Suggestions for the KODI Add-on

[Escape7]

Hello,

i moved from TV Mosaic to NPVR (Version5), and i am really happy with NPVR.

I just want to list a few things i noticed, that are not so optimal in the KODI NPVR Add-on, perhaps it can be "optimised"

- If a single Movie is recorded the movie is in a subfolder in the Recorded TV Library. This is not so nice. Single recordings (not recuring) should be listed flat. This would be nicer to navigate, and also the movie covers would show up while clicking through the list. Would be much nicer

- In recuring records, the cover of the recuring recording could show up on the top folder. So that for example, the picture of the series is shown , when scrolling through the recorded list

- What i am really missing, is that the station from where i recorded the movie / series is not shown in the details page (where the EPG info is shown). Only the time and date is standing in the top of the detail page, but the station is missing.

- If there is no internet cover/poster available for the record, it should show the station logo, not the "no picture availabe icon" from kodi

I sometimes have problems with the live tv buffer. I left the setting in standard, only activated extended timeshift:
- Live TV starts
- Then is stopps - a percent loading icon is shown, taking a few seconds, then live tv ontinues.
- Can this be optimised, with the buffer settings? I did not find a doku to the settings till now

I had a problem with a recording still running, and i already startet watching: 
- The playback stopped twice without any reason (also fast forward worked very laggy)
- I then could resume at the point where it stopped
- I think it stopped there, where the recording was at the point, i started watching ( for example, already 30 minutes were recorded, but total time 1:30, so it first stopped at 30 minutes, because it thought the recoding ended here)

Esspecially in live TV and very less in recordings, the Dolby Digital audio stream is reported to Kodi with 0 channels. So Kodi selects the mp2 stream in the recoding, instead of the better DD stream. Kodi is setup to always use the best stream. This works mostly. If i then manually select the DD stream, with 0 channels, the DD stream works. But because of the false reporting, this does not work automaticaly in these cases.

Well, now i am finished, what i wanted to report. Sorry for my not perfekt english, i do my best, that you understand......

But besindes all the things i listed: I am really happy, that i found this software, and i think with Version 5 and a little tuning of the kodi plugin, it can really get perfekt. Very good job!!

Peter

[mvallevand]

Thanks for the report I have limited internet for the next little while twenty minutes or so a day and I will give more information later.  Is there a TV Mosaic add you are comparing with for Kodi or is it a different app.

Watching a recording in progress will never be good if you skip too close to the live time 

Martin

[Escape7]

Thanks for the report I have limited internet for the next little while twenty minutes or so a day and I will give more information later.  Is there a TV Mosaic add you are comparing with for Kodi or is it a different app.

Watching a recording in progress will never be good if you skip too close to the live time 

Martin

Hello Martin,

some things (how the records are displayed) are compared to TV Mosaic and the Kodi Add-in.

But I also think, it is not only plain comparission, i think some things are also just "normal", for example, that i want to see, from which cannel i took the recording.

New from NPCR is, that there are covers for some shows -> very nice / but when the covers are missing....it looks not so good. So it would be nice, to see a preview of the video (TV Mosaic), or the icon of the station from the recording.

In the case of watching the record, while it was still recording in the background -> i was not near to the end, i was a minimum of 30 minutes from the ending away.

Perhaps some things can be made, some not. Its great to see, that NPVR has great programmers! So perhaps we can make it even more perfekt!

Thanks already for listining to my ideas.

Peter

[mvallevand]

For in progress I am talking near the current live time in the recording not the end of the show.  Of course you also meet 3.3.18 if the add-on too.

Martin

[Escape7]

For in progress I am talking near the current live time in the recording not the end of the show.  Of course you also meet 3.3.18 if the add-on too.

Martin

Hello Martin.

Yes i am aware of that. It was really minimum of 30 minutes behind live tv, not to the end of the show.

But perhaps it was really a one time thing. I will look into this, if i have the problem again, and i would report it.
The Add-on is the latest version 3.3.18.

[mvallevand]

I expect the issue is really based on when you start though so if you start 25 minutes late the tricky time will be 25 minutes in even though you think there are 50 minutes you can't skip past 25 until Kodi rereads the size.

Martib

[Escape7]

I expect the issue is really based on when you start though so if you start 25 minutes late the tricky time will be 25 minutes in even though you think there are 50 minutes you can't skip past 25 until Kodi rereads the size.

Martib

I also think, that this was the problem.

[Escape7]

One more thing, that would be nice:

Seeing the free space for recordings in the bottom line of the PVR section of KODI would be nice.

[mvallevand]

- If a single Movie is recorded the movie is in a subfolder in the Recorded TV Library. This is not so nice. Single recordings (not recuring) should be listed flat. This would be nicer to navigate, and also the movie covers would show up while clicking through the list. Would be much nicer

It is unlikely I can do anything about this since when the recordings are loaded I won't know if there will be only one show or now.

- In recuring records, the cover of the recuring recording could show up on the top folder. So that for example, the picture of the series is shown , when scrolling through the recorded list

NextPVR currently does not support season or episode art

- What i am really missing, is that the station from where i recorded the movie / series is not shown in the details page (where the EPG info is shown). Only the time and date is standing in the top of the detail page, but the station is missing.

I should be able to do this for Matrix (historical recordings with ID changes won't have art)

- If there is no internet cover/poster available for the record, it should show the station logo, not the "no picture availabe icon" from kodi

That will be up to Kodi or the skin after I populate the channel icon. You are always free to add your own art to NextPVR so that it shows up.

- Then is stopps - a percent loading icon is shown, taking a few seconds, then live tv ontinues.

That is frustrating for sure but I believe it is Kodi. I don't see this with v5 timeshifting have you tried that?

Esspecially in live TV and very less in recordings, the Dolby Digital audio stream is reported to Kodi with 0 channels.

That is backend, there was a change several years ago to do not do a full check for the mpeg file for fast channel changes that I believe is the root cause of this but too many developers prefer the fast channel switching.

Seeing the free space for recordings in the bottom line of the PVR section of KODI would be nice.

There is an API call that does ask for this but it is unused right now for two reasons. It is not meaningful with multiple recording directories and it called severall times a second while browsing recordings.

I would like to deal with in-progress recordings in separate thread with v5 and with Kodi debug logs.

Martin

[mvallevand]

@Escape7 What skin are you using? I checked and I added the channel icon last year and it displays on recordings when there is no art. Also Estuary doesn't appear to display the channel name on recordings.

Perhaps you are looking at recordings for channels you have deleted?

Martin