NextPVR - future evolution ?

[ceejayemm]

First of all may a say a really big thank you to Sub for all the work he has put into NextPVR, also to Martin for his support work and all the forum members for their help and assistance at various times.

I have been a NextPVR user since the early days of v5.0 initially on a RPi 4B and latterly on a more powerful Linux server via the official Docker image. I am based in the UK, have no use (don't want to pay) for Sky, Netflix etc, with the OTA UK FreeView providing all my watching needs.  Along with the Schedules Direct EPG and a Silicon Dust Quatro HDHR the NextPVR software has served me well for a number of years.

The FreeView service has been freely (sic!) available OTA for a long time, requiring only a decent aerial and a suitable TV or a STB/Dongle to use it. Its services come and go but its main problem for me is the effect weather has on it. Picture breakup, particularly in hot weather, is for me the biggest gripe.  A few years ago it was announced the FreeView would, eventually, be replaced by a new streaming service called Freely.  This would be subscription free and initially available on TVs with a built in Freely 'receiver' via a broadband internet connection. Freely started operating in 2024 and it currently offers 40 channels with  FreeView and Freely currently operating side by side with the former not due to be removed for several years (2030/2040 has been muted). Whilst originally Freely was only going to be made available via Freely enabled TVs recent pressure has seen the announcement of a Freely 'firestick-like' dongle:

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/freely-str...-unveiled/

which should be available by Christmas this year and will plug into a HDMI port on any TV. The dongle however will be internet enabled only, no aerial socket provided. Whilst Freely has a large number fo benefits, one of the biggest drawbacks of Freely is that there is no means of recording programmes broadcast over the Freely service.

Completely unrelated to the above, or least that's how it started, I have been keeping an eye, out of interest, on a Forum thread 'Legal IPTV?' (https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=66460). This talked about various ways the OP might continue to use his existing services possibly via IPTV, including the possible use of HDMI capture.

With the announcement of the Freely dongle and the possibility of HDMI capture this got me thinking.  As noted above I use a SD HDHR Quatro to effectively stream Freeview programmes to NextPVR for recording purposes. NextPVR uses a 'special' inbuilt tuner for this purpose.  Would it be beyond the realms of possibility to think that, one day, NextPVR might have HDMI capture capabilities built in so that a Freely dongle (or any other HDMI dongle) might be used to provide programme streams to NextPVR for recording purposes? If this were possible then this could go a long way to removing one of the major drawbacks of moving to the Freely services.  Might this be possible in a future release of NextPVR ?

Whilst on the subject of where NextPVR might go in future, and completely unrelated to any of the above.  Is it time to switch NextPVR to be a recording service only (may be as a separate version, this it too hard to swallow initially) ?  I know from experience that NextPVR runs perfectly well on a RPi 4B for recording purposes - I know Martin will dispute the use of such a small system for NextPVR  but the issues with using the Pi seem to be more around playback than recording.  Is it time to retire the playback functionality completely and give it over to something else ?  As noted above I have recorded with a RPi 4B, and now with a Docker image, BUT I map the NextPVR recording folder to a JellyFin Library for viewing. I use the NextPVR JellyFin addon to link to the SD provided EPG on the NextPVR server and so I can use the JellyFin TV Guide to setup recordings directly on the NextPVR server.  Maybe its time to let NextPVR do what it does best - managing the recording processes and let, in my case JellyFin (but could be Kodi or some other 3rd party viewer), do the jobs they do best, managing and viewing media, in this case recorded programmes, with all their attendant artwork, cast list, synopsis, series and episode details etc ? 

Contentious I know, but please don't simply shoot me down. Before replying think about what might need to be possible with NextPVR going forward as broadcast processes change and the way we are served up our TV (will it still be called TV ?) viewing ?

Chris

[Bobins]

I think it would be nice if NPVR could natively record from the Freely stream rather than capturing from HDMI.

I haven't looked into the format of the Freely IPTV streaming service but given it's not streaming DRM protected content I would have thought that accessing from NPVR would be possible.

Ray.

[mvallevand]

I know Martin will dispute the use of such a small system for NextPVR  but the issues with using the Pi seem to be more around playback than recording.

If I had issues NextPVR on am small system I wouldn't have spend time developing and testing the server addons for LibreELEC and CoreELEC which also addresses the playback issue.  I think they work quite well  as I told you 5 years ago https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.ph...#pid531253  I know netboot my RPis to avoid SD issues completely.

Clients are very personal, some have used the Windows NextpVR.exe for years, many don't like or can't get used to the Kodi UI, I don't like Jellfyfin for Live TV or their stagnant PVR API.  I don't have any love for a) needing full PC as a dedicated client amd b) NextPVR.exe which I haven't used for a decade, but UI clients can be nice and fortuanately don't take much maintenance from sub either once (knock on wood for libSKiaShap in the next version).

For the main point of your thread though very few PCs or graphic cards support HDMI input.  I have some small RK3588 devices that do support HDMI input but these don't support h/w h264 or h265 and the OS support is weak.

I don't write a test extra that used libobs to handle generic encoding devices that OBS can use but it suffers from needing a powerhouse PC for encoding and the same tuning/blasting issues that you read about in the Legal IPTV thread.

Martin