NextPVR on Linux?

[Reddwarf]

Just looking at if from a different direction... If your main intent is to avoid Windows 10, then don't install Windows 10. Windows 7 and 8.1 will continue to work for many years. I've played with 10 in a VM, but don't really see any reason to take the plunge, especially with Micosoft's "WE will decide when your OS will get updated" mentality.

The automatic update can be avoided, but I agree that Windows 7 is a much better choice, most of the bugs are hunted down now and it is very stable. I still run my Win 7 on my htpc and have no plans to change that.

[christheman]

I would start be seeing if you can get Hauppauge Capture running in Linux with Wine using your HDPVR2

Martin

Thanks for getting back, you guys are great.

I will try and address these posts.

I tried this first tonight. So far I only tried the software on the CD provided with the HD-PVR2. It includes a Windows installer, and different INF files and directories. I tried the install wizard in Crossover (Wine), and it couldn't see the device. So that method is out, and I am not too crazy about trying it in VirtualBox - for reasons sub provided.

However, in Linux, I issued the terminal command "LSUSB" to list all the USB busses, and it definitely saw my device. The HD-PVR2 showed up as "Hauppauge" under "/dev/bus/usb/002/004" (the 4th device on the 2nd USB bus). The installation CD also showed up, under a different USB entry. I'll bet that is different from the Windows convention, in addition to multiple other things.

There is however an uncompiled cross-platform driver for Linux. This is only for the HD-PVR2 Gaming Edition, which I happen to have. This is the original version without the IR Blaster.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/linux.html#tabs-3

It would have been nice if they also provided a compiled .deb file - like an .exe or .msi file in Windows. So that is about as far as I think I will go with that for right now.. LOL. If I get into compiling things, then I might try doing that.

---------------

Other thoughts are that I see my Windows setup directory has installation files for NextPVR, Microsoft .NET 4, and Visual C Redist 2008. At the least, Linux Mint has a large package in its repository called "Mono" which is the native way in Linux to use .NET programming, though it would probably need to be recompiled with a Linux compiler. (Linux doesn't have .exe files, just binary files with the file permission set to "execute as a program".)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_%28software%29


So although anything could be possible, it looks like it might be some extra work. For now I'll just stick with using this on Windows XP or Windows 7. I have them both. The main computers I wanted to change over went so well that I got a bit more optimistic than I should have over the others.

[christheman]

A little over a year ago (or is it two now?) I spent a lot of time trying to get npvr running under Linux Mint using Crossover. It worker to run it as a client after MUCH struggle, but the problem is tuners. There are no BDA-drivers that can run under Crossover or Wine, and the developers of Crossover told me that they had no plans for implementing device handling, like tuners. So that door is pretty much closed.

Edit: On second thought, it just MIGHT be possible to get npvr running using Crossover with net based tuners that does not require native drivers, but I doubt it is worth the effort.

I think I see a reason or two why the hardware vendor might have been hesitant to provide open-source BDA drivers. They could provide proprietary versions though, just so the customer could get it up and running.

[mvallevand]

Some H/W vendors are linux friendly but doesn't mean they need to support Wine which is your real problem. If you are gong linux there are reasonable and linux PVR alternatives.

Martin

[christheman]

Some H/W vendors are linux friendly but doesn't mean they need to support Wine which is your real problem. If you are gong linux there are reasonable and linux PVR alternatives.

Martin

In my head I'm no longer considering using Wine at this point, since we are basically talking about what would normally be kernel-level drivers in Linux. I have used Crossover (Wine) successfully with Filemaker 9. My personal apps I have developed on it have many requirements (Windows XP, Java, IE8, single core process), and Wine was able to meet every one of them, but just no actual drivers were needed.

My last thoughts were on the theoretical possibilities of porting over to Linux. Here are some things which don't require Wine: Compile and use the HW vendor's native Linux drivers (Hauppauge provides a few - I linked to one). Use the Linux package called "Mono" to port the .NET code to Linux and run natively in Linux (I linked to that too). Then there would be the video drivers, which are already installed in the distro (I use Linux Mint and they are there). They are used natively by programs like VLC Media Player. Making Mono (,NET) and their video drivers talk might actually be an easy thing, since it would be tapping into a pre-existing infrastructure which is already put together. A Linux guru could probably help with the initial layout. All just theoretical, no pressure. Just me thinking out loud.

[Reddwarf]

In my head I'm no longer considering using Wine at this point, since we are basically talking about what would normally be kernel-level drivers in Linux. I have used Crossover (Wine) successfully with Filemaker 9. My personal apps I have developed on it have many requirements (Windows XP, Java, IE8, single core process), and Wine was able to meet every one of them, but just no actual drivers were needed.

My last thoughts were on the theoretical possibilities of porting over to Linux. Here are some things which don't require Wine: Compile and use the HW vendor's native Linux drivers (Hauppauge provides a few - I linked to one). Use the Linux package called "Mono" to port the .NET code to Linux and run natively in Linux (I linked to that too). Then there would be the video drivers, which are already installed in the distro (I use Linux Mint and they are there). They are used natively by programs like VLC Media Player. Making Mono (,NET) and their video drivers talk might actually be an easy thing, since it would be tapping into a pre-existing infrastructure which is already put together. A Linux guru could probably help with the initial layout. All just theoretical, no pressure. Just me thinking out loud.

Everything is POSSIBLE but it would still be a heck of a lot of work....

[christheman]

Everything is POSSIBLE but it would still be a heck of a lot of work....

LOL Yup...