Cord cutter, FTA, and a Great PVR

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RT-Cat

"My person-well trained"
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May 30, 2011
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Cold, Cold,Michigan USA
Now being an official "cord cutter", waiting for the return shipping box, an FTAer for a long time, I got to thinking about other cord cutters. I have been setting up and using a, IMO, fantastic program for OTA people so they have a good PVR. Some are also using it for receiving FTA. So, is anyone using the NextPVR program for their over the air TV and/or with satellite TV?
 
I use Npvr along with mc2xml for guide data with my silicon dust tuners.

More of a backup now as I use the Tivo Roamio as my prime OTA dvr. I do like having stuff on the computer already from Npvr, if I want to transfer to the laptop or tablet and take with me. I can pretty quickly run it thru VideoReDo to take out commercials.

I do occasionally, like once a month have to delete the xml library and rerun mc2xml setup. Something in the Rovi data changes and NPvr chokes on importing the xml data.

Haven't tried schedules direct with Npvr.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
 
I use MythTV as a backend for recording OTA and I use Kodi (aka XBMC) as a frontend for watching recorded content. It took a little bit of effort to set up, but it's been rock solid ever since. I'm just getting into FTA and am going to look into using a USB DVB-S dongle to integrate FTA with MythTV/Kodi.

I'll have to play with NextPVR someday for comparison.
 
I run TVHeadEnd for the backend and Kodi as the frontend. I used to use Mythbuntu for the backend and the Myth TV frontend but got frustrated by it. It's a good program when it actually works but if your backend and frontend aren't the same exact version they won't work together, which is really stupid because on Linux systems you are pretty much stuck with whatever version is in the repository for your distro. So if you upgrade the backend to a new version of Mythbuntu, you are pretty much forced to upgrade all your frontend boxes at the same time, at least if you want to run the Myth frontend. And Myth has some other peculiarities as well and I finally just got tired of dealing with them. So now I use TVHeadEnd and Kodi, and I use zap2xml for schedule data since mc2xml stopped working (after Microsoft changed to a new schedule provider and it broke everything) and it all seems to work quite well.

The big problem with all these backend programs is that if you are not a Linux guru to begin with, there can be a pretty steep learning curve. Once you get everything figured out then it all makes sense, but getting everything to work in the first place can be kind of a gut-wrenching experience, especially if you come from an environment where you are use to just installing a software package and doing a slight bit of configuration and it works. That's pretty much how it is with TVHeadEnd once you know what it expects in the way of configuration, but getting to that point can be an exercise in frustration - but I think that's true of every PVR backend out there, at least the ones that run on Linux.

I've never tried NextPVR but that's mainly because I don't do Windows, especially on any kind of server. If it's designed for Windows users it might well be a lot easier to set up and configure, because the authors probably make no assumptions about the experience level of their users. If Windows were free (for everyone) and if it wasn't such a virus magnet I might actually consider using it, but Linux wins on both counts, so that why I prefer to stick with it even though I get extremely frustrated with it when I can't figure out how to do something.

(I just realized I used the word frustrated or frustration at least three times - that's kind of how I feel about Linux much of the time! But I still plug away at it.)
 
Have used WMC (loved the free EPG and series scheduling) for years, but the support is nearing the end. Been trying to find a good replacement that is as simple to use and as reliable.

Testing the new Silicon Dust viewing /DVR cross platform app with EPG and series scheduling. Still in development, but really liking what I see! Ask me in a few months how well they have done!
 
you need the newer version of mc2xml, which of course isnt free. costs $20 canadian to the developer

No, I don't need that at all. zap2xml works great, and is an open source perl script that is totally free.
 
good for you enjoy, it worked like crap for me

Funny, but for me zap2xml has worked much better than mc2xml ever did. The worst thing about mc2xml was that it produced channel ID strings that could change from time to time, as the number of available stations in a local market changed. TVHeadEnd would still be looking for the original channel ID value, so all of a sudden your schedule data for some channels would run out after a given date, and then you had to go into TVHeadEnd and edit your channels to look for the changed ID strings. In zap2xml I don't have this problem, and beyond that I've had absolutely no issues with zap2xml.

Besides, all else being equal, I like open source, which zap2xml is and mc2xml never was.
 
An interesting bunch of comments. As for Windows and virus problems, I have been the lucky person out there. I have had programs to block or find them but have not over the last five years and never had a problem. Mostly because I am careful on where I go and what emails I open. As for Linux, I have played with it in the past and found it was, IMHO, for the smart people to use. It took so much "command line" stuff to get something done. It was better and interesting when running it with a GUI. I decided to let the smart people use and enjoy Linux.
These various programs to make a PVR for FTA or OTA can be a challenge to configure at times. I like Next because of the great support forum and just like Satguys, there is always someone there to help with any problems.
 
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I played with NextPvr years ago (named GB-PVR or something). I'm now using TVheadEnd and with OpenELEC/Kodi on a Chromebox. I also use mc2xml with Schedules Direct.

I use mc2xml with Schedules Direct because TVheadEnd doesn't have a way to record only new episodes, as mc2xml has an option to put an asterisk at the end of the name of the program (i.e. NCIS *) if it is a new show. So when I add a series, I look for an episode with the "*" on it.

TVHeadEnd is not very user friendly (must schedule series thru browser interface), but I've heard there is increased improvements over the last year on the frontend to allow series, etc. Waiting on the next version of Kodi before checking it out.
 
I am currently using MediaPortal 1 with WEBEPG for the program guide for my antenna, and a TiVo for my cable. Really love the TiVo, they just need to get the online working for us in Canada. So far with the TiVo the streaming is limited to within the home and can not use the online viewing, just the online scheduling once outside of your home network. The phone app is also very limited once outside the home.
 
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