NextPVR Releases

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NextPVR v5 is a large redevelopment of the application, with the goal making it possible to run the backend (recording service / web server) on platforms other than just Windows. Where possible I've reused stuff, so there is a lot of familiar aspects to NextPVR v5, but there is also a lot of new stuff and things that needed to be done different ways...so there is definitely some learning curve for getting started with the new application. This thread aims to help get the user through this.

Unlike previous versions, since the traditional nextpvr.exe frontend application isn't available on non-Windows platforms, the setup and configuration is done using the web application. After installing, open your browser to http://localhost:8866/index.html, enter default "admin"/"password" login credentials, then head to the Settings->Devices page to begin setup. From there you should hopefully see your devices listed. Click a device...

Is NextPVR v5 ready for everyone to install?
Yes

How will I know when new builds are available?
When I post a new build, I'll post release notes in this thread. You can subscribe to this thread to get email notification of new posts.

Is there any documentation available?
Yes! The documentation is still a work in progress, but you can find the wiki here:
https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki

Specifically, initial setup is described at https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/Setup-Main. A brief overview of how to use the application can be found at https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/Usi...pplication

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Installing...
At this stage, there are no installers, so you need to do a few steps to manually install. Thankfully it's fairly straight forward - it's largely just unzipping NPVR.zip and running an executable. The files and steps for each platform are listed below.

Windows:
https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=59388

Linux: (x64 / arm32 / arm64)
https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=59390

macOS:
https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=59395

Docker amd64:
https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=59393

Docker arm32v7:
https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=59394

Setup...
This video takes you through the installation of NextPVR v5 on a Windows machine.


This video takes you through the initial setup. In this particular video, it's showing the setup of a digital tuner.

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Clients for use with NextPVR v5

For information on clients that can used with NextPVR v5 can be found at https://forums.nextpvr.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=63. Clients options include nextpvr.exe (on Windows), nlite, Kodi, Emby, knewc, and the iOS and Android apps

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The public beta builds have been updated (Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker) to 5.0.0.190621

Changes:

Fixed error where "configure server" button was hardcoded to 8866, so didn't work when users had changed the port
Fixed issue where UI Clients on Windows were always using high quality image encoding, which was slower
Fixed a couple of typos in web app
Fixed a bug with deleting capture sources in web app
Now auto creating scripts directory if its missing
Added option in web app to highlight new shows in the guide
Pending recording list is now showing most recent recording first
Fixed an HDHR discovery exception error that could be logged at startup
Fixed an issue with copying tuner configuration on digital tuners on Linux.
Added 'keep digital tuners primed' option, which can be enabled for faster start up of live tv with physical DVB/ATSC/QAM tuners. When this is enabled, the tuners will continue to be reserved for NextPVR's use after the device is first use. (ie, don't enable this option if you need to use the tuner in other software)
Fixed date format in web app with some browsers
Improved performance of Schedules Direct artwork
Improvements to HDHR/DCR device detection.

To upgrade from the previous release, stop the software, unzip the new files into the same location, and run the software again.

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The public beta builds have been updated (Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker) to 5.0.0.190629

Context menu 'Channels' option is now working in nextpvr.exe
Added support for SSL via "-cert:" and "-password:" command line options
Fixed issue with popup sizings in last build of web app
Channels with no listings now show 30 minute placeholder shows in web app
Tray app now expands status by default
Added "fec" for SAT>IP devices that need it
Fixed a couple of issues with SAT>IP use of with DVB EPG
More improments to artwork streaming for Schedules Direct users
Improved error reporting on failed streams with IPTV/HDHR/SAT>IP
Improved support for extracting season/episode numbers from DVB show descriptions
3rd party web components now included with distribution, so they don't need to be download from the internet
Added ability to download Schedules Direct channel icons.
Fixed issues with running web app via proxy pass with from another webserver such as nginx/apache/iis
Added ability to specify a SAT>IP device via environment variable, rather than always requiring discovery (which can't work in some Docker networking setups)
Improvements for compatibility with arm64 devices.
A couple of IPTV improvements
Fixed a streaming/recording issue with some channel names
Added new Settings->Guide page, where you can configure you SD account details

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The public beta builds have been updated (Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker) to 5.0.0.190710

Added arm64 support
Updated to bootstrap 4.3.1. May need to do a Ctrl-F5 to refresh the page in browser if colors are off.
Import Recordings now works. You can import recordings-backup.xml, recurring-backup.xml or a zip file containing these (as created by Export Recordings)
Further improvements to IPTV.
Fixed a bug with downloading SD channel icons.
Fixed issue with multiple digital tuners under Linux
Minor web app UI tweaks
Speed up loading of large channel lists in Kodi and iOS/Android apps
More SAT>IP improvements (DVB-T2 support, keep-alives, signal status etc).
Added work around for problematic playback of TVNZ1/TVNZ2 IPTV streams
Fixed a problem with the 'blue' flag in nextpvr.exe and UI client
Fixed a bug that could cause a login to take you back to the login page
Fixed issue with managing groups in the web app
Fixed bug that could cause only a subset of SAT>IP channels to be shown at the end of a scan (sometimes as low as a single channel)
SAT>IP scan now identifying encrypted channels
Added Streaming Profile setting in web app
Channel groups now listed in alphabetical order

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The public beta builds have been updated (Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker) to 5.0.0.190803

Changes to the way Linux builds are distributed. There is now a single NPVR.zip that works on all Linux distributions, but needs the user to have installed the .NET Core 2.2 runtime, and any prerequisites. There is also now a nextpvr-helper.deb for helping to install and update NextPVR, on platforms that support deb file.
Increased simultaneous downloads to speed downloading of bulk artwork/icons etc
Added a name-based automap option
HDHR now asking for EPG update at end of adding channels
Larger web app player
Improvements for artwork matching
Fixed issue with cancelling a digital scan
Further improvements to IPTV m3u8 stream support
Added Channel Header setting in nextpvr.exe
Slight differences to the way the web UI uses css, for better compatibility with other bootstrap themes.
Web guide now slightly wider, to give more space
Fixed a bug where HDHomeRun would sometimes be left running after a failed attempt to start a recording or live tv (leading to later failures when trying to use the device)
The 'download SD channel icons' feature now prefers to download channel icons that work well on dark backgrounds. If you've already got icons, you'll need to delete them, then restart the app, then hit the download button again.
Distribution including specific version of libdvbv5.so.0
UI Clients now remember channel group on a per-client basis
Further small web app tweaks
Fixed a bug where live-iptv-xxxx files could get left behind
Fixed issue with running PostProcessing.sh/ParallelProcess.sh etc on Linux
Now logging output of scripts, to help diagnose use problems.

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The public beta builds have been updated (Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker) to 5.0.0.190825

Added EXTRAS device type. This allows users to create a new device from a executable or shell script. The executable/script needs to output transport stream to standard-output. Ideally this transport stream should be H.264+AAC, but it is possible to use other types of streams. This feature can be use for a wide variety of sources, such as analog / v4l2 on linux etc.
DeviceHostLinux now creating log file, for better visibility of issues with DVB/ATSC devices on Linux
Fixed issue with QAM scanning on Linux.
Added NScriptHelper
Now showing the clickable cursor in web app over some buttons that previously weren't causing the cursor to change.
Fixed the period/channel not being visible in the web app (due to incorrect colors)
Added manual recording capability in web app. See plus icon on Scheduler page.
Fixed 'advanced' record in Search page.
Showing subtitle and episode/season in more places in web app.
Added ability to specify one or more EPG update times (or none if you prefer).
Added ability to specify blaster for HDPVR style devices
Auto returning to previous screen at completion of playback in web app
Fixed a couple of issues with Freesat EPG option
Fixed issue with group names that have ampersand
Fixed issue with compatibility with some IPTV streams.
Fixed issue with downloading IPTV channel icons on Linux.
Fixed issue where web app was downloading a font from Google server, rather than from local distribution
Fixed issue with automap feature
Guide page now has channel group selector in lower left corner of screen
Fixed issue with Guide timeline repeating hourly times, rather than also showing half hour intervals
Added logic to 'download SD channel icons' to prefer icons that will work well on the current theme's background (light or dark)
Fixed issue that could lead to missing SAT>IP guide listings for some channels

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About the EXTRAS device type.

NextPVR will look in the user data directory for any files named "extras*.xml". These files can be used to specify extra channel sources. These addon devices will shown on the Settings->Devices page, alongside other device. These files define channels whose data comes from an executable or script of your choosing. Your executable or script needs to output a transport stream to standard output.

A simple example might contain the following. This would cause an extra device to show up with a single channel called 'Aljazeera'.

Code:

<extras>
  <channel name="Aljazeera">
    <command>ffmpeg</command>
    <args>-i http://aljazeera-eng-hd-live.hls.adaptive.level3.net/aljazeera/english2/index.m3u8 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f mpegts - </args>
  </channel>
</extras>

A more complicated example might be as follows. Because this example has the special case name="{channel-name}", the device scanner will prompt you for a channel lineup (Schedules Direct, XMLTV etc). Something like this could be used for adding v4l2 devices in Linux (analog, HDPVR etc). In your shell script you can do stuff like call a blaster executable, than maybe call ffmpeg to read content from a device, transcode to H.264+AAC transport stream, and output to standard output. When the process is executed "{channel}" in the args will be replaced with the channel number from the lineup you selected (for use with a IR blaster etc)

Code:

<extras>
  <channel name="{channel-name}">
    <command>bash</command>
    <args>-c '/some/path/hdpvr.sh {channel}'</args>
  </channel>
</extras>

Multiple of these <channel> nodes can be included in side the top level <extras> node.

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The public beta builds have been updated (Windows, Linux, Mac, Docker) to 5.0.0.190826

This build is fairly small update to address a couple of issues with the last build.

Fixed an issue with transcoded streaming for some device types (affecting web app playback)
Windows build now includes the ffmpeg.exe that was missing