haven't had any luck.
This is a good guide
http://www.futeko.com/newforum/index.php?topic=2476.0
I have set up my NUC as backend, (server) usb tuner plugged into it. It is also a client, with two other Amlogic boxxes as clients.
If you want some help let, me know.
If possible, it might be worth installing Libreelec to a usb, to get used to it.
Hi rpcameron,
Thanks for the advice. My TV is DVB-T(2) in the UK, with EPG delivered from the DVB stream. I have actually set up a RPi3 with a single tuner for testing purposes, and have the basic TV features working fine, apart from the serious lack of storage.
I think I'd be happy if I knew I could access the internal hard drives using both NFS and SMB protocols.
Best wishes,
Mark
(2017-12-26, 19:16)mcelliott Wrote: [ -> ]Hi rpcameron,
Thanks for the advice. My TV is DVB-T(2) in the UK, with EPG delivered from the DVB stream. I have actually set up a RPi3 with a single tuner for testing purposes, and have the basic TV features working fine, apart from the serious lack of storage.
I think I'd be happy if I knew I could access the internal hard drives using both NFS and SMB protocols.
Best wishes,
Mark
I don't know if LE supports NFS. Again, if you want to do anything beyond using that single device alone, I recommend staying away from LE. Remember a RPi has a single USB 2.0 bus that is shared between all 4 USB ports AND its ethernet. If this is the only device you're using for viewing and DVR, you can stay with LE. But if you want to share these streams with other clients on the network, upgrade your machine and OS.
Hi rpcameron,
Thanks again for the advice.
The RPi3 is just to get used to tvheadend. As and when I do switch, I will be using a 'PC' with plenty of USB ports, gigabit Ethernet and loads of storage.
Best wishes,
Mark
If you want the best in pvr, and are going linux, I highly recommend mythtv, on ubuntu.
You like me seem to be a Windows guy but are lured by tvheadend and its sweet features. I had what you have and kind of still do but did this another way.
I have a Windows 10 machine with everything I need, I also kind of know how to use Windows, my Linux knowledge is very basic.
So what I did is a virtual Linux machine in Hyper-V on top of my Windows 10 installation, this have worked flawless for me.
I helped a friend of mine to set it up wo what he have is a Windows 10 PC connected to his TV where he run Kodi and some other stuff on and a virtual tvheadend on Debian on it.
I wrote a guide how to do this on the tvheadend forum, it contains how to install and config Debian, install tvheadend and how to put your recordings on a share on the Windows PC. It also contain some useful info about how to backup the Linux machine and stuff like that. I gave my tvheadend machine 20 GB of disk and it is located on an SSD, this is used for timeshift and transcoding while recordings are stored directly on the Windows machine trough a share that is located on an old large HDD. I gave it 2 GB of RAM but most of the time it's not using more than half of that.
Link to how to set this up:
https://tvheadend.org/boards/4/topics/28598
The challenge for you is how to get the tuner attached to the virtual machine. In my and my friends case this is a none issue, we both use hdhomerun, these are network attached tuners and directly supported by tvheadend so no USB or PIC attached things, sooo simple! There are ways to get USB devices network attached in different ways but I have no idea how those devices work or how that would work for a tuner. So depending on you budget (if any) updating your tvtuner to a network based one might be the way to go.
EDIT: Found this that might be useful to you:
http://www.virtualhere.com