Kodi Community Forum

Hi
I upgraded to Kodi Matrix recently and have chosen to use NextPVR as my client for LiveTV. I set everything up with relative ease using the web app, but I have some general questions about playback, timeshift and guide data:-
Playback & Timeshift
I'm using a Win TV quad DVB-T2 tuner card. All my channels are scanned and configured and are working fine using 'Real-Time' mode. I must say, opening and switching channels are the fastest I've ever seen in Kodi. However, when I change the playback option to 'Timeshift' mode, opening and switching channels both become significantly slower (like 4-5 seconds). Is there any setting I can change either in the NextPVR client on Kodi or on actual web app settings that might speed things up and yield better performance?
I also noticed that when tried using the IPTV option with a M3U file I created from my VU+/E2 device, channel opening and switches were very slow in 'Real-Time' mode and even slower in 'Time-Shift' mode. Additionally, some of these channel streams include a 2nd audio NAR track and I was unable to change the audio track. I have tried the same channel list using the IPTV client and was able to change the audio track, so this might be something to look at in NextPVR.
Guide Data
I've noticed a few instances on my current guide data in Kodi, where the genre does not match the genre provided on my xmltv file. I know when I first scanned the channels into NextPVR, I tried using the tuner data, but then opted to use my own xmltv guide data and made all the necessary changes on the web app. Is it possible that some remnants from the original tuner data have remained and that's why I'm seeing some discrepancies? Here's some images of what I'm talking about:- 




Is there a way I can clear all the current channel data using the web app and start afresh to see if this will clear these discrepancies? Since it took me nearly 2hrs to configure my channel list with the channels numbers and guide data I wanted to use, I wouldn't want to do this again in a hurry. Is it possible to save the channel line up and settings somewhere, that I can re-import if needed at some point in the future? At this stage I've only set-up a channel list for one of the 4 tuners available. If I select the tuners available, am I able to copy the same configuration as the first over to the remaining 3 tuners or this done automatically?
Any feedback would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Thanks for the feedback.  There is no optimization for time shift if the 0 minute prebuffer works use it.  For DVB if you are tuning on the same mux then you could get faster changes overall if you have the keep tuners prime option set on the backend.

For IPTV there is no reason I can think of that it should be slower especially if you went direct for NextPVR to the IPTV provider.  My experience is it is as fast as a tuner.  Probably best for the NextPVR forum with backend logs.

For IPTV streaming if you use the ts file as input then NextPVR will basically proxy the stream and it will be fed as-is to Kodi.  For an m3u8 file I guess it is possible that the backend doesn't pick up all the streams in the m3u8 when it creates the ts file for Kodi.  You'd need to a open a backed support post for that on the NextPVR forum.

Genres are mapped to DVB genre codes for consistency and to get get guide colouring.  Specials and Movies genres especially suck but it is potentially better in Matrix with v5 since multiple genres are supported.  If you don't like how the default maps look there is a file you can edit on the backend data\genre-mapping.xml that has the text genre and the type/subtype codes that Kodi is based on.   The guide database is

Martin

Hi Martin,
Thanks for the fast response.
With regard to using the IPTV function, I will do as you suggested and raise the point on the NextPVR Forum. I'm still undecided if I actually want to use the Channel List streams created from my satellite STB or to continue with using the Win TV Card.

As for the Genre issue, the genre information you can see on each of my EPG images at the bottom of the screen on the right hand side uses the following code:-

xml:
<label>$INFO[ListItem.Genre,[COLOR grey]$LOCALIZE[515]:[/COLOR] ]</label>

This is a info label and should reflect exactly how the genre is described on the xmltv file. In my particular case, this is exactly what I'm getting returned in probably 99.5% of cases using 50K lines of guide data. But for some unknown reason, the correct genre label on some items is not appearing correctly in Kodi. That's the oddity I'm experiencing and have no clue why.
To clarify,
On my 1st EPG image the genre label should read: 'Movie' and not 'Movie/Drama'
On my 2nd EPG image the genre label should read: 'Entertainment' and not 'Special Characteristics'
On my 3rd EPG image the genre label should read: 'Music' and not 'Music / Ballet / Dance'

You're absolutely right, Movie genres are a nightmare! I actually think the DVB genre standards are too vague to give an accurate description of any programme. The guide data I'm now using is great because it uses a main catategory like Movie, Entertainment, Sport and in most cases hyphenates these with sub catategories, ie Movie - Crime or Sport - Football. 
So for the genres colours in my own skin mod of Estuary, I don't need to use a genre mapping file or ListItem.Property(GenreType). I able to use $INFO[ListItem.Genre] and point to the folder with my genre named colour files, which works just fine.

Did you by chance miss the question about backing up my current channel list configuration and if I can copy the same configuration over to remaining 3 tuners on my card? I also have some more general questions on how NextPVR handles artwork, but will raise a separate thread rather than confuse things here.
Thanks again.

I don't know what you are suggesting for the addon since clearly we can't code the addon for users that make custom mods.  The categories mapping looks ok although Entertainment is odd because the DVB standard doesn't define a Special  As I posted you can change that on the backend if it is a problem.   Clearly Entertainment is a vague genre anyway.

Your mistake is the XMLTV, if it was multiple genres it should look like this  in Matrix with v5




Backend questions should be posted on the NextPVR forum.

Martin

No, of course I'm not suggesting you code the NextPVR addon for users who are interested in creating a custom skin mod and I never once made such a suggestion. That is precisely the reason why every screen shot I posted was of the default Estuary skin and likewise the default code used for the Genre label on the EPG screen to clearly demonstrate what genre I was seeing on the default skin, as opposed to what was written on the xmltv file. I only wished to know the reason why the two differed, but having read the last paragraph of your original response again today, I now have a clearer understanding.
Yes, 'Entertainment' could be considered as being rather vague, but no less vague than perhaps something like  'Serious / Classical /Religious / Historical movie / Drama' in my opinion.
Anyway, I can certainly live with things as they are, particularly as 99.5% of the genre categories on my xmltv file are displaying exactly the same way in Kodi. Clearly, this is what I am expecting and wanting to see.
Thanks

The trouble with pass through free form text is it is not internationalized, the DVB types show in the Kodi user's language.   Because the DVB spec doesn't support multiple genres when there are more then one you do get pass through which does break internationalization.  When there was just one genre I did try to keep it "clean".  Otherwise many non-English OTA DVB users would see English text.

I will consider a settings to pass through all genres as free-form even when there is one.  The default would have to be the DVB standard as you see it now.

Martin

Thanks Martin
Appreciate the feedback.

@Dumyat I've made a change to enable this feature but it is very EPG source specific.  Would you be willing to test and if so what client platform are your using? 

Martin

(2020-07-23, 20:47)emveepee Wrote: [ -> ]@Dumyat I've made a change to enable this feature but it is very EPG source specific.  Would you be willing to test and if so what client platform are your using? 

Martin

Hi Martin,
Yeah, sure. I actually updated manually to version 6.0.2 earlier today. 
I noticed a real significant difference when Kodi starts how quickly the channels from the NextPVR backend are imported. A lot quicker than I had seen previously. The channel openings and switches were almost immediate as well from my DVB-T2 Tuner card. Even quicker than before and that was quick.
I think I read that 6.0.3 is in the pipeline as well or perhaps it's already available now?

6.0.1 to 6.02 shouldn't really have any speed improvements so likely placebo effect.

Yes the build system still seems screwed up a bit because 6.0.3 should be available. 

The preliminary build of 6.1.0 is here https://jenkins.kodi.tv/blue/organizatio.../artifacts  hopefully your platform is included.

Martin

Hi Martin,
Text based Genre setting works like a charm on 6.0.3 using my old Windows 7 64 bit platform.
Will also test on the Shield later on Friday or Saturday if that's helpful.
Many thanks for implementing this feature.
Very much appreciated.

Great, thanks for the feedback and feel free to test these builds on any device. It's post 6.0.3, my working version is 6.1.0 but the actual release version number will depend more on how and when Kodi team tag two system level PRs in the queue.

Martin

Also if you test note that on the search screen you will see DVB genres.  I am not sure if those filters will work with the pass through text, since the type/subtype are still correct.

Martin

Yeah, I looked at the genres on the search screen today. The drop down list is using the DVB genres as you said, but still returned results with no issue. 
I just remembered I'm on Kodi 18 with the Android Shield. Will the upgraded version work with Leia, or is Matrix specific?
Thanks

Thanks.  For the search I just wanted to point out the conflict.  A user might not know that the mapping for Entertainment is Special Characteristics.  Also with the new database use in Matrix toggling this setting potentially will cause extreme slowdowns the first time you choose it so it is not something you want to change often.

This is Matrix only with no chance of a backport.  From what I have read there could be benefits for Android users with Matrix.

Martin