New NextPVR client for Raspberry Pi 2 and 3.

[fred250]

I call it NextPiVR for now and it's currently in beta state.

It's a native GUI “web client” written in python using omxplayer for video playback.
NextPVR 3.9.2 or later is required.

If your TV channels are mpeg2 you will need the mpeg2-license (http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/). Mpeg4 files should play fine out of the box without any license.

Use with keyboard or remote.
The client support lirc remotes but will need some configuration. In my own setup I use a $ 2 infrared sensor (TSOP38238) directly on the GPIO together with an old Hauppauge MVP remote.

There is also some experimental support for cec but ATM I can't get it to work with the current libcec3 package in raspbian jessie.

Installation:

You need a Raspbian Jessie up and running, preferably booting into text console, not desktop.

If you already got one you can skip to the Install NextPiVR section.

Get the latest raspbian Jessie lite image from raspberrypi.org,
If you pick the standard larger image you may want to tweak it to boot into text console rather than into desktop (sudo raspi-config, boot options)
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

Use Win32DiskImager (g00gle it) to flash the image onto a micro SD card.

Boot the pi on the newly flashed image and let it resize the disk.

Logon with user pi and password raspberry


Install NextPiVR:

Get the NextPiVR debian packade, install it and its dependencies, reboot

Code:

sudo apt-get update

wget https://www.dropbox.com/s/fizgaemif22ubo4/NextPiVR_0.1.deb?dl=1 -O nextpivr.deb

sudo dpkg -i nextpivr.deb

sudo apt-get -f install

sudo reboot

The raspberry will now boot into a screen where all your active nextPVR servers are listed.
Select one using arrow keys and press enter to connect.

To exit NextPVR GUI select Exit in menu or press End-button on keyboard.


Tweaks:

You will probably want to change the overscan settings to suite your TV.

Code:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

change parts of your config.txt to look something like this for a start.

Code:

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
overscan_left=16
overscan_right=16
overscan_top=16
overscan_bottom=16

Playback of certain HD content require more memory to the gpu

Code:

gpu_mem=128

While you're at it put in your mpeg2 license key if you got one.
(this one won't work since the license key is specific to every individual raspberry pi)

Code:

# MPEG2 License
decode_MPG2=0xfff7025b

This is my entry to enable lirc remote on GPIO, I've put my IR sensor on pin 23.
(pin 22 is reserved for a future IR blaster)

Code:

# Uncomment this to enable the lirc-rpi module
dtoverlay=lirc-rpi,gpio_in_pin=23,gpio_out_pin=22,gpio_in_pull=up

ctrl-O to save and ctrl-X to exit in the nano editor

Code:

sudo reboot

Enjoy!

/Fred

[lost@c]

This looks pretty interesting. I'm going to give it try in the weekend!

[stustunz]

Will be trying this out when i get the time

[lost@c]

OK I have given it a try with mixed success. (Looking pretty good so far though!)

Install went fine and I can navigate around the interface no problem. But it will not play some of my files. Webclient log from server attached (is there 1 from the Pi that would be helpful? If so let me know where to find it.)

To help troubleshoot, I went to 1 recording that will play, let it run for 1 minute, waited another minute then went to the recording that won't. "Mythbusters" plays but "Grand Designs" does not. I see a progress bar but it does not change.

Looking at the files in VLC, I can see that Mythbusters is 720x576 whereas Grand Designs is 1920 x 1080. Both these recordings play fine in XNEWA on my Pi. I have the MPEG2 license installed (and confirmed) but probaly not relevant given these are MPEG4 (I think)

[stustunz]

Hey fred I haven't tried the app yet but
does it have time line like on the Samsung app with the black bars show where the commercials are?

[fred250]

Webclient log from server attached (is there 1 from the Pi that would be helpful? If so let me know where to find it.)

The webclient.log didn’t give any clue.

At work now and I can’t seem to remember exactly where I put the log, but look for npvrClient.log in and about /home/pi/nextPiVR/
You should be able to see entries where omxplayer is dealing with playing your files.

My experience with omxplayer is that it is a very capable media player. It plays just about anything I’ve thrown at it including mpeg4 HD.

/Fred

[fred250]

Hey fred I haven't tried the app yet but
does it have time line like on the Samsung app with the black bars show where the commercials are?

Yes it has a time line with commercials marked out.
A tripple 9 will toogle auto skip commercials on/off.


Some options for navigating the media player:

• Press play will jump forward to the end of current or next commercial.
  
• Press one or more number keys, wait ~1.5 sec and player will skip forward x number of minutes.
  
• Press one or more number keys, immediately followed by pressing left or right key and player will skip back or forward x number of minutes.
  
• Use left and right arrow keys to do an incremental delayed skip. It’s not everybody’s taste but I like it.
  

/Fred

[lost@c]

Thanks for that. It'll be a couple of days before I can get back to this but will let you know how I get on

[stustunz]

Ok got it working
did a dumb thing and used exit now i cant get it to start
after i select the correct server it flashes up(next pvr main menu) but then goes back to select the server again almost like its getting a double enter from keyboard and because i selected exit thats the key its selecting when i get back into nextpivr. (hope that makes sense)

[fred250]

Ok got it working

Great!

did a dumb thing and used exit now i cant get it to start

A “sudo reboot” from terminal should do it.

Or

./home/pi/NextPiVR/launchPad/startnpvr

Or

A Power cycle – not recommended since this may cause the file system to crash.
That said, to be honest I have my Rpi2 connected to a USB port on TV for power and it has never crashed yet.

after i select the correct server it flashes up(next pvr main menu) but then goes back to select the server again almost like its getting a double enter from keyboard and because i selected exit thats the key its selecting when i get back into nextpivr. (hope that makes sense)

Yes I’ve seen it too, that it sometimes takes more than one try before it gets a stable connection. It may have something to do with the Exit from menu I just don’t know yet.

/Fred