Q's about hardware requirements and Linux

[johnm0101]

I've been happily running next pvr for a year or so on a windows 10 machine with 16gb ram and a 2 TB HD - graphics are through intel board with i7
I use Kodi on the remote stations and on one smart tv
the server is effectively headless. the cards are older TBS6905 
There are frequent occasions when the Kodi client (OSMC) loses contact with the serv er and even restarting the next server does not reinstate
I think it is to do with starting the TV tuner card more than next or Kodi because when I go to restart next I check the delivery on hte server machine an dit gives message 'could not start tuner'  

This all seems to happen when one of thd frequent Windows updates takes place. 
I was wondering if Linux might be more reliable ?  
            I guess the answer will be 'depends on TBS drivers for linux ? and perhaps newer TBS card might be the answer (they are 10 yrs old) 
One   side question  - Given that it's a headless system does the quality of the graphics card make any difference?

What min spec would a linux machine need?

Sorry for the scatter gun of questions but all knowledge eagerly soaked up

Tia 
John

[mvallevand]

There are too many factors involved in the first question which is why I say without logs, there are no problems.

In general in my experience a Windows based server and a Linux server are pretty close in reliability. If you want to maintain security there are Linux patches daily too. Tuner support varies, but most vendors provide BDA drivers while some tuners require custom compilation so kernel support is usually importat

Windows is definitely better if you want a server that isn't on 24/7 and NextPVR does a great job of waking them on demand.

If you use NextPVR web client for playback the graphics card can be important but many provide h/w encoding on Linux or Windows.

The PC spec depends on your requirement. NextPVR can ran on a Raspberry PI class machine.

Martin

[johnm0101]

There are too many factors involved in the first question which is why I say without logs, there are no problems.

In general in my experience a Windows based server and a Linux server are pretty close in reliability.  If you want to maintain security there are Linux patches daily too.  Tuner support varies, but most vendors provide BDA drivers while some tuners require custom compilation so kernel support is usually importat

Windows is definitely better if you want a server that isn't on 24/7 and NextPVR does a great job of waking them on demand.

If you use NextPVR web client for playback the graphics card can be important but many provide h/w encoding on Linux or Windows.

The PC spec depends on your requirement.  NextPVR can ran on a Raspberry PI class machine.

Martin

Martin many thanks for your swift repsonse
I am almost certain the hiatus in comms between the client and next is caused by the TV cards locking up - 
my questions were peripheral to building a new server and musing whether to put it on linux or windows 
Very interesting your point about nextpvr doing a good job of waking a windows PC - that would suit me - might also solve hte problem of waking up the TV cards

Must look into that

re  graphics card I presume you refer to using hte web client on same machine as the server?

all the best 
and tx again

[mvallevand]

Transcoding to the web player is from the backend

Martin

[johnm0101]

Transcoding to the web player is from the backend

Martin

tx 
am i understanding this right - 1) it is the transcoding which demands a reasonably competent graphics card?
2) if using remote Kodi clients this (graphics card performance) does not matter?

[mvallevand]

In direct play which is the default in Kodi then it isn't required. Kodi does have a transcoded play option which does use server-side transcoding. This would typically only be used to reduce bandwidth for remote clients on the Internet or for cost savings on phones.

Martin

[NumberFive]

Was going to say that server seems extremely powerful for NextPVR. I run it on a Pentium Silver J5005 CPU with integrated graphics and it is extremely responsive. Bonus is that the power consumption is very low if a 24/7 powered up solution is preferred.

Linux is particularly more secure unless you make sure to update it. There are a huge number of abandoned Linux kernels kicking about as IoT devices. There can also be huge pains in the neck reconfiguring things after updates. Just like the Windows experience!