Client/Server DVR Software?

[FordGT90Concept]

I'd like to install an ATSC/NTSC tuner in my server and run software on it for scheduling and recording OTA programming. The server (Windows Server 2012 R2) already has DLNA media share enabled and the recordings would go into its videos directory. At the same time, I would like to run DLNA compatible software on clients that allow users to schedule and record TV, view TV in the DLNA media share, and also stream the live TV from the server tuner. Does such software exist?


Suggested software:
-DVBLink TVSource (ATSC, €26) + AnalogTV (NTSC + FM, €26)
-Team MediaPortal (ATSC + NTSC + FM)
-NextPVR (ATSC) + SoftPVR (NTSC +FM, Hauppauge cards only)

 

[javaking]

I'm not sure but Check out silcondust hdhomerun the one with two tuners.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm looking for a purely software solution. I already have an Asus combo tuner card and the DLNA software installed on the server (media drive shows up on networked computers). I'm looking for something to tie everything together. If you're familiar with the Dish Network Hopper, I want software to turn the server into a Hopper and any networked device (for now, just Windows 7) into a Joey for OTA channels. DirecTV Genie and Genie Mini are also analogous. If I get it working, I'll probably buy two dual tuner cards and install them into my server so it can stream/record four channels simultaneously.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I think I may have found a solution (minimum $26):
http://dvblogic.com/en/

With at least one of these cards ($105 each):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116037

I have no experience with DVBlink but in theory, it should work and it even supports live streams.

 

[Jetster]

Kodi has add ons for DVR but Ive not tried them

http://kodi.wiki/view/PVR

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Kodi should be able to connect to the DVBLink server but I don't think Kodi itself can act as a server.

I investigated my Asus tuner and it won't work in my server (no drivers). If I'm going to try this, I'll have to buy that WinTV card. DVBLink itself seems very reasonable--no more than $52, no monthly fee, all features are server-sided, up to 8 simultaneous clients.

The only problem I see is that Windows Server 2012 R2 isn't exactly suited for this job. I already tried installing the BDA components...I hope that is all that is required. I'm not entirely sure Hauppauge's driver will agree to install though. I'm going to be really annoyed if having the most capable OS ends up being the most crippling component.

 

[newtekie1]

You can use NextPVR with Kodi and it is free. You can then enable sharing in Kodi and install Kodi to make it a server, then install Kodi on all the clients and point them to the Kodi server.

I'm pretty sure you can use this to watch liveTV on at least one of the clients, but since you'll only have one tuner you can only watch one live TV show at a time, the second tuner is used for recording AFAIK.

 

[qubit]

My friend has been running Media Portal for some time and it's a great product that's also completely free, which you might like to try.

It's client/server based like you're after, too.

www.team-mediaportal.com

 

[FordGT90Concept]

You can use NextPVR with Kodi and it is free. You can then enable sharing in Kodi and install Kodi to make it a server, then install Kodi on all the clients and point them to the Kodi server.

I'm pretty sure you can use this to watch liveTV on at least one of the clients, but since you'll only have one tuner you can only watch one live TV show at a time, the second tuner is used for recording AFAIK.

I have no interest in watching anything on the server. It should virtualize both tuners and either use them for live streaming, recording, or both (if a client is viewing and recording the same program). If Kodi can't do that, then it won't work for my application.

My friend has been running Media Portal for some time and it's a great product that's also completely free, which you might like to try.

It's client/server based like you're after, too.

www.team-mediaportal.com

Once I buy the TV tuner for the server, I should try that one first before spending money on DVBLink.

 

[newtekie1]

I have no interest in watching anything on the server. It should virtualize both tuners and either use them for live streaming, recording, or both (if a client is viewing and recording the same program). If Kodi can't do that, then it won't work for my application.

I wasn't talking about watching things on the server. Everything gets done on the server, and then streamed to the clients. You'll have to play around with Kodi, its free so you can give it a shot and see. When I used it for TVTuning with a dual-tuner card, I could only watch one live show, the second tuner was used for recording. It is setup more how a traditional DVR works. Of course that might have changed too, it has been a good long while since I did anything with LiveTV. It is just easier to download anything I want now.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So you're saying you couldn't use two DLNA devices to view live streams of both tuners at once?

Traditional DVRs are very abstracted. My 722k ViP DVR right now can record up to four channels simultaneously (2 sat/2 antenna) but it can only display two simultaneously (can be the aforementioned tuners or 2 recordings). I imagine the hard drive gets a work out when it's writing four streams and reading two stream at once. DirecTV Genie records 5 satellite channels at once; Dish Network Hopper (with Super Joeys) records 8 satellite channels at once. The PC market for TV tuners is obviously falling behind (2 tuners for ATSC and 4 tuners for DVB from what I've found).

What I'm trying to get at is that there's serious abstraction going on. Basically all good DVR software records and encodes everything into MPEG and stashes it on a hard drive. When you view it, no matter if it is live or not, it takes the data on the hard drive and decodes it for display. DVBLink, for example, allows 8 simultaneous clients like the Hopper. You could technically have all 8 running in different windows on a single computer or none at all. You could have one on a tablet, one on a DLNA capable TV, one on a Kodi device, and one on a Smart Phone too. It really doesn't matter because it is abstracted. And the important part that I'm looking for is it has to be as effortless to run as the 722k ViP from those connected devices: look at a list of previous recording to view, a list of live channels to view right now with program information, or select a future program from that guide and set it to record. The server needs to handle all of the thinking/storage.

Maybe Kobi can handle the server function but I shy away from it because it sounds like it is an add-on, not something that's meant to run on physical server. I get a sense that it is more like Windows Media Center or Xbox Media Extender where all of the devices in a house can be made to share data willy-nilly. I don't want that because it gets too complicated too fast. That said, I can totally see Kobi playing a client role to get our older TVs on this system.


Cable is not an option (no provider). Satellite providers are trying to nickel and dime us to death. Streaming internet doesn't work when you only have 3 Mbps and a minimum of three users. OTA DVR is the best option and it has worked remarkably well for the last several months only costing about $5/month. A policy change caused that to jump up to $25/month and that'll eventually increase to $40/month. One month and the DVBLink software is already paid for. Every 4 months we'd save enough to buy another dual-TV tuner or 2+ TB HDD (estimate 5 GiB/hr). There's really two catches: it can't be overly expensive to start and it has to be simple to use.

 

[newtekie1]

So you're saying you couldn't use two DLNA devices to view live streams of both tuners at once?

Not back when I did it, but like I said, it was a while ago and they may have changed that since then. When I used it, one tuner was dedicated to live tv and the other was dedicated to recording, or you could also record with the live tuner. So you could be recording two things, or watching one live and recording one, but not watching two things live at once. This is far enough back though that Kodi was still called XBMC.

Maybe Kobi can handle the server function but I shy away from it because it sounds like it is an add-on, not something that's meant to run on physical server. I get a sense that it is more like Windows Media Center or Xbox Media Extender where all of the devices in a house can be made to share data willy-nilly. I don't want that because it gets too complicated too fast. That said, I can totally see Kobi playing a client role to get our older TVs on this system.

Not really, sure if you go into the settings you can enable sharing on the clients, but it isn't something that is easy to do. It isn't like there is just a button in the interface that says "share this". You have to enable and configure the uPnP server portion of Kodi.

The DVR part is an add-on to Kodi. And really NextPVR is the server managing the DVR and tuners. You don't even technically need Kodi installed on the server, you only need NextPVR. Then you can configure each client to interface with the NextPVR running on the server.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Oooooo, NextPVR supports FM? Pretty sure that Hauppauge card I was looking at has an FM tuner as well. I wonder if that is only live or if it lets you record too. I noticed WMC doesn't let you record FM. I should put a list of these programs in the OP...

I guess my main reserveration now is I have serious doubts about getting the tuner card to work on Windows Server 2012 R2. Apparently it has something to do with server operating systems not having a BDA driver. I tried to get around that by installing a copy obtained from Windows 8 but I have no way to test that without the card. I also really wish there was a quad ATSC/NTSC + FM tuner I could buy that has an internal hub instead of requiring no less than two inputs. I have everything on the same cable right now. My server almost needs to be moved to the room where the TV distributor is so they can come right out of that and into the card(s)...

...now there's an idea. Just make a dedicated media server with, for example, Windows 7 on it and put it there. Forget using my fancy dancy server for this. Hmm...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I successfully moved my Asus My Cinema EHC3-150 card to my server (Server 2012 R2 Standard 64-bit) using the Windows 7 64-bit driver provided by Asus. I then proceeded to install MediaPortal on the server and Kodi on my computer. Everything appears to be working great but it did take about 4-5 hours to get it done. The only thing that doesn't work that I wish did is loading radio groups from Media Portal into Kodi (Kodi only shows "All Channels").


Edit: I encountered a new problem. I'm using Windows Server 2012 R2's Media Server role to set up a DLNA host for music, video, and pictures. Windows Media Player nor Kodi appears to be finding a lot of it. Any ideas?


Edit: Restarting the server fixed that problem. The only lingering issue now is how long it takes Kodi to access DLNA. I'm hoping it will speed up with time.


Edit: No, I'm convinced Kodi's UPNP code is crap. It does not query what it needs from DLNA. Instead, it seems to download it all and examine it itself. The only alrenative is simply linking to the files but doing that, you lose most search features. Kodi is garbage for DLNA and it's seriously making me think I need a new client solution.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm now using MediaPortal Client + MediaPortal TV-Server + MPExtended + WebMediaPortal and now that it is all set up and running, it has exceeded my expectations by a long ways. I now have access to live FM, live ATSC, live NTSC, recordings of all of the above, in addition to the library of music, videos, and pictures on the server from virtually any device (even Surface RT).