[Praxidice]

Is there any way to configure kodi to view / record live tv (ie DVB-T) without a backend. I've looked at both tvheadend and myth and found them impossible to configure due to unnecessarily complex setups, extremely poor support and lack of comprehensive documentation. Those things are abortions suited only to people without a life. Not all of us wish to spend every waking hour tinkering with crap software. Whilst I really want to avoid anything to do with Windoze, I suspect I'll have no option but to resort to MCE as it is at least user-friendly. I seriously doubt that any tvheadend or Myth type has ever contended with the WAF issue because they would be permanently relegated to the doghouse if they inflicted their software on SWAMBO. Kodi is at least halfway logical but .it is held back considerably by its 'apparent' reliance on garbage like tvheadend and Myth. Surely it shouldn't be necessary to fall back on a Windoze backend simply to get Kodi talking to a live tv channel. Even the folk at Redmond managed to get MCE working without a stupid database..

[Dangelus]

Running TVHeadend with no issues whatsoever with my HDHomerun.

Set up in about 30 minutes.

To answer your question, I'm pretty sure it's a no. Kodi just runs client software, you require a backend.

[Praxidice]

Running TVHeadend with no issues whatsoever with my HDHomerun.

Set up in about 30 minutes.

To answer your question, I'm pretty sure it's a no. Kodi just runs client software, you require a backend.

I've wasted the best part of a week stuffing around with $#%_%Y tvheadend withouit making any progress at all.!!

If Microsoft can design MCE that doesn't need a separate backend and database and that works out of the box, why can't the linux community at least match it without turning the exercise into a command performance ?

I went through the incomprehensible documentation maze years ago when I needed to understand FreeBSD (primarily sendmail / apache) and ended up writing my own documentation which was later incorporated into the official line. Seems some sections of the linux community have yet to figure how to write intelligible documentation. At least Kodi is halfway intuitive so documentation isn't the drawback it would otherwise be but I sincerely hope some developer figures a way to get away from uber-complex backends.

Now here's a possibility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIcqoBxlDPw

Will check it out shortly, anything is worth trying to avoid dealing with backends designed to take every waking moment of my time for the next five years

[Prof Yaffle]

I've set up back ends on Windows and Linux, I've tried many of them - some are harder than others, yes - none take weeks. I can set up tvheadend from scratch in about 5 minutes, although I know it well so I have an advantage. But I think you're being unfair: most (not all) backends don't require a separate database, for example (tvheadend certainly doesn't, it uses JSON files for most of its storage).

If you have a specific issue, I'm sure people can help you. If you want to generalise and say "it's all crap", then there's not really much anyone can do to assist.

Oh, and for the record - spouse and two children under 10, all can use Kodi as a front end to watch live TV, SWMBO can also set timers quite happily through the web interface. That's why I have a NAS full of cookery programmes...

[Praxidice]

Some may well be capable of configuring tvheadend in a few minutes but it took me two days to find a download and several more trying to figure how to configure it with the woefully inadequate documentation. Its still not working after a week hat the official documentation completely ignores and I'm not confident that it will ever work unless I find some tutorial which covers all the essential points. If it turns out that there is no option but using a backend then so be it, however before then I wish to pursue every possibility of getting live tv working by way of a plugin / add-on..

My setup is as basic as it is possible to have. 32 bit Ubuntu 16.04, Sony PlayTV and DVB-T (which is the only option in most parts of Australia). I have conflicting indications regarding the status of drivers and firmware, although there are no dmesg errors and tvheadend 'apparently' recognizes the tuner as it mentions two DiBcom 700 tuners (ie the PlayTV).. Thats where the wheels fall off. The automatic scan doesn't work, there is no 'scan' button and no obvious way to populate the EPG. Documentation doesn't even begin to cover these issues and all the tvheadend forum types could contribute was that I should have used an official tvheadend download which was impossible due to the moronic key arrrangement that has more bugs than the Amazon and official repositories that don't have the tvheadend file. I did manage to find a non-official site which had the file, but that got me in the bad books because of assertions that it compromized my system (no indications that it did). I do notice that there is a tvheadend port in FreeBSD so that might be an option as FreeBSD folk wouldn't have a bar of that key business. I do have a fair bit of FreeBSD experience albeit mostly to do with webservers / mainservers ie Apache and sendmail). Multimedia has never been a high priority in FreeBSD so its anyone's guess if tvheadend and Kodi are well supported.

Is there any reason why Kodi can't handle live tv without a backend ? What i'm looking for is the ultimate in simplicity which translates to 'the less bits to go wrong, the happier my life is'.

[Praxidice]

Running TVHeadend with no issues whatsoever with my HDHomerun.

Set up in about 30 minutes.

To answer your question, I'm pretty sure it's a no. Kodi just runs client software, you require a backend.

I'm using Sony Play TV tuners as they reportedly work out of the box,and the Homeruns I have display a glitch which makes them unusable without a few network changes that I'm not prepared to do n the near future. A lot of investigation has revealed they are incompatible with the router and cannot accept a DHCP address, hence the Play TVs. There are multiple unanswered questions with the Play TVs however. Whilst they 'appear' to have been discovered by tvheadend, I've yet to find how to convince them to scan for channels. The automatic scan suggested in documentation doesn't work and if there is a manual 'scan' button, its nowhere visible. Someone was on about different firmware but as far as I'm aware there is no different firmware for Australia and for that matter, I've never had firmware issues with other devices simply because the operating system changed. Over the years I've moved hundreds if not thousands of printers, scanners, modems, routers and whatever from one operating system to another with nary a thought about firmware changes. Why FFS would Sony Play TVs need special firmware for linux ?

Interestingly, the Play TVs work fine in Windoze although I'd much prefer not to go that route.

All in all, my experience with this backend business has shown its more trouble than it is worth, which is why I wish to explore any available options that allow Kodi to view live tv by way of a plugin or add-on and no backend.