[Dumyat]

Hi @ksooo 
Think I might have accidently stumbled upon a small bug when playing live radio from my tuner. It would be good to see if you get the same behaviour on your set-up.
On my Matrix set-up using the stock version of Estuary if I select a radio channel from either the guide or TV channel window when playback starts, both the OSD and info panel appear along with any poster artwork from the backend (just like live TV).  This was using NextPVR as the backend.

However, if I press back once so the OSD buttons disappear and then press the 'UP' button on my remote for the next radio channel when playback starts neither the OSD or info panel appears (just a blank screen). When I press OK on my remote, only the OSD appears, with time-shift activated and I have to back right out to the main menu and then to full screen mode. If I then press ok on the remote again both the OSD and info panel appears.
Shouldn't moving up/down radio channels this way behave just like live TV channels, ie as stated in the first paragraph above? I also noticed the exact same thing happens when you press another channel number on your remote instead of using Up/Down (minus time-shift being activated).
I wasn't sure if this is the expected behaviour, but it seemed like it may be a bug.

Give it a try when you get a moment and see if you observe the same happening.

[emveepee]

I'm not ksooo but I don't see what you see.  When I hit back I go the main menu just like TV.  Also I use the info key to toggle the OSD not back.   Up/Down work like I expect them and they will change channels.  I also an audio visualizer to avoid a totally blank screen in Radio

If I  activate the OSD navigation panel up/down do just toggle between the seek bar and buttons though, but there is a channel change button.  Is that maybe what you are seeing?

Martin

[Dumyat]

Hmmm, well that is strange then.
I see the exact same behaviour as described in my original post on both the default version of Estuary and my own skin mod of Estuary, which isn't that much of a surprise since the code is now identical. But as I recall, you tend to use the Estuary skin as well, which does beg the question why I'm seeing something different to you (If you are still using Estuary)?

Rather than trying to elaborate even further, it's maybe an idea if I post a wee video capturing the entire event right the point of selecting a radio channel on the guide screen. Having something visual to look at is probably better, as my radio channels definitely behave differently to my Live TV channels when I select them. I thought they should behave in the same way and was curious why this was not the case, hence asking the question in my original post.

As always, I'm just trying to help out by communicating any kind of weirdness I observe in Kodi. I'll try and post a video in the next day or two. 
If anybody wants to investigate further after that, it's entirely up to them.

Thanks for your reply though.

[emveepee]

Maybe you remap Back?  

Martin

[Dumyat]

Hi Martin,
Apologies, I missed your reply.
Anyway, I had a chance to create a wee video, as per the below link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuZ_tyvrb8M

As you will see, when I select the first radio channel when playback begins, the OSD info panel appears (programme details) and when I press OK on my remote, I get the navigation OSD buttons.
But when I press UP for the next station, I see the programme info panel briefly while channel is switching, but when playback actually begins and I press OK on my remote, all I see are the navigation OSD buttons. 

However, looking again today, I think the issue is perhaps caused by just how long it takes my radio channels to actually start the playback, since Live TV channels open pretty much immediately when using the UP/Down channel switching feature. 
So it's maybe not a bug, but just a general slowness of playback starting on my FM radio channels. I also noticed today, that I don't necessarily need to back right out to main home menu, then full screen to see the info panel with the programme details when the 2nd channel starts playback. I can just use the info button when playback starts, instead of using the OK button.
Think I might add the info button to the navigation OSD on my own skin mod, as that does not seem to be included on the default version of Estuary.
Will mark thread as solved.

[emveepee]

That makes sense, I have read DVB radio (I assume you aren't using FM) takes a while to buffer, and it might not be optimized for Kodi by the NextPVR backend.  For timeshifted radio channels the addon also waits for 50,000 bytes so it would be interesting to see if turning off makes a difference.  I might be able to reduce that a little for radio.

Also for BBC in the UK I'd be tempted to try adding an IPTV channel and flagging it as radio since you do get 320k streams.  Something like this.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:0 tvg-id="" radio="true"  tvg-chno="2",BBC 2
http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/man...o_two.m3u8

Martin

[Dumyat]

Also for BBC in the UK I'd be tempted to try adding an IPTV channel and flagging it as radio since you do get 320k streams.  Something like this.

That's a really good idea. The strm you posted opened real fast in VLC, so hopefully it might be as good in Kodi.

I tried disabling timeshift on my current radio channels to play in real time, but can't say I actually noticed any significant difference.

Yeah, I'm just using radio from DVB tuner at the moment. I must admit I'm quite taken with the idea of receiving RDS radio, but from what I've read on the web and heard from other users here is that it's kind of limited to the TVH addon. Is that correct? I did find a cheap USB tuner on Amazon that states it receives both DAB and RDS broadcasts, but didn't want to buy something it if wasn't what I needed or would only do the job via TVH.  

In the meantime, I will try and create a m3u list of radio channels and see if that approach is better. I found a good site a couple of weeks back, so should fairly straight forward.
Thanks

[Fuchs2468]

@Dumyat

You won't get any RDS info with nextpvr.
I tested it today. That means before you buy a new tuner, you should first test your old tuner with Tvheadend.
If it is a digital tuner, it should also provide RDS. 

Unfortunately i could not find all available channels with NextPVR either. (no channel on mux 458Mhz)

[emveepee]

No NextPVR doesn't support RDS and I think only TVHeadend supports that. My preference is IPTV radio anyway because of the many 1000s of channels we get, and there is no RDS or DVB radio here in Canada.  NextPVR can also capture true FM radio on Linux through /dev/radio and Windows with DirectShow and also through digital clear QAM so there is still plenty of choice.

Off topic but NextPVR uses libdvbv5 for scanning, which should be the same as TVHeadend, so often it is just the scanning file that comes with your version of Linux, so using the TVHeadend DTV scanning file could make a difference.  Feel to post a support question on the NextPVR forum.

Martin

[Dumyat]

Thanks guys for all the info.
I regularly read comments from users who use TVHeadend which often seem to suggest it has more functionality. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Linux and TVH is pretty much zero.
I've always been primarily a Windows user. Plus I've read in the past that TVH can be quite an effort to set things up initially (Unless you know what your doing). If I can fish out a really good tutorial somewhere on YouTube that would show how to install and set up Linux, TVH and Kodi, then it would certainly be worth investing some time learning something new.
Thanks again for all the info.
Cheers

[Fuchs2468]

Off topic but NextPVR uses libdvbv5 for scanning, which should be the same as TVHeadend, so often it is just the scanning file that comes with your version of Linux, so using the TVHeadend DTV scanning file could make a difference.  Feel to post a support question on the NextPVR forum.

My mux data for the scan file are identical for Nextpvr and Tvheadend. 
That is not the problem.