What do we need for Kodi (to watch live TV)

P4-630 · Jun 9, 2017

My dad would like to be able to watch TV upstairs in his computer room.

What does he need for that besides a cheap GT1030 with hdmi output.

He has a 775 system with E7200 (stock) and windows 8.1 (on SSD).

What else does he need and what do we need to know?

Edit: Downstairs my parents have a MAG256 Set top box, which is for 1 TV and he needs to pay for it each 3 months or so, so they don't have regular cable TV.

FreedomEclipse · Jun 9, 2017

A tv? Or a tv tuner card like in the old days before Internet? You can watch most tv channels online now anyway

rtwjunkie · Jun 9, 2017

With various online sources like Amazon Prime, Hulu, Sling TV and Netflix, you can pretty much watch any show that you used to watch on cable. So, just an internet connection and the TV basically. Would cover it.

FreedomEclipse · Jun 9, 2017

You guys can also add a NAS to your network and share all your films and movies if you really needed to also

P4-630 · Jun 9, 2017

It's my old 1080p TV (not a smart tv) he will use, but I think we don't even need that TV lol, it's just a matter of software (kodi) to install and he can just use his monitor I guess..?

The graphics card is a HD4870, I think it's good enough? Or do we need something newer like a GT1030?

Ahhzz · Jun 9, 2017

his title is asking about Kodi

here's a decent article on setup (http://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-download-and-install-the-kodi-krypton-17-update) on everything from a win10 PC (Kodi is on the Windows store) to a RaspPi (you'll need to download a rasppi distro pre-loaded).

Based on what I remember (and this page seems to bear it out), your computer is well within specs.

ATI Intel Nvidia
Minimum without HW decoding: ATI Radeon RV710/M92 (HD 4300/4500) Note: These are uvd2.2 cards Intel GMA 950 (945G) Nvidia GeForce 6-Series
Minimum for HW decoding of 8-bit H.264 and VC-1: AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series or newer Intel GMA X4500HD (G45) or newer Nvidia GeForce 8-Series or newer
Minimum for HW decoding of 10-bit HEVC (H.265) and VP9: TBA: AMD Radeon R9 300 Series (R9 380) or newer TBA: Intel HD 510 (Skylake) or newer Nvidia GeForce 900 series (GM20x) or newer

l3nderb · Jun 9, 2017

You don't need much GPU horsepower for Kodi. I use Kodi on a HP Thin Client (HP T620) with fairly crappy specs and that runs Kodi just fine. Especially if the Tv is 1080p instead of 4K

newtekie1 · Jun 9, 2017

What do you mean by "watch tv". Do you mean actually watch live broadcast or cable TV through the PC? Or do you just mean watch saved media files through Kodi?

Because using Kodi to watch live TV is more complicated than just hooking it up and installing Kodi.

P4-630 · Jun 9, 2017

FreedomEclipse said:
You can watch most tv channels online now anyway

A lot of Dutch channels we have on regular (coax) cable are not available to view online on some website, we hope that it will work with Kodi somehow?...

l3nderb said:
Especially if the Tv is 1080p instead of 4K

My dad has a 1440x900 monitor but I gave him my 21.5" 1080p TV, so you recommend using the TV?

In that case we just need to buy a DVI-D to HDMI adapter.

newtekie1 said:
What do you mean by "watch tv". Do you mean actually watch live broadcast or cable TV through the PC? Or do you just mean watch saved media files through Kodi?

Because using Kodi to watch live TV is more complicated than just hooking it up and installing Kodi.

Yeah, the idea was to be able to watch live TV...

newtekie1 · Jun 9, 2017

P4-630 said:
A lot of Dutch channels we have on regular (coax) cable are not available to view online on some website, we hope that it will work with Kodi somehow?...

P4-630 said:
Yeah, the idea was to be able to watch live TV...

It isn't as easy as just installing Kodi and hooking the computer up to a monitor/TV with HDMI. You need a cable capture card to connect to the incoming cable connection. You might as well just connect the cable to the TV.

Edit: I just saw your edit about the MAG256 box. That box doesn't provide any content on its own. It is an IPTV box, but it still requires a provider for the box to connect to and receive the channels. So what they are likely paying for every 3 months is the cable content itself, not the box. The best bet is to contact the TV provider and see what is needed to access the content on a computer. If it is possible, they should be able to tell you what you need to do.

FordGT90Concept · Jun 9, 2017

HDHomeRun is the easiest way to translate coax ATSC/PAL into a digitized stream for computers.
Terrestrial: https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-connect/ (2 tuners)
Cable: https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-expand/ (4 tuners)

I'd just use HDHomeRun's software after that. Emby is better for Live TV than Kodi is but Emby is still very beta with support.

The main reason for going down this path (it's very expensive and imperfect) is to get DVR functionality. If he's fine with no DVR then yeah, a non-computer solution will be better. Let's also not forget that the hardware above will be rendered obsolete when they change over to HEVC for UHDTV.

Steevo · Jun 9, 2017

P4-630 said:
A lot of Dutch channels we have on regular (coax) cable are not available to view online on some website, we hope that it will work with Kodi somehow?...

My dad has a 1440x900 monitor but I gave him my 21.5" 1080p TV, so you recommend using the TV?

In that case we just need to buy a DVI-D to HDMI adapter.

Yeah, the idea was to be able to watch live TV...

I have and have used a AMD HD750 PCIe TV tuner, they are also available as USB, and all you do is install it, attach an antenna and either use the software included, or there are hacks to run Windows Media Center on windows 10, or use it in Windows 7, 8 or whatever else you want. WMC is much more user friendly than Kodi, but Kodi is also much more flexible for everything else. If you use WMC you can purchase cheap remote controls and even schedule recordings and save them on a share for others to watch, and for awhile I setup a streaming server so whatever live channel was being watched could be viewed by others in the house.

P4-630 · Jun 9, 2017

P4-630 said:
A lot of Dutch channels we have on regular (coax) cable are not available to view online on some website, we hope that it will work with Kodi somehow?...

Ok I need to say, I do have cable TV but my parents don't. My parents only have a MAG256 box for 1 TV.

I contacted a local guy, somehow I thought maybe my dad could get his TV channels by Kodi with the right add-ons for free but it seems he would still need a second IPTV subscription... :ohwell:

Anyways, thanks guys!

Thread can be closed now.

Deleted member 67555 · Jun 9, 2017

Hdhomerun...
Hook it up to the network.. Install drivers update... Then in Kodi it's like 4 steps to turn on the Hdhomerun plugin... Very easy
Edit sorry.. Only read first three posts

Kursah · Jun 9, 2017

I know Plex recently added LiveTV DVR capabilities that can use OTA streams with an antenna hooked up.

https://www.plex.tv/features/live-tv-dvr/

You'll need the Plex Pass, which for me has been worth it...I've been on Plex for years now and I love it. I've used it all over the nation to stream from home, never had it crash, I run it as a service on a virtual server so I never have to login to start it (more than most folks need to do), but easy enough I set a Plex server up on my mom's PC and she's used that for years as well without complaints.

Though the Plex Live TV DVR solution might not do what you need, I believe it would if you had the right hardware to get the signal to the PC that hosts the server. Plex also has a Kodi plugin but I doubt the Live TV DVR integration would work that way as you need the server services running...which would kinda defeat the purpose of Kodi at that point.

I've never heard of HDHomeRun, but I'll look into it as I have a co-worker that wants to do Live TV streaming in Kodi.

:toast:

P4-630 · Jun 9, 2017

Most channels from our country we have are unfortunately not available by antenna..... :ohwell:

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System Name	AlderLake / Laptop
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Display(s)	23.8" Dell S2417DG 165Hz G-Sync 1440p / 14" 1080p IPS Glossy
Case	Be quiet! Silent Base 600 - Window / HP Pavilion
Audio Device(s)	Panasonic SA-PMX94 / Realtek onboard + B&O speaker system / Harman Kardon Go + Play / Logitech G533
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 750W / Powerbrick
Mouse	Logitech MX Anywhere 2 Laser wireless / Logitech M330 wireless
Keyboard	RAPOO E9270P Black 5GHz wireless / HP backlit
Software	Windows 11 / Windows 10
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What do we need for Kodi (to watch live TV)

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