2012-09-20, 22:04
Being a MediaPortal user/developer for many years and a ForTheRecord user for over a year I have enjoyed the perpetual challenge of setting up the 'perfect' HTPC. I am always looking for the 'bigger and better deal'. 
MediaPortal was my main software of choice for many years, mainly because I am a c# developer and I could expand/create plugins. But I always loved the setup simplicity, quick and slick looking interface of XBMC. The only missing piece was PVR integration. Then PVR was added to XBMC and Margro quickly added MediaPortal support. While it worked great it was missing advanced scheduling features, thus the need for ForTheRecord integration. While I also love ForTheRecord it is missing HD-PVR & Colossus support and I had to integrated it with MediaPortal to use my tuners and have the advanced scheduling. So the search for a single Windows back-end was still on...
Then yesterday sub3 (NextPVR developer) posted on a thread about the NextPVR software. It has advanced scheduling, web guide, supports the tuners I use and sub3 is working hard on XBMC PVR integration. He invited me to try out his addon so I decided to install it and give it a go.
Installation went very smooth and configuration was very intuitive (for me anyway.) I followed the guides and configured the tuners, codecs and added the guide information. Its integrated schedules direct support was great and I was able to import my channels for the HD-PVR's without hassle. I scanned the ATSC channels on the HDHomeRun and tied it to schedules direct guide.
After the guide import finished I exited the configuration and went immediately to the guide, selected a channel and everything worked great. Never have I had a piece of software install and configure so quickly. Maybe it was the experience I've gained configuring MediaPortal and ForTheRecord over the years, I can't really say.
Now that the core NextPVR software was configured, sub3 sent me some files to replace to add XBMC PVR support (they will be included in the next version.) After copying the files I pulled the latest version of the PVR addon from sub3's github repository, compiled and installed them on my XBMC machine. After a few small issues sub3 assisted me with, I was up and running XBMC with NextPVR back-end. The channels and guide data populated without issue and live tv worked without a hitch. Channel change times are exactly the same as when I used MediaPortal and ForTheRecord. I tried a few recordings and again they worked without issues.
Although it is still work in progress, Live TV, Guide data and Recordings are all working very well in XBMC. Timers are a non-issue as I can use the web guide to schedule Series recordings. Overall it looks very promising and will be a competitor in the near future.
Sub3 said he has only been working on integration for a few weeks, so I am very excited to see what he can do in the next few weeks
MediaPortal was my main software of choice for many years, mainly because I am a c# developer and I could expand/create plugins. But I always loved the setup simplicity, quick and slick looking interface of XBMC. The only missing piece was PVR integration. Then PVR was added to XBMC and Margro quickly added MediaPortal support. While it worked great it was missing advanced scheduling features, thus the need for ForTheRecord integration. While I also love ForTheRecord it is missing HD-PVR & Colossus support and I had to integrated it with MediaPortal to use my tuners and have the advanced scheduling. So the search for a single Windows back-end was still on...
Then yesterday sub3 (NextPVR developer) posted on a thread about the NextPVR software. It has advanced scheduling, web guide, supports the tuners I use and sub3 is working hard on XBMC PVR integration. He invited me to try out his addon so I decided to install it and give it a go.
Installation went very smooth and configuration was very intuitive (for me anyway.) I followed the guides and configured the tuners, codecs and added the guide information. Its integrated schedules direct support was great and I was able to import my channels for the HD-PVR's without hassle. I scanned the ATSC channels on the HDHomeRun and tied it to schedules direct guide.
After the guide import finished I exited the configuration and went immediately to the guide, selected a channel and everything worked great. Never have I had a piece of software install and configure so quickly. Maybe it was the experience I've gained configuring MediaPortal and ForTheRecord over the years, I can't really say.
Now that the core NextPVR software was configured, sub3 sent me some files to replace to add XBMC PVR support (they will be included in the next version.) After copying the files I pulled the latest version of the PVR addon from sub3's github repository, compiled and installed them on my XBMC machine. After a few small issues sub3 assisted me with, I was up and running XBMC with NextPVR back-end. The channels and guide data populated without issue and live tv worked without a hitch. Channel change times are exactly the same as when I used MediaPortal and ForTheRecord. I tried a few recordings and again they worked without issues.
Although it is still work in progress, Live TV, Guide data and Recordings are all working very well in XBMC. Timers are a non-issue as I can use the web guide to schedule Series recordings. Overall it looks very promising and will be a competitor in the near future.
Sub3 said he has only been working on integration for a few weeks, so I am very excited to see what he can do in the next few weeks
I still have a lot to learn about NPVR 