[pcdude]

I would like to be able to get an EPG set up for my HDHomeRun Extend tuner for live OTA viewing only (no PVR), but there seems to be several options out there, and I would like to chose the best one. As far as I can tell, there is the TV Guide addon, the Pseudo Live TV addon, and full PVR backend integration with the Live TV functionality in Kodi. Here is a list of what I would like:

1. Ability to integrate EPG data from 2 different markets, as I receive OTA channels from 2 cities.
2. No recording capability, only live TV viewing.
3. Ability to integrate .strm files into channel listing (from .m3u8 internet sources and/or addons), but no EPG for these is necessary.
4. Ability to select EPG menu by single button click on remote (wife friendly).
5. Ability to access this from any of several TVs in the house, all running Kodi.

I just need some pointing in the right direction. Thanks.

[oldtvwatcher]

I would like to be able to get an EPG set up for my HDHomeRun Extend tuner for live OTA viewing only (no PVR), but there seems to be several options out there, and I would like to chose the best one. As far as I can tell, there is the TV Guide addon, the Pseudo Live TV addon, and full PVR backend integration with the Live TV functionality in Kodi. Here is a list of what I would like:

1. Ability to integrate EPG data from 2 different markets, as I receive OTA channels from 2 cities.
2. No recording capability, only live TV viewing.
3. Ability to integrate .strm files into channel listing (from .m3u8 internet sources and/or addons), but no EPG for these is necessary.
4. Ability to select EPG menu by single button click on remote (wife friendly).
5. Ability to access this from any of several TVs in the house, all running Kodi.

I just need some pointing in the right direction. Thanks.

Since this post has sat here all day and no one has answered it, I will suggest that by saying you only want to watch Live TV you are limiting your options. The only way I know of to do this is to set up a backend system such as MythTV (or Mythbuntu), or TVHeadEnd, or some similar PVR backend software, that can utilize XMLTV format schedule files such as those created by the mc2xml and/or zap2xml programs. There are several ways to get schedule data but almost all of them involve running a program to convert listings from some source into XMLTV format, then running some script or program that causes the PVR backend software to load those listings into its database. Then the PVR software sends the listings out to a frontend system such as Kodi (running an appropriate PVR plugin).

I am not saying that there is no way to shortcut this process and load the XMLTV listings into some type of Kodi addon directly, but if such an addon exists, I'm not aware of it. Since most people who utilize TV tuners want a way tor record or timeshift programs, and therefore need to install a PVR backend to get that capability, and since most of the PVR backends already have some way to import schedule data and deliver it to Kodi's EPG, my guess is that the Kodi developers may not want to reinvent the wheel for the relative handful of people that have no desire to watch anything other than live TV.

[bry]

You can do this with PseudoTV Live easily. Just have to put in a bit of effort.

[pcdude]

Since this post has sat here all day and no one has answered it, I will suggest that by saying you only want to watch Live TV you are limiting your options. The only way I know of to do this is to set up a backend system such as MythTV (or Mythbuntu), or TVHeadEnd, or some similar PVR backend software, that can utilize XMLTV format schedule files such as those created by the mc2xml and/or zap2xml programs. There are several ways to get schedule data but almost all of them involve running a program to convert listings from some source into XMLTV format, then running some script or program that causes the PVR backend software to load those listings into its database. Then the PVR software sends the listings out to a frontend system such as Kodi (running an appropriate PVR plugin).

I am not saying that there is no way to shortcut this process and load the XMLTV listings into some type of Kodi addon directly, but if such an addon exists, I'm not aware of it. Since most people who utilize TV tuners want a way tor record or timeshift programs, and therefore need to install a PVR backend to get that capability, and since most of the PVR backends already have some way to import schedule data and deliver it to Kodi's EPG, my guess is that the Kodi developers may not want to reinvent the wheel for the relative handful of people that have no desire to watch anything other than live TV.

Thanks for the reply. I did some playing around with TvHeadEnd last night, and it does look promising. I got all my channels to scan using the OpenELEC backend install, and channel selection within Kodi was quick. I did not have any luck generating the EPG data using the OTA option. I assume this uses EIT data embedded into the broadcast channels, which may be the only way to get EPG data for channels that span different cities. I'm not sure how other services handles this, but I know that Schedules Direct requires you to enter a single zip code for the listings. Edit: This (multiple listings) may actually be possible with SD. I know MythTV supports EIT, and I could install it on my NAS running Ubuntu, but would like to get TVHeadEnd running since it is so quick and simple.

[pcdude]

You can do this with PseudoTV Live easily. Just have to put in a bit of effort.

Does PseudoTV Live integrate as a PVR backend through the "Live TV" menu, or is is accessed via Programs - addons?

[bry]

I replaced my live tv menu with a direct link to PseudoTV Live and kept the label of live tv. Comparison below
https://m.imgur.com/a/TS6na

[pcdude]

I replaced my live tv menu with a direct link to PseudoTV Live and kept the label of live tv. Comparison below
https://m.imgur.com/a/TS6na

How exactly did you do this? Can you map a video source folder to "Live TV".

[ChipsAhoy]

I'm doing this very easily using the TV Guide add-on. I've even created a hybrid EPG which displays what's playing on Sling TV in addition to the OTA channels. Here's how:

1) Make each HDHomerun channel that you'd like to watch a favorite.
2) Create an account at schedulesdirect.org and create lineups for each of the sources you'd like to include
3) use mc2xml to export the EPG in xmltv format and place the resulting file in an accessible directory
4) Use the TV Guide add-on to read the EPG and launch the desired channel
5) You can replace the channel numbers in the listing with icons if you so desire. Just be sure to name the icon exactly the same as the channel name in your listing. (like "45 ESPN2.png")

This works across my entire network on all devices (FireTV, iOS, etc). The beautiful part is, the guide contains ONLY the channels I'm interested in, without all the extraneous garbage.

The final hurdle I'm trying to figure out is a way to launch the Sling TV app when one of those channels is selected. It seems that will require either a change to the TV Guide add-on, or a new add-on that will launch the Sling app.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

[oldtvwatcher]

2) Create an account at schedulesdirect.org and create lineups for each of the sources you'd like to include

Just FYI, you do not need to use a pay service if you don't want to. mc2xml can grab free listings from Microsoft. Some people (that I suspect are shilling for the paid service) may try to convince you that it's illegal or immoral in some way to do so, but the program supports it and no one has ever got in any trouble for doing it, so it's up to you.

EDIT: Here is a link that explains a bit more about this. It's on a site about satellite TV reception but the information in that article is valid for getting guide data for over-the-air stations also. There are other links at the bottom of that article that may also be informative/useful.

[ChipsAhoy]

xbmclinuxuser:

I was able to grab the listings with mc2xml just fine for free, but I wasn't able to easily get exactly the lineup I wanted that way. Getting specific channels from multiple sources seemed to require a great deal of massaging of the datafile after the fact, and quite a bit of effort on the front end as well . Did I overlook something?

I believe I could have registered with TitanTV as a developer and used my custom listing from there, which was free, but it all seemed like a lot of work when I could just pay $2/mo to get exactly what I wanted instantly.

In any case, the link you provided is a good one, and made for some interesting reading. I'm sure there are folks who will happily put in the time to get the data for free.

[pcdude]

I'm doing this very easily using the TV Guide add-on. I've even created a hybrid EPG which displays what's playing on Sling TV in addition to the OTA channels. Here's how:

1) Make each HDHomerun channel that you'd like to watch a favorite.
2) Create an account at schedulesdirect.org and create lineups for each of the sources you'd like to include
3) use mc2xml to export the EPG in xmltv format and place the resulting file in an accessible directory
4) Use the TV Guide add-on to read the EPG and launch the desired channel
5) You can replace the channel numbers in the listing with icons if you so desire. Just be sure to name the icon exactly the same as the channel name in your listing. (like "45 ESPN2.png")

This works across my entire network on all devices (FireTV, iOS, etc). The beautiful part is, the guide contains ONLY the channels I'm interested in, without all the extraneous garbage.

The final hurdle I'm trying to figure out is a way to launch the Sling TV app when one of those channels is selected. It seems that will require either a change to the TV Guide add-on, or a new add-on that will launch the Sling app.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Is there a reason you chose the TV Guide addon over PseudoTV Live? And thanks for your explanation. I will probably do something along the same lines as I have Sling TV as well. I'm not holding my breath about integrating Sling with Kodi, however, especially since most of my boxes I plan on running this from are running OpenELEC or Linux. Even their Windows app leaves a lot to be desired (i.e. no remote or keyboard control).

[ChipsAhoy]

I'm doing this very easily using the TV Guide add-on. I've even created a hybrid EPG which displays what's playing on Sling TV in addition to the OTA channels. Here's how:

1) Make each HDHomerun channel that you'd like to watch a favorite.
2) Create an account at schedulesdirect.org and create lineups for each of the sources you'd like to include
3) use mc2xml to export the EPG in xmltv format and place the resulting file in an accessible directory
4) Use the TV Guide add-on to read the EPG and launch the desired channel
5) You can replace the channel numbers in the listing with icons if you so desire. Just be sure to name the icon exactly the same as the channel name in your listing. (like "45 ESPN2.png")

This works across my entire network on all devices (FireTV, iOS, etc). The beautiful part is, the guide contains ONLY the channels I'm interested in, without all the extraneous garbage.

The final hurdle I'm trying to figure out is a way to launch the Sling TV app when one of those channels is selected. It seems that will require either a change to the TV Guide add-on, or a new add-on that will launch the Sling app.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Is there a reason you chose the TV Guide addon over PseudoTV Live? And thanks for your explanation. I will probably do something along the same lines as I have Sling TV as well. I'm not holding my breath about integrating Sling with Kodi, however, especially since most of my boxes I plan on running this from are running OpenELEC or Linux. Even their Windows app leaves a lot to be desired (i.e. no remote or keyboard control).

I didn't really look at PseudoTV Live as the TV Guide add-on seemed simpler to set up and did exactly what I wanted. I'd be curious to hear from anyone who's tried them both.

[pcdude]

I didn't really look at PseudoTV Live as the TV Guide add-on seemed simpler to set up and did exactly what I wanted. I'd be curious to hear from anyone who's tried them both.

I've been trying both, and I like the simplicity of TV Guide. I need to learn how to edit the channels and all that, but I like the responsiveness versus PseudoTV Live. I'll probably end up with your setup, so any tips would be appreciated.

EDIT: I read your steps in the above post, and I think I understand now. I'm using .strm files for the HDHomeRun sources, and that seems to work well. I can use mc2xml to rename and remove channels. How do you set this up across all your Kodi devices? Can you just copy the source.db file, or can you set it up to point to a shared folder? Thanks.

[ChipsAhoy]

How do you set this up across all your Kodi devices? Can you just copy the source.db file, or can you set it up to point to a shared folder? Thanks.

Yep, I just have mc2xml save the xmltv file to an NAS share and have all my devices access it from there.

[pcdude]

How do you set this up across all your Kodi devices? Can you just copy the source.db file, or can you set it up to point to a shared folder? Thanks.

Yep, I just have mc2xml save the xmltv file to an NAS share and have all my devices access it from there.

Yes, but how do you share the source.db file that holds the stream source locations and channel order information? Or do you need to set this up on each Kodi box?