[programx]

Hi,

As a Windows Media Center user, I've got a sweet set-up that "just works" and requires minimal maintenance and also has WAF. It's a brilliant solution. However, as you'll know, Microsoft are no longer supporting it and this is starting to show in small but vital aspects such as TV guide data.

I need to find an alternative, and Kodi seems to be the ideal.

It's difficult to research around this, considering some of the highly technical and regional aspects associated with the topic. Given the features below, which are the most valued aspects of our current set-up, how does Kodi support features or is there a workaround/alternative?

1. Recording/timeslipping from 2x FreeSat (UK) inputs
   
2. Guide with series record (would be nice to respect repeat avoidance)
   
3. Ability to watch [even currently recording] TV around the house (currently by XBox Media Extenders, but PCs, Pis are okay alternatives)
   
4. Windows Media Center remote control support (the 10-foot experience is important)
   
5. House-wide access to assets such as recordings, music, pictures
   
6. Picture screensaver from selected folder
   

It would be awesome if any of the following features could be supported, though these are by no means deal-breakers:

1. Access to OneDrive music/pictures
   
2. Spotify access
   

All these questions assume HD content. We are Isle of Man (northern British Isles) and receive a full FreeSat signal and basic FreeView signal. I "cheat" by using a Manchester postcode when I need to access guide data, if needed.

We'd appreciate some guidance on these features to help select Kodi as an option.

Thanks very much for your help.

Nathan

[nickr]

My advice;

turn your current machine into a linux machine and install mythtv.

get some rpis for each tv.

[AndyHenderson]

I'm an ex WMC user living on an island in the UK - Hayling in my case.

First, be prepared for an experience that is not as slick as WMC. Kodi is developed by a small group of volunteers - they do a great job, but they don't have the same resources as Microsoft. Having said that, there's quite a lot that Kodi can do that WMC can't. In my view, some IT expertise is necessary to keep Kodi running smoothly. You're likely to encounter occasional glitches. Restarting/rebooting fixes most things but an understanding of Windows definitely helps (I'm not talking professional level skills, but familiarity and a willingness to experiment a little).

I use DVBLogic software to run my tuners. That gives you the ability to distribute the TV signal around your house. Don't know about Xbox extenders, though. Kodi runs on loads of devices so if you can't use extenders then Raspberry Pi or an old PC/laptop will happily run Kodi to give you the same Kodi experience everywhere. If you go for DVBLogic (there are other options) I recommend getting it working stand-alone first. Get all your channels set up in the order you want them and in the groups that suit you in the DVBLogic software. That way, rescanning is relatively easy and - if you need to - you can rebuild the Kodi side automatically from the DVBLogic software.

As for what you are looking for:

1. Recording/timeslipping from 2x FreeSat (UK) inputs yes - I use the DVBLogic-provided add-in to link the DVBLogic server to Kodi; you don't say which tuner you use but DVBLogic supports most of them
   
2. Guide with series record (would be nice to respect repeat avoidance) yes - the guide comes from the Freesat feed (DVBLogic didn't cope with HD feeds for a while, but that's fixed now) - just pick the regional channels you want; I've not done a lot of recording but my experience with avoiding repeats has been mixed; the software has that option but it doesn't always work - I suspect the guide data is incomplete for some channels
   
3. Ability to watch [even currently recording] TV around the house (currently by XBox Media Extenders, but PCs, Pis are okay alternatives) yes with a DVBLogic setup - you can use either the DVBLogic player or multiple instances of Kodi
   
4. Windows Media Center remote control support (the 10-foot experience is important) yes, most functions work out of the box - some experimentation might be needed to get other buttons working the way you want. There's a plugin that converts some of the more tricky buttons to Kodi equivalents but, FWIW, I use a OneForAll remote and recode some of the buttons (such as Guide) to generate numbers which can easily be converted to Kodi commands using its key mapping files 
   
5. House-wide access to assets such as recordings, music, pictures yes via file shares across your network - you have a choice of running independent Kodis or using a shared SQL database to distribute meta data
   
6. Picture screensaver from selected folder several options
   

Hope that helps,

Andy

[jdlive]

I switched to using Kodi as the front end to my WMC setup many years ago. They can co-exist on the same machine(s) while you figure out what to do, I still flip back over to WMC at times. My suggestion would be to install Kodi and keep WMC as the backend DVR via ServerWMC. And use epg123 to solve the guide data problem. My WMC remote works just fine with Kodi. You will need another solution to replace the extenders but as long as the channels are not copy protected then there are a number of options such as the suggested Pi.

[programx]

Hi,

Thanks very much for your thoughts. Having just lost all my EPG data again for WMC I'm beginning to lose the will to live with the thought that I'm going to have to go through and remap everything again.

Hopefully I won't have the same exercise in frustration with Kodi.

It looks like it's not going to be a simple lift-and-shift. So, taking your suggestions, I'll take the "production" WMC box out of the living room and replace it with a Freesat OEM box whilst I get the former working satisfactorily. Hopefully this will let me optimise it as much as I can before releasing it back upon the family. Managing using a 10-foot experience is hardly enjoyable!

Many thanks again, I remain subscribed to this thread if you have any further thoughts.

Nathan

[AndyHenderson]

Hi,

Thanks very much for your thoughts. Having just lost all my EPG data again for WMC I'm beginning to lose the will to live with the thought that I'm going to have to go through and remap everything again.

Hopefully I won't have the same exercise in frustration with Kodi.

It looks like it's not going to be a simple lift-and-shift. So, taking your suggestions, I'll take the "production" WMC box out of the living room and replace it with a Freesat OEM box whilst I get the former working satisfactorily. Hopefully this will let me optimise it as much as I can before releasing it back upon the family. Managing using a 10-foot experience is hardly enjoyable!

Many thanks again, I remain subscribed to this thread if you have any further thoughts.

Nathan

 I think that's a good call. I use a Humax Freesat box to do my main viewing/recording. Very reliable and straightforward to use. I have a dual Freeview tuner in my media centre that I use for occasions when I need to record a third channel or I want one of the Freeview channels not on Freesat. That also gives me the option to distribute Freeview around the house. Have fun with Kodi.

Andy

[Plantje]

I switched from WMC to Kodi a few years ago and haven't regretted it since!

The basics from WMC are easy to be found and configured in Kodi. I use DVB Logic as well. Great tool!

Using the WMC keyboard and remote is a breeze.

There are only a few things that I miss:

• While playing a picture slide show the option to delete a picture (from the file system)
  
• While playing a picture slide show and music in party mode at the same time I would love to see the music information on the screen on song change
  

Actually, that's about it for the time being