I have been at this a while and have done a lot of digging. I am still at a crossroad and could use some insight if you all have some time.
As the subject implies, I am working to have a Colossus 2 card capture HDMI from a set top box with IR channel changing. From there the plan is to use nextpvr, xteve and plex to DVR the content. I have been working with windows 10 thus far but have also worked with ubuntu.
My hardware:
esxi 6.5 host
colossus 2 PCI card
HP MCE IR blaster
Evolution DMS2344UHDS set top box
Broadlink Network IR blaster
My findingss are as follows:
Nextpvr 5 for ubuntu is missing channel IR control. I am sure this is due to the newness of the build.
Nextpvr 5 for ubuntu does not seem to play nicely with Xteve with stream access. Again, I am sure this is due to its age
Nextpvr 5 for windows lacks many of the config options you get in v4.
I was unable to get nextpvr5 running with xteve due to the lack of config options so went back to v4 which works perfectly. Ubuntu seems like a lost cause at this point but I wish it were not!
At this point I am ready to commit to windows 10 but the last issue I have is that the Colossus blaster. I have channels configured and am able to stream whatever the HDMI input to the colossus card but I am not able to change the channel. I believe this is a blaster and receiver frequency range issue, using older ranges that my newer STB does not use. Because of this, I ran out and got an old MCE blaster and in linux with LIRC, I am able to make channel change calls reliably. Using this blaster in windows 10 seems unsupported due to MCE being all but abandoned, having tried WinLIRC and IRSS. Assuming the MCE blaster is a lost cause I went out and got a broadlink blaster which works but making calls from nextpvr would need to be run in python on a docker or by writing code which I am not able to do in windows.
I guess my question is: is there a blaster out there that works with more systems than the built in colossus 2 blaster that nextpvr can communicate with an executable? If not, has anyone worked with broadlink or another to have an executable for windows that nextpvr can call? Would USBIRT work? Does it have an executable that NPVR can call easily? Can I assume it will learn my remote because it supports both IR Freq ranges?
Anyway, thanks much for the feedback. I plan on sharing all of my config for those that want to do the same in the future IF I can overcome this last hurtle!
I was near the end of the recording and skipped back twice using my remote. The video hung for a while. I could see the time 2:46 on the progress bar. Here's the relevant portion of the log. Full log attached.
This is from my main system. Windows 64 Pro.
I have a recording set to keep only N (1) recording. If it fails, remove the failed recording when the next recording occurs. Currently previously failed recordings show up.
(We had a recent windstorm and one of the broadcast towers is currently offline)
My NextPVR channel automatically returns to the "Configure NextPVR Server" menu one second after the nextpvr server is selected. Manually entering it also does not seem to help. Could someone please help me find a work around or let me know if I'm missing something obvious. I'm using a Roku Ultra and trying to connect to a NextPVR back end server on a PC. I've been able to connect using other streaming devices without any problems.
The Client Settings window is missing the Save and Cancel buttons on the bottom. It appears that the bottom line of the Client Settings window is not down far enough to show the two buttons.
Because there is no Save button, I can change items in the window but I can not save the changes so there is no way to make changes because I can not save them.
Playing an MP4 file downloaded from YouTube. Has hung a few times, then eventually resumes. I can exit the player as when it hangs.
This time I immediately closed the client and grabbed the logs.
I think the hang occurred around here time wise:
2021-11-16 13:00:24.530 [DEBUG][1] Not looking again for commercial skip points
2021-11-16 13:01:04.572 [DEBUG][1] PreventMonitorStandby() needs implementation
2021-11-16 13:01:55.607 [DEBUG][1] About to store playback position information
b. on Linux you can optionally delete TableTV.exe the run
sudo /opt/dotnet/dotnet TabloTV.dll install
3. If you device doesn't support http services two other option are available
a. Use UDP discovery
install scan
b. Manually enter one or more IP addresses
install IP ...
4. During the install run if you have Schedules Direct installed with the OTA lineup for your area, you will be prompted to automap and update the EPG for all SD channels. XMLTV sources can be added manually using the normal logic.
Note that channels need to be scanned and enabled in the Tablo settings before loading into NextPVR. Channels can be excluded in either the Tablo settings or in NextPVR.
Also note that NextPVR will only use the Live TV transcoding options even for NextPVR recordings.
About a month ago I was reading about a network tuner for American and Canadian users called the Tablo https://www.tablotv.com/ and I saw one on ebay at a good price so I ordered one. It turns out there is a pretty good deal now for Black Friday in the US and Canada, with refurbished dual tuners going for $60 With a 30 day return is definitely worth investigating for those that are interested.
It is very similar to the HDHomerun from SiliconDust which many of us use for ATSC tuning and it provides basic Live TV and optional DVR scheduling if you install a USB storage device. They have a subscription server to get the EPG too. There is web client and clients for Android and Roku.
For most of us that isn't very interesting since NextPVR already offers better Live TV and DVR features then the Tablo provides However I was able to get an Extra device working with the Tablo and it integrates quite well with NextPVR in my testing so far. The reason this is important is the Tablo unlike all other digital ATSC devices transcodes to H264 and AAC audio so the files can direct play in the NextPVR web client and on pretty much all phones and tables. RPi and Docker NextPVR servers that can't transcode ATSC should have no trouble with these devices.
A second advantage that people who record ATSC might appreciate, is that that the file size of mpeg2 recordings is quite large. The configurable bitrate of the H264 files will save from 1/2 to 1/8th of the OTA file size without any post-processing.
A third advance is 1080i is transcoded to 1080p or 720p. For devices like the RPi4 that can't as yet do h/w deinterlacing this can be quite important
I will be posting the Extra tuner shortly and for those of you who might have one of these device might be interested in having a look. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have too, I really do think these devices complement NextPVR very well.
I'm seeing a couple minor issues with NLite now that I'm using it more with V5.
First, I can see the mouse cursor and would prefer it be hidden during playback. It typically takes a few minutes to happen, but then keeps happening somewhat randomly. I don't think the mouse is triggering it as this didn't happen with the V4 client on the same system.
More importantly, the progress bar is popping up periodically as if the mouse position is changing. Eventually it disappears, but the screen darkens and it's distracting. It's as if a mouse movement is triggering it.
I don't see anything relevant in the log.
