Advice for Argus TV user, looking to make the change.

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

I am long-time Argus TV user and have been very happy with it.

However, as you may be aware, development on it has pretty much ground to a halt - many of the users are looking for decent alternatives.

I have spent the last few weeks having a look at the Linux alternatives (MythTV and TVHeadend) but soon realised that this was a mistake - (too tricky to set up, massive problems with resume, no support for Stablebit).

Anyway, I have heard NPVR mentioned, numerous times, as the natural successor to Argus and I am dying to try it out.

What is my best option for trying it out on my server? Should I install Windows 10 on a spare hard drive or risk installing it alongside Argus?

[Graham]

What is my best option for trying it out on my server? Should I install Windows 10 on a spare hard drive or risk installing it alongside Argus?

NextPVR will work alongside other TV software ... NextPVR does not know that a tuner device is in use by other software but NextPVR only "uses" tuners when it needs to ... You can run NextPVR alongside other software provided that you don't attempt to, for example, make a recording in both softwares at the same time.

[elsmandino]

Thanks for that - I shall give it a whirl tonight.

[mvallevand]

I wrote a utility to import shows from For the Record a few years ago. It might be able to be updated to Argus but it used 4tr and data in the xbmc databases to do it's stuff. Does Argus allow any exporting of it's database in xml or json or do you use Kodi with it?

Martin

[sccrgoalie1]

I wrote a utility to import shows from For the Record a few years ago. It might be able to be updated to Argus but it used 4tr and data in the xbmc databases to do it's stuff. Does Argus allow any exporting of it's database in xml or json or do you use Kodi with it?

Martin

Any chance you care to share the source for this utility? I got a dump from the ARGUS db of the recordings and compared to the information needed to for the .XML file for NextPVR and it appears I have everything I need. The only question I have is how I go about getting the MD5, UniqueID, and OID fields for creating my import.

[mvallevand]

Any chance you care to share the source for this utility? I got a dump from the ARGUS db of the recordings and compared to the information needed to for the .XML file for NextPVR and it appears I have everything I need. The only question I have is how I go about getting the MD5, UniqueID, and OID fields for creating my import.

Don't worry about the oid which will be created by sqlite on the import or the md5 that is just used for EPG updates not recordings. Assuming you are using Schedules Direct the unique id comes from the zap2it id. You can find it at screener.com on the shows you recorded but it would be very manual process updating them if Argus doesn't provide it. Basically it just avoids rerecording shows which may only be an issue if you primarily record Only New episodes

Martin

[sccrgoalie1]

Don't worry about the oid which will be created by sqlite on the import or the md5 that is just used for EPG updates not recordings. Assuming you are using Schedules Direct the unique id comes from the zap2it id. You can find it at screener.com on the shows you recorded but it would be very manual process updating them if Argus doesn't provide it. Basically it just avoids rerecording shows which may only be an issue if you primarily record Only New episodes

Martin

Thanks. That seems to have worked just fine.

[p37307]

Couldn't the video import tool (VideoConduit) from the attached NPVR post work for new users importing their libraries into the NPVR database?

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...=vidimport

[mvallevand]

p37307 it would work for importing recording if the naming was right. My utility also created recurring recordings and brought in the resume info making it a little more seemless.

Martin