USB tuner in VMware ESXi recognised but no channels scan

[snorlaxtogo]

Hi all,

I wondered if anyone had had any success with using USB tuners via ESXi? I've got a PCTV nanostick 290e and it's passed through to my Windows 10 virtual machine, and NextPVR can see it, but no channels scan.

If no-one's got any ideas, I think i'll just put Win 10 on the metal and try next PVR that way, because it works perfectly with my Win 10 laptop

thanks in advance

[Lao Pan]

If no-one's got any ideas, I think i'll just put Win 10 on the metal and try next PVR that way, because it works perfectly with my Win 10 laptop

thanks in advance

For a start I would run NRecord service as your user account - default is system account. Could be USB passthrough is account specific. Also Win 10 needs NextPVR.exe and NRecord.exe exceptions in the firewall.

[Graham]

... If no-one's got any ideas ...

Zip and attach logs to a post ... that might show something about the scan not happening ... NextPVR will zip the logs for you at Settings --> About

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post480931

[snorlaxtogo]

Zip and attach logs to a post ... that might show something about the scan not happening ... NextPVR will zip the logs for you at Settings --> About

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post480931

thanks here we go.

To Lao Pan, I tried running the recording service as my user account instead of system, still no dice.

hope someone can help as I'd prefer vmware on the metal

[Reddwarf]

Why bother with VMWare when it is much easier to run it directly under windows??

[snorlaxtogo]

Why bother with VMWare when it is much easier to run it directly under windows??

the vmware host is doing much more than hosting NextPVR. I'm only trying this out as an experiment as I'm a long time TVheadend user, but someone told me I can amalgamate my subscription IPTV and my terrestrial tuners with this. If it can do these things, I would be tempted to surrender my vmware host in favour of a Windows 10 machine, in which I could run VMs under Hyper-V

[sub]

I've had past experience with a couple of companies trying to run tuners in in VMWare, both USB and PCIe. We found that drivers for these types of devices were generally flakey inside a VM. Some devices work better than others. Some don't work at all. Lots of unexpected pauses starting devices (sometimes minutes). I think it largely came down to the drivers expecting certain operations to complete a lot quicker than they were in a VM.

Using a network tuner was better, and largely worked. Even then, if you're attempting to watch video or transcode though, you're probably better off doing it on better metal - these activities are pretty CPU intensive, and you very quickly notice the virtualized CPUs are a lot slower than real metal.

All in all, attempting to use the tuners in a VM was frustrating experience, and we quickly went back to real hardware.

[snorlaxtogo]

I've had past experience with a couple of companies trying to run tuners in in VMWare, both USB and PCIe. We found that drivers for these types of devices were generally flakey inside a VM. Some devices work better than others. Some don't work at all. Lots of unexpected pauses starting devices (sometimes minutes). I think it largely came down to the drivers expecting certain operations to complete a lot quicker than they were in a VM.

Using a network tuner was better, and largely worked. Even then, if you're attempting to watch video or transcode though, you're probably better off doing it on better metal - these activities are pretty CPU intensive, and you very quickly notice the virtualized CPUs are a lot slower than real metal.

All in all, attempting to use the tuners in a VM was frustrating experience, and we quickly went back to real hardware.

thanks. Pretty much tells me what I need to know. Win 10 here I come :-)

BTW what end user devices do most NextPVR users use? I've got oodles of Kodi clients, is that a common use case?

[sub]

Yeah, there is quite a few people using kodi front end. Also quite a few people using NextPVR's own front end, or the web / iOS apps. You'd probably have to try the different options and see what suits you.

[scJohn]

I would think that there are a few Kodi users around because that is a popular and a old piece of software. I used Plex for a couple of years. In the last year I went to an Intel NUC and use MPC-HC as my primary player and WMP as my backup. My source is OTA so I can not expect to have perfect streams. I use my nexus tablet running Vectir PC Remote software as my keyboard.