* Official Kodi (née XBMC) Thread *

Cuchulain · 12 Feb 2015 at 09:55

I'm running Kodi on a Fire TV and I'm stuck, I've got a list of video files and need to add them all to a playlist, I've tried using the smart playlist filtering part of the filename but it never finds anything. Is there a way of creating a playlist using just the directory?

Cheers.

Conan257 · 12 Feb 2015 at 10:27

Scottland said:
3 crashes last night on my main windows HTPC. Have disabled the webserver I've got Argus working pretty well, recording and live-pause both work really well. The biggest drawback is lack lack of mobile apps I'd say. Any kind of 'remote record' type functionality needs to go through the Argus backend not Kodi, there is a fairly decent web portal for it but to gain outside access the machine will need to be on all the time and you'll need ports forwarded etc.

Having said that, I have 3 devices (2 windows, 1 android) that are all synced by the same central sever so recordings are available on all 3 including resume points so it works pretty well, but not quite as good as Sky+. Wife friendly I'd say though...

That sounds good, i'll have to do some research on it... I'm assuming this will need a machine with fast enough access to storage space. I'm testing my needs on my laptop, an android box, and Raspbmc. I think this kind of functionality will probably require me to install a NUC or similar.

Scottland · 12 Feb 2015 at 10:31

Any recent Celeron type machine will be powerful enough, I write PVR data to a network device (over GB lan) and it's fine - but for playback you'll need decent WiFi for HD content, I'd definitely recommend wired though.

Conan257 · 12 Feb 2015 at 10:41

That will work as I have a server running Plex anway, so it can record to a drive which Plex is using. Excellent!

Scottland · 12 Feb 2015 at 11:08

Is it a windows server? If so you have the choice of ArgusTV, MediaPortal, NextPVR and WMC. I'd personally recommend Argus or MediaPortal.

So on the Windows PC, you will have Plex server and Argus/MediaPortal TV server (pvr backend). The PVR backend will record onto any drive available to it (e.g. a network share/drive), and all config for channels, tuning, ordering of the channels, TV Guide etc is done here.

From a Kodi point of view, all you need to do is enable the corresponding PVR plugin (and enable Live TV from settings) and configure it to the IP of the machine where the backend is running. Any Kodi device using the PVR plugin will get served the same set of channels and recordings.

Conan257 · 12 Feb 2015 at 13:21

It's a Windows Server 2013 machine, so will run that kind of stuff nicely.

Does ArgusTV supply the channels/streams, or is something else providing those?

Wifey is out tonight, so I think I have the entertainment sorted

Scottland · 12 Feb 2015 at 13:24

Argus controls the tuner device (in my case a DVB-S2 card), scans for channels and can either pickup EPG information from the broadcast, or you can import an XMLTV file instead.

Have you got a tuner device already?

Conan257 · 12 Feb 2015 at 15:24

I don't, my intention was to use an internet stream for the LiveTV element.

Will do some research!

Scottland · 12 Feb 2015 at 16:25

What type of internet stream? There are some IPTV services which I've been looking into recently but they're not very reliable or high quality from what I've seen, nor are they very legitimate! I'm not sure they support any kind of PVR functionality either.

Confused · 12 Feb 2015 at 16:36

I have a dual tuner Freeview HD card in my server, and to be honest, it's hardly been used at all in the last 6 months.

The most use it's had in the last 6 months was recording "I'm A Celebrity" for the GF to watch. Even Strictly, X-Factor and The Voice now gets acquired other ways, rather than using the tuner card!

The amount of Live TV that we watch is almost nothing, and I do think that if you go to the time/effort to build an HTPC and the media storage system behind it, then watch a lot of live TV, then you're doing it all wrong IMO!

rossk26 · 12 Feb 2015 at 16:46

Anyone using VPN?

Got Kodi set up with NBC last night, and just used a free VPN service to try it out. All worked, but service buffered a lot!!

Looking for something more stable that can handle HD streams.

Conan257 · 12 Feb 2015 at 17:48

I'm using My Private Network at the moment. It's not the cheapest but I got cashback with Quidco...

Working very well with no buffering at a decent resolution (2kbps bitrate ish I think). Probably find a free VPN is limited in bandwidth.

Scottland · 12 Feb 2015 at 18:18

rossk26 said:
Anyone using VPN?

Got Kodi set up with NBC last night, and just used a free VPN service to try it out. All worked, but service buffered a lot!!

Looking for something more stable that can handle HD streams.

What streams do you get with NBC then? Can you divulge on here?

Quinnaay · 12 Feb 2015 at 19:33

Conan257 said:
I'm using My Private Network at the moment. It's not the cheapest but I got cashback with Quidco...

Working very well with no buffering at a decent resolution (2kbps bitrate ish I think). Probably find a free VPN is limited in bandwidth.

Type Cyberghost offer in google, it comes with a please dont leave link and gives you 15mins to purchase 12m for £9.99 red hot deal however i havent tried it yet as i actually dont know how to work a VPN on the Raspberry Pi Openelec.

I also used NBC last night in HD and no buffer or freezing using UnoTelly DNS trial.

Quinnaay · 12 Feb 2015 at 20:51

Purchased the Cyberghost VPN for a 10er recieved the activation key etc, downloaded the OPVN. File for Linux/OpenVPN as i use Openelec however i have no idea how i make it work.

Conan257 · 12 Feb 2015 at 21:46

I know with raspbmc you need to install openvpn using sudo and have it start in the rc.local file at startup...

Probably similar for this if it's happy with OpenVPN. Otherwise they may have a kodi addon?

£10 for a year with no throttling or restrictions? Seems like an amazing deal... There must be a catch!

Edit: Restricted to 1 device, I use it on 3 at the moment, however will probably get a 2nd router with DDWRT

Quinnaay · 12 Feb 2015 at 23:41

Conan257 said:
I know with raspbmc you need to install openvpn using sudo and have it start in the rc.local file at startup...

Probably similar for this if it's happy with OpenVPN. Otherwise they may have a kodi addon?

£10 for a year with no throttling or restrictions? Seems like an amazing deal... There must be a catch!

Edit: Restricted to 1 device, I use it on 3 at the moment, however will probably get a 2nd router with DDWRT

Yeah one device only which is fine for me, however cant you just buy multiple subs for other devices?

Metallifux · 13 Feb 2015 at 08:43

rossk26 said:
Anyone using VPN?

Got Kodi set up with NBC last night, and just used a free VPN service to try it out. All worked, but service buffered a lot!!

Looking for something more stable that can handle HD streams.

If you are using the NBC add on I think you are then you don't need a VPN just smart DNS. Have a look at smartdnsproxy or unblockr. The advantage being you are connected to source at full bandwidth.

Metallifux · 13 Feb 2015 at 08:49

Scottland said:
What streams do you get with NBC then? Can you divulge on here?

I'll just say this. What else would you be doing at 3pm on a Saturday.

Quinnaay · 13 Feb 2015 at 09:27

Metallifux said:
If you are using the NBC add on I think you are then you don't need a VPN just smart DNS. Have a look at smartdnsproxy or unblockr. The advantage being you are connected to source at full bandwidth.

Whilst true, I had some issues using a Dno with buffer/freezing, from reading other forums regarding NBC a VPN with unlimited bandwidth is meant to cure it.

Metallifux said:
I'll just say this. What else would you be doing at 3pm on a Saturday.

*** Official Kodi (née XBMC) Thread ***

* Official Kodi (née XBMC) Thread *