Help a newbie please?

1st Official Post

    Hi,

    I'm totally new to kodi and LibreElec, not that much experience with Linux systems either. So I've been trying to set up PVR for a while now and through extensive googling I've found some pointers and hints to what I should do but I just can't get it to work. Also in the process I've realized this is a common problem, setting it up isn't exactly plug and play.

    So I thought if I could ask here for some advice. I've tried to look at tutorials, manuals and documentations of specific PVR add-ons, but they're either outdated by years or very vague in terms of what I should do. I'm gonna try to explain what I've tried to do so far and how my system is set up, but please forgive me as english isn't my first language (although I'm capable of understanding and writing, some technical terms aren't always exactly spot-on). My post might appear confusing as it has lots of questions, so I've bolded the most important ones.

    So, First of all I'm using the latest LibreElec, (I'd think, since I downloaded it yesterday.)

    My PVR card is Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T PCI, which is supported according to this list by linuxtv (found this list on some tutorial, don't remember which one exactly).

    However, I don't know if Kodi recognizes the card. Can I check that somewhere in the UI? When I go to Settings -> System Settings -> Input, at the very top of the screen it says "Peripherals", which is grayed out. Should the PVR card appear here if it's recognized?

    I'm guessing this is the first question I need to solve before moving on. How do I know my PVR card is recognized by the system?

    Next would be the actual PVR add-on. So I tried MythTV, and then went into Settings -> PVR & Live-TV settings and I tried to scan for channels. Got this message that none of the enabled PVR add-ons support channel scanning. I googled that error message and someone said here that this is for scanning the channels from the backend after you've done that in the mythtv-setup (Although in the tooltip box at the lower part of the window it says "Instruct the backend to search for channels (if supported)"). But I didn't get any sort of setup thing when I installed the add-on and if I go to the add-on's configuration, there isn't an option for scanning channels. So how exactly do I initiate channel scanning properly?

    These guides also talk about MythTV backend and frontend and whether they run on the same machine or different machines. This confuses me as I'm wondering if the add-on I installed is only the frontend or does it include both? In my situation I need to run them on the same machine.

    I've also tried to install other PVR add-ons, but I can't seem to find an option in the system settings as to which one I'm using currently. It doesn't have to be MythTV so if there are any easier or better ones please do give your recommendations.

    I realize this is a very common issue, so I'm not expecting anyone to walk me through and hold my hand all the way. Just please steer in me right direction?

    Thanks in advance and sorry again if the post is confusing, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here.

    Edited 2 times, last by LinuxNewb (March 22, 2018 at 9:44 AM).

    I am only familiar with the Raspberri Pi interface, but one thing that comes to mind .... when you say you installed the MythTv PVR, was it a client you installed? (was it under a client menu?) Then I would say you have the client, but not the backend server, which the client needs. The backend can be on the same machine, if it can be installed on that machine, and the machine is powerful enough to support both front end and back end at the same time.

    I use the tvheadend PVR.

    I have installed and run mythtv before, but never tried to get it to recognize a capture card. Mythtv uses mysql, which sometimes does not gracefully start at first depending on machine and installation.

    Edited once, last by elrd (March 23, 2018 at 1:15 AM).

    • Official Post

    If you want to use MythTV you'll need to provide your own MythTV server as we don't ship one. We do provide Tvheadend though; so clean reinstall the OS to the SD card (as it's quicker than clearing stuff out) and then add Tvheadend (server) from the "services" section of our add-on repo. Go to the web interface on your_box_ip:9981 and follow the basic setup wizard there. If tvh (not Kodi) can see the Hauppague hardware; drivers are good and then you'll get somewhere. If no hardware, use the driver select add-on to load the (not in-kernel) Hauppague drivers and rinse-repeat. Once you have TVH server configured and finding channels etc. you can go back to our repo and load the Tvheadend (client) from the Kodi PVR add-ons section. Kodi GUI loads the client at startup; which talks to the TVH server which runs in the background.

    Quote from chewitt

    If you want to use MythTV you'll need to provide your own MythTV server as we don't ship one. We do provide Tvheadend though; so clean reinstall the OS to the SD card (as it's quicker than clearing stuff out) and then add Tvheadend (server) from the "services" section of our add-on repo. Go to the web interface on your_box_ip:9981 and follow the basic setup wizard there. If tvh (not Kodi) can see the Hauppague hardware; drivers are good and then you'll get somewhere. If no hardware, use the driver select add-on to load the (not in-kernel) Hauppague drivers and rinse-repeat. Once you have TVH server configured and finding channels etc. you can go back to our repo and load the Tvheadend (client) from the Kodi PVR add-ons section. Kodi GUI loads the client at startup; which talks to the TVH server which runs in the background.

    Kudos to you sir, I got it working with TVheadend. Thank you very much.