XBMC addon and ports

[Reddwarf]

Is the XBMC addon for npvr using the usual server port or the NEWA port? Or both? I can run XBMC with the npvr server on the same computer but had no luck so far if the server is on another computer in the local network.

[sub]

Yes, it uses the same web server port that NEWA uses. ie 8866 is the default.

[Karyudo]

I'm new to NPVR + XBMC, but I'm quite pleased to report that over the past couple of days I have been able set up an NPVR server with an ATSC tuner, two Hauppauge Colossus cards, EPG from Schedules Direct, and am able to use that as a host for the XBMC (Oct 18 nightly build) PVR client add-on!

Like Reddwarf, I also couldn't get XBMC to see the NPVR server if it was on another machine on my local network. What appears to have worked for me is:

(1) create a static IP on my router for the NPVR server,
(2) use the static IP (rather than a server name) in the XBMC NPVR add-on (leave PIN at default 0000), and
(3) set up Windows Firewall to allow access to nextpvr.exe, nrecord.exe and ndigitalhost.exe.

I suspect what really solved the problem is (3) alone. But since I did the other two things first, before I got it to work, I thought I'd better mention those steps, too.

Is there a way I can edit the wiki? I could take some screenshots and add some explicit instructions for this, so that n00bs (like I am, really) don't have to suffer....

[Reddwarf]

I always use static IP's and use the ip-address instead of host name. And ofcourse the npvr programs are allowed through the friewall, still the problem persists, on two different installations. Any other advice?

[Karyudo]

I think I also port-forwarded 8866 on my router to point to the TV server (192.168.1.215 in my case) for the "usual" three .exe files (nextpvr.exe, nrecord.exe and ndigitalhost.exe).

There are also a few places where I felt the setup was... maybe "inelegant"? Certainly there's not a nice, solid one-to-one correspondence of terms between the XBMC add-on and the NextPVR side.

• NPVR's small section for "Web and Client" isn't divided as clearly as I'd have hoped, so I wasn't sure at all whether I had to put in my server's name in the server section, on the server. I don't think so, but I did anyway.

• The add-on for XBMC asks for a Server Name, Port, and PIN. Nothing about a username. In the NPVR settings screens, there's server name, port, username, and password. Maybe I'm blind, but I didn't see anything about a PIN. So on the XBMC side I left the PIN as 0000, and on the NPVR side I think I left this as the default (admin/buncha asterisks that I think defaults to 0000?).

Reddwarf, I've read enough posts on the Forum already to know you're not an idiot, so I'm not writing this all out to say, "See? It's all so simple!" Instead, I'm putting it all out there so that somebody completely new to this stuff (like me) can read through this thread and make sure a lot of the basic stuff -- that I've learned from a bunch of other tangentially-related threads -- is right on their own installations.

(As a bit of an aside, and coming at this as a stone-cold n00b, I feel like there's opportunity RIGHT NOW for NPVR to become the de facto Windows-based TV-serving backend for XBMC Live TV when Frodo is released from beta. A few tweaks of the NPVR Settings tabs to add some setup info and exactly fit-for-purpose setup data for XBMC, a page or so on the wiki that steps carefully through the setup on both sides, and people like me who just want a PVR under XBMC that "just works" with as little setup hassle as possible will flock to NPVR. If a Senior Member like Reddwarf is having some trouble, it seems like there's at least a little room for improvement?)

[Reddwarf]

Thanks!, but when I don't get stuff like this to work (which should be trivial) I do *feel* like an idiot

Mapping 8866 to a spesific IP should not have any impact on a local network, but is nessesary if you want to access npvr from outside your local network. I did remove everything related to npvr-addon in C:\<user>\AppData\Roaming\XBMC and reinstalled the nvr addon, after that it works again. It seems that if you update XBMC the npvr client stops to work.

I agree that there could be more ocumentation on the wiki, but it is early days, and luckily we have the best support forum in the inner solar system

[sub]

Reddwarf, if you can post your xbmc.log, I'll take a look why.

[sub]

• The add-on for XBMC asks for a Server Name, Port, and PIN. Nothing about a username. In the NPVR settings screens, there's server name, port, username, and password. Maybe I'm blind, but I didn't see anything about a PIN. So on the XBMC side I left the PIN as 0000, and on the NPVR side I think I left this as the default (admin/buncha asterisks that I think defaults to 0000?).

For now the user cant actually set the PIN (without tweaking a config file), so it's effectively always the default of 0000. The next release tweaks the settings screen to rename it from 'NMT and WEB' to 'Clients', changes the layout of the screen to include an 'XBMC' section at the bottom where you can enter the PIN.

A few tweaks of the NPVR Settings tabs to add some setup info and exactly fit-for-purpose setup data for XBMC, a page or so on the wiki that steps carefully through the setup on both sides, and people like me who just want a PVR under XBMC that "just works" with as little setup hassle as possible will flock to NPVR.

It's always good wanting more people to help out with the documentation. Best bet is to PM 'steeb' and he'll create an account for you.

If a Senior Member like Reddwarf is having some trouble, it seems like there's at least a little room for improvement?)

Maybe. In this case though, most people haven't had these issues, and they dont need to change any settings in NextPVR, and it's all enabled by default. This is more likely to be something either firewall related or some XBMC version mismatch. Reddwarf's xbmc.log might tell us more.

[Reddwarf]

Reddwarf, if you can post your xbmc.log, I'll take a look why.

As I said I deleted all npvr-addon related stuff in XBMC's data directory and reinstalled it and it now works, so I'm afraid the logs are gone. But it looks as updating XBMS breaks the addon so it has to be reinstalled.

[Karyudo]

That all sounds pretty solid, sub! Thanks for addressing my notes -- I didn't write them just to bitch; I'm seriously, SERIOUSLY impressed with NPVR (having only discovered it last week) and am excited to have found something that suits my wants and needs just about perfectly. I'd like to be able to recommend an NPVR system to my less-techie friends, and for that it's got to be a bit more user-friendly on the setup side. Your changes for the next version sound like they'll tidy things up quite a bit. And, once I get in touch with steeb, maybe I can help out on the documentation side. (IRL, I'm an engineer who has to write tons of scopes of work, project proposals, monthly reports, etc., for clients, so I think I'm getting pretty good at writing clearly and accurately about technical procedures....)