[atharmian]

(Also posted this in the Kodi Arctic Zephyr-Reloaded forums, #5277
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...2&page=352
)

I am on AZR Nexus and the menus set up are working fine, with Live TV menu handled by TVLink PVR on my PC x86 11.1.0 https://alexelec.tv/ distro, a fork of CoreElec.

I just also installed a second PVR, Simple IPTV (the default one.) Both PVRs show in my installed repo list and are enabled.

So now how do I select the PVR Simple to show in a menu ? I have used the Matt Huismann IPTV Merge addon to merge channels and EPG from Plex Live (another Matt Huismann video addon) and channels from the SONY Crackle video addon. Apparently things went fine, and there were no errors...

When I go to Live TV, it only shows a single list of sub menus (Live Channels, Last Played, etc.), and from what I assume, this Live TV menu is tied to my first PVR, TVLink.

In the default Estuary menu, it is the same situation: only TVLink PVR channels and info are displayed under the TV menu to the left. 

So how are people using multiple PVRs?

[phunkyfish]

All channels, regardless of the number of PVRs installed are shown in the same menus.

Can you try to disable the TVLink PVR and see if there are channels loaded? This would at least let you see if iptvsimple is loaded correctly.

[atharmian]

All channels, regardless of the number of PVRs installed are shown in the same menus.

Can you try to disable the TVLink PVR and see if there are channels loaded? This would at least let you see if iptvsimple is loaded correctly.

@phunkyfish 

Thanks again for help, after the multi-PVR install thread !

Here is my kodi log, with notes below: https://paste.kodi.tv/tasehuxuda.kodi

1. I am using AE PCx86 11.1.1 from https://alexelec.tv/ which is Nexus, and with Estuary and Arctic Zephyr-Reloaded skins.

AZR of course has custom menu shortcuts, including e.g., Live TV menu, from Live TV shortcut (appearing under custom skin configurations), which doesn't really show different installed PVRs.
Same for default Estuary skin Kodi> TV main menu, which shows a unified Guide, Channels, Timers etc menus (as you mention above.)

2. So, with initially both TVLink and Simple IPTV enabled, I disabled TVLink PVR and rebooted.

In AZR skin I could see that the Live TV menu had switched only to the Plex Live addon menu of 382 channels and 2 groups (Plex Live and USA), with a prior top right notification showing Simple IPTV PVR was loading channels. The TVLink server playlists disappeared.
Same for Kodi > TV under Estuary skin.

Besides the 2 playlists from TVLink Server, I am using the IPTV Merge addon to configure playlist/epg from the Plex Live Kodi Repo addon:
https://www.matthuisman.nz/2019/02/iptv-...dd-on.html

I took this to mean that Kodi had switched Live TV from TVlink PVR to Simple IPTV PVR.

Note that there are plugin.video.youtube errors (different problem, likely from Nexus incompatibilties) and network problems (bad wifi- re-establishing connection played channels again.) Also many deleted repos nagging here.

3. I then re-enabled the TVLink PVR, with PVR Simple still enabled, no reboot. The Live TV under both skins showed TVLink playlists groups and the Plex Live playlist groups (which the IPTV Merge addon is supposed to forward to PVR Simple.) Thus, back to the original condition.

Here note that, as discussed earlier in the other thread, TVLink PVR is forked from PVR Simple. 
Also I had configured in Kodi PVR & Live TV menu > Client priorities 2 (higher) for PVR Simple, and 1 for PVR TVLink.

3. I tried installing a 3rd PVR, HTS (TVHeadend) as experiment, but the install kept failing after initial download starting (maybe server problems.)

4. Regardless, why is it that separate PVR menus don't appear under Kodi > TV (Estuary) or Live TV shortcut menu (Arctic Zephyr) ?

A. How else would anyone configure these PVRs for different playlists (my objective) ?

E.g., TVLink is based on streamlink (live streams -only.) So it doesn't seem to support non-live youtube streams (ffmpeg buffering with separate .TS A/V streams, vs HLS for live streams.) But TVLink is excellent with all kinds of live stream sources.
However all youtube streams should play fine in PVR Simple with plugin.video.youtube formatting, but this requires constant updates due to YouTube API changes.

B. Could some hack like renaming pvr.iptvsimple work, as I had read about in an years old Kodi Forum thread re: multiple PVR instances?

[phunkyfish]

Multiple instancing support in Nexus won't help you, it only works for a single add-on, i.e. I want three instances of iptvsimple each with different M3Us and EPGs. Your problem is that TVLink was forked, but not correctly modified to be a separate distinct add-on. That is what needs to be fixed, but in the pvr.tvlink repo.

Also, looking at your log I can't support you here. You have banned add-ons installed (those in orange). If you want help please create a fresh install with only tvlink, iptvsimple and iptvmerge installed and provide a fresh log.

[emveepee]

Not only banned add-ons, it's a duplicate post https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=371417

[atharmian]

Multiple instancing support in Nexus won't help you, it only works for a single add-on, i.e. I want three instances of iptvsimple each with different M3Us and EPGs. Your problem is that TVLink was forked, but not correctly modified to be a separate distinct add-on. That is what needs to be fixed, but in the pvr.tvlink repo.

Also, looking at your log I can't support you here. You have banned add-ons installed (those in orange). If you want help please create a fresh install with only tvlink, iptvsimple and iptvmerge installed and provide a fresh log.

@phunkyfish 

As I explained above in #2 point, I do not have any banned addons installed. As soon as someone had raised objections in the AZR Kodi Forum, I had removed them a while ago. But those repo traces persist: there is no indication of banned addons installed from the log.

The problem is that even with a fresh install, I will need to restore my hard done backup settings, which contain these non-removable traces.

If someone can explain how to remove these repo traces, I will gladly proceed and make a new backup.

1. Now if you or someone else can provide additional insights, I will appreciate them. And I will get in touch again with the pvr.tvlink dev ! 

2. Yes I now understand the difference between concurrent installs of different PVRs on existing Kodi verisons and Nexus additional ability to allow multi-instance installs of same PVR (available for PVRs Simple IPTV?, NextPVR and HTS.)

So you are saying that if pvr.tvlink becomes a "distinct" PVR, multiple PVRs will then show up as selectable in Kodi > TV menu?

And users will then be able to assign different or same playlists to each PVR; and then these PVRs will be individually viewable (e.g., under custom skin shortcut menus)? At least that's what I thought should multiple PVR installs do !

3. Where can I find some doc for Nexus multi instance PVR Simple (or PVR HTS) install and usage as in #2? Want to try this out.

[atharmian]

Not only banned add-ons, it's a duplicate post https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=371417

@emveepee 

The post above is the same I had referred to earlier here on this thread, which is a different but related topic, resolved as it says in the last post #18 by me ! I had also requested closure.

To clarify, the previous thread (you quoted) talked about the inability to co-install TVLink with Simple IPTV. This was a TVLink issue that got fixed.

This thread says that co-install works, but the objective (different playlists as assigned to different PVRs being viewable, by display of PVRs avilable) does not !

This again seems a TVLink issue, likely identical path definitions that need be made distinct so Live TV feature assigns playlists to the correct PVR, and/or is able to display both PVRs.

I am assuming it would be normal for Live TV menu to display all enabled PVRs so one can be selected by custom skin shortcut menu for playback, in each separate shortcut menu, e.g., in Arctic Zephyr-Reloaded skin.

[emveepee]

If you resolved it, you must have had them working together before, go back to that configuration and find out what changed.  Then clean out all remnants of banned add-ons and come back if you need help.

Martin

[phunkyfish]

Kodi PVR shows you an aggregation of the enabled PVR add-ons. You cannot select a single PVR from the menu and show just those channels.

[atharmian]

Kodi PVR shows you an aggregation of the enabled PVR add-ons. You cannot select a single PVR from the menu and show just those channels.

@phunkyfish 

Interesting. Let's forget about TVLink in particular for now...
So, in general,
1. User installs multiple PVRs, e.g., PVR Simple, HTS, NextPVR.
2. User goes to each PVR settings to assign a specific playlist(s) for each PVR.
3. So how does a user select a specific PVR to play its specific playlist?
That is, is there a way other than going into Kodi- TV menu to select which PVR you want to run?
If not, what is the purpose of installing/running multiple PVRs ?

[Atreyu]

While menus are all populated with all PVR instances, you could filter by a number of criteria in the sideblade menu. Maybe that is something you could use ? It's what i do anyway, use the filter options.

[emveepee]

PVR uses channel groups for separating channels.  When I added multi-instance to pvr.nextpvr I added the option to create an optional internal all channels group by instance to deal with the issue. It can be use when there are multiple PVRs'

My uses for multiple instances with pvr.nextpvr

- may main backend runs as before in a headless server in the back room
- I have instances running on two VPS 1000's of km away mainly for recording.
- Watching live TV on CoreElec using the local install
- listening to FM radio with cheap SDR USB tuners
- testing NextPVR and Kodi. I have backends running on Windows, multiple Linux x64 aarch64, arm32, Docker (NAS), and CE/LE backends running a lot of time.  I can quickly install a new Kodi client and copy the instance xml files in and get running in minutes.  They can be turned on and off as needed and I don't have to keep changing IP, ports and credentials.

Martin

[phunkyfish]

Let’s take the case of physical PVR, like Enigma2 devices.

You have 2 in your home. You should be able to connect to both, correct?

Similarly if you have two IPTV providers you should be able to run two providers on a single kodi device.

I can see the need to be able to filter down to a single PVR/provider. But it’s not something that has been implemented yet. Nor am I sure it will be.

[atharmian]

1.
@Atreyu 

Thanks. So you are saying that I will be able to select one of multiple PVRs from the sidebar?
But @phunkyfish now seems to say something different !
In any case I have to wait to check...

2.
@emveepee 
I understand use cases. My questions always have been about differentiating PVRs to play !

3.
@phunkyfish 

Now this is a different story, not clarified anywhere !

A. So you are saying that multi-PVR means the ability to assign different playlists to different PVRs, but then streaming can be output only from a single PVR because all the streams are combined into one Guide, Channel List etc (as shown by Kodi> Live TV menu)?

B. Can this PVR be selected, or there is one default PVR? Which one is default PVR?

C. Can this default be changed, and how?

4. By the way, I have been trying to build a fresh install with IPTV Merge +Plex Live, PVR Simple and PVR TVLink.

Unluckily, from my AlexElec 11.1.0 build, slyguy (IPTV Merge) repo was down, and the LibreElec repo has been down for about 18 hours since last night, EST. My WiFi is working and I am able to look at items in other repos. (Still don't know why PVRs are listed under LibreElec repo but not Kodi Repo !) 

Will keep trying... all this confusing/conflicting info needs to be sorted out !

[emveepee]

@atharmian did you read me comment about channel groups?  That is one way you can differentiate PVR backends and you can break channels into whatever "playlists" you'd like, and select them via the blade or what mechanism your skin provides.

Martin