TIP: GBPVR networked client

[Jean-Christophe]

Thanks in advance!

[gjen]

Any change on the stauts of this issue ? Has Live TV or Timeshift worked yet on client box ??

cheers
Gareth

[wannabepvr]

Honestly I haven't had a chance to try......

Neither are a high priority for me - its really playback through a common database that I wanted - which is working well.

[justlivin']

Thanks for this information.
Here is what I did.

Native method summary

Prerequisites

1. An up and running gb-pvr “server”
   
2. install source of the server gb-pvr version (you can upgrade gb-pvr server with your msi to be sure)
   
3. A client candidate (network linked to the server)
   
4. All gb-pvr software prerequisites
   

Situation

I have a computer named “server” that hosts gb-pvr.
I would like to enable gb-pvr on computer “client1”

How to proceed ?

1. On server, change recordings directory to UNC path.
   
2. You can't do it from Config app, but directly from config.xml (search for: RecordingsDirectory).
   
3. For instance to: \\server\PVR\TV. (Share needs to exist)
   
4. Backup gbpvr.mdb, edit it using Microsoft Access and replace in “Recordings” table for example D:\PVR\TV to UNC then recordings won't disappear.
   
5. On client1, install gb-pvr
   
6. In config.xml
   • replace recordings directory to \\server\PVR\TV
     
   • Search for RecordingServiceLocation and replace localhost to “server”
     
   • Search for DatabaseConnectionString and replace the Data Source to point to server’s gbpvr.mdb file (for instance, \\server\pvr\gbpvr.mdb)
     
7. Run Config application and uncheck live preview mode
   
8. Install FFdshow and lame decoder
   

So far this is working out great but I cannot find the recording tab in Access. Where is it? Also I have the gbovr client currently running w/o that. So far I cant schedule listing 'cuz it says I dont have a tuner. My recording directory is setup properly that much I know. Many thanks!

[Reznor]

First I want to say GBPVR kicks ass, nice work. I've had my HTPC up and running for a couple months and I love it.

I've followed all the instructions from the first post in this thread and I was able to get the client up and running successfully.

I have full ability to :
Schedule Recording, Watch Recording, access Videos, TV Guide and all that good stuff. I had to make one change in config.xml on the server for the LiveTVDirectory section to be setup like the RecordingsDirectory something like //Server/c/gbpvr/LiveTVBuffer then I set this up on my client and WABLAM! I could watch live tv, however, its choppy as is watching a show that's recording.

Has anyone found a way to improve this to get a steady stream from the server in this aspect It would be super awesom if I could watch liveTV on my other PC?

[muehring]

Hello everybody,
thanks for this nice thread.
Fortunately I was able to setup my GBPVR with one client, and I can access
the scheduler, watch recordings and liveTV in timeshift mode.
Although, I was not able to change all necessary paths to UNC path, somewhere I forgot to change the recordings directory, even if the config.xml files seemed to point to the same directory, I just simply reproduced the same folder mapping on both client and server PCs.
After that, everything works, as described above.

Unfortunalety the live TV stream is choppy.

How can I improve that?
Furthermore I recognized, that, even if my server is quite slow (PIII-500 MHz, Win2k) the processorload during streaming was not the problem. I cannot see an increase of the cpu s load. It is still nearly idle.
The network connection is 100mBit fast.

Any suggestions?

Axel

[pBS]

i think i found the choppy live tv problem....unregister gbpvrparser.ax
[regsvr32 /u GBPVRParser.ax]
and playback is smooth...[while both recording and watching same stream on server machine]
only problem is,without gbpvr's parser,you lose ff/rw ability
but it works!
now to find an alternative parser where we know the ff/rw keys to be able to remap them to normal ones..
still more investigation needed...but looks smooth..low cpu..
but i'm pretty sure that's where the problem resides...so making progress

[fhmanas]

I got this tip from the forums, I use ORB (http://www.orb.com). It's a free service, and I can watch from anywhere with an internet connection by logging into my ORB account. I just register my video folders into my ORB account and that's it. It's a lot easier for people like me who don't want to fiddle around anymore to watch from somewhere else. Video quality depends on internet connection, though.

I still have to try the web scheduler plug-in. I get to watch my recordings from the office ... during breaks only, of course.

[Rednax]

I'd love to get GB-PVR set up as server/client. Reading through this thread, it seems success is mixed, but some people have definitely got it working.

Can someone provided a newbie-level step-by-step guide (maybe based on lif's 1st post?)

[BTW silly question, but why can't client PC just used mapped networked drives to the server locations for recording and databases?]

If GB-PVR can't do this I may be forced to buy SageTV

[sub]

[BTW silly question, but why can't client PC just used mapped networked drives to the server locations for recording and databases?]

Thats pretty much what Lif describes in post, in the section titled "Native" (windows only) GBPVR network client:". He's using UNC paths instead mapped drive, since the recording service runs as a different user account, which means it wont be able to see your mapped driver.

If GB-PVR can't do this I may be forced to buy SageTV

lol Go ahead.