Cutting the cord - recording streaming?

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Dingfelder

12 posts

Geek

#228865 26-Jan-2018 11:05

Hi

Long time lurker just getting started cutting off sky so figured it’s time to post a question

I have a TV that’s not smart - so I need a tuner and a new antenna, but my location could be dodgy for getting reception - borderline area

My goal is to be able to get and record NZ Freeview but also serve up non US content (such as US Freeview for sports and kids shows etc) I assume I should maybe use kodi or similar for that?

I also use Plex for a media server already so am keen to use that for liveTV / DVR if that’s an easy option?

I welcome thoughts and ideas

Cheers

ding

Dingfelder

12 posts

Geek

#1947049 26-Jan-2018 11:08

Souls add I meant to say would like to be able to serve up *and record* remote content

Do you know if DVR solutions record only stuff off a tuner card etc (local Freeview) ? Or can they also record streaming content like Freeview from other places or kodi?

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fe31nz

1200 posts

Uber Geek

#1947325 26-Jan-2018 20:32

There are various PVR software options for recording IPTV. I know of two that I use - MythTV on Linux and Mediaportal on Windows. MythTV has IPTV capability built in, and if all it takes to play the channel directly is a URL (no special logins), then it should also be able to record from that. Mediaportal uses a plugin for IPTV, but after you have installed that it seems to work similarly. However, you then have the problem of how you are going to get the EPG data for the channel. With normal broadcast channels (DVB-T or DVB-S), the EPG is broadcast along with the channels. That does not happen with IPTV. Some IPTV broadcasters do make available downloadable EPG, but I have not heard of that happening in New Zealand. If downloadable XMLTV format EPG is available, then it can be used by MythTV and Mediaportal, but there will be a bit of work to be done to set it up properly. There are also third party EPGs available for some channels. For UK and USA programming (and probably a number of other countries also), there is an excellent and fairly cheap pay site to use:

http://schedulesdirect.org

However, they do not do New Zealand (they did do a trial, but were unable to obtain EPG data that was up to their standards). PM me if you want to know how to download NZ EPG data.

sub

358 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1947394 27-Jan-2018 05:36

NextPVR works well for recording and watching IPTV. Below is a quick video showing you how to set it up, including TV Guide, for the NZ channels, and a few foreign channels (RT etc).

You can follow the same process for TV channels from other countries, if you've got an m3u url for these channels.

sub

358 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1947395 27-Jan-2018 05:40

That embedded youtube video doesn't seem to be working. See the original at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfdD8ayFjTc

sbiddle

30853 posts

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#1947409 27-Jan-2018 08:50

NextPVR works brilliantly. Watching and recording an IPTV channel is no different to watching regular TV.

Dingfelder

12 posts

Geek

#1947421 27-Jan-2018 09:32

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Plex, where does that fit into the mix?

Dingfelder

12 posts

Geek

#1947423 27-Jan-2018 09:32

And thanks for the video, I’ll check it out

psychnurse

329 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1947450 27-Jan-2018 10:10

Dingfelder: Hi

Long time lurker just getting started cutting off sky so figured it’s time to post a question

I have a TV that’s not smart - so I need a tuner and a new antenna, but my location could be dodgy for getting reception - borderline area

My goal is to be able to get and record NZ Freeview but also serve up non US content (such as US Freeview for sports and kids shows etc) I assume I should maybe use kodi or similar for that?

I also use Plex for a media server already so am keen to use that for liveTV / DVR if that’s an easy option?

I welcome thoughts and ideas

Cheers

ding

Reading post inspired me. Disconnected the Mysky (told the wife, she was ok about it when I said all we watch is TV1 and prime), replaced with a freeview S8200 SAT Box. Giving it a month to see how much we miss it before I decide to return or keep the box.

12 months free Netflix with Spark and Lightbox.

Getflix for all the overseas content. Iplayer, ITV.

Kodi of course which has a NZ and Aussie freeview.

Sport- Verizon Fios logon (legit) which gives access to all plenty of sport and unlocks all those apps on a Roku.

rb99

3401 posts

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#1947452 27-Jan-2018 10:16

I use Emby for local dvb-s tv and local and a few overseas tv channels, probably the same one as are shown (I presume) in subs video. Don't have Plex but presume similar stuff is in there somewhere. NextPVR provides the tv to Emby for me.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1947541 27-Jan-2018 14:33

Apart from whether your antenna works, you have left a few questions unanswered (critically what your budget is, but also what other foreign channels you want to view, whether you just want to watch in one room or around the house, and how comfortable you are with rolling your own PC-based solutions).

For my suggestions, I am assuming that you have a working satellite dish, as you say you have just cut the Sky cord. I will also assume that a new antenna can get you reception. You really should test this before you buy anything.

Your most budget option is probably just a straight off-the-shelf Freeview recorder. Twin tuner units with hard drives built in run to about $400 (terrestrial if your antenna works, satellite if it doesn't) from the likes of Dish, or a bit more for better quality units from Panasonic. Plug one of these in and you are good to record and play Freeview. With the right Panny unit you can also watch elsewhere in the house, as they include a DLNA server. As well as being the cheapest, this option is closest to plug-ang-play if you don't want a lot of fiddling.

For foreign "freeview" channels, you are probably looking at a home theater PC, coupled with a virtual private network, to let you watch overseas on demand and subscription programming (ABC, BBC, Hulu etc). The absolute minimum is probably something like a core i3 with HDMI out and a hard drive of at least 500GB. From there the options are almost infinite, depending on requirements and budget. From when I looked at this two years or so ago (I haven't built mine yet), budget permitting I would probably be looking at something like:

a recent core i7 processor, with 8GB or RAM
a 128GB SSD as a boot drive
2-4 TB of hard drive, possibly something like a WD purple with specs for 27/4 quiet-ish running
a quad-tuner terrestrial tuner card (PB Tech used to carry a hauppauge one) or an HD Homerun
PLUS a single or dual tuner satellite tuner card
a blu-ray drive (for playing/ripping blu-rays & DVDs if you want to)
a wireless keybooard
PLUS a decent media center remote control - a most for watching TV

Software is a matter of personal choice. Next PVR seems quite well regarded. The above should give you pretty much what you say you want to do.

For me, again budget permitting, I would also add to the Mix

a decent NAS (4-12 bay, configured as RAID 6, with a Plex server and OK processor) for longer-term storage of media.
a smaller client (eg, an nVidia shield or a NUC) as a bedroom client for accessing media
wired ethernet (or ethernet over powerline if that isn't feasible)
a blu ray burner for backing up stuff you want to archive, or simply don't want to lose

fe31nz

1200 posts

Uber Geek

#1947561 27-Jan-2018 15:15

JimmyH:

a blu ray burner for backing up stuff you want to archive, or simply don't want to lose

Never rely on optical media for archiving - optical disks simply do not last long enough. Hard drives often last longer than optical media.

Rikkitic

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#1947597 27-Jan-2018 17:39

sbiddle:

NextPVR works brilliantly. Watching and recording an IPTV channel is no different to watching regular TV.

Your comment inspired me to give it a try. Unfortunately, my experience is completely different. Totally unstable on my Win 7 system, all kinds of errors during installation and use, instability, crashes, general hopelessness. I was only trying to use it with the FTA IPTV streams from appsattv that work perfectly on the Kodi IPTV Simple Client. I don't know why it works so poorly for me but I finally gave up. I couldn't even get it to play reliably, let alone record anything.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

sub

358 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1947626 27-Jan-2018 21:06

Rikkitic:

Your comment inspired me to give it a try. Unfortunately, my experience is completely different. Totally unstable on my Win 7 system, all kinds of errors during installation and use, instability, crashes, general hopelessness. I was only trying to use it with the FTA IPTV streams from appsattv that work perfectly on the Kodi IPTV Simple Client. I don't know why it works so poorly for me but I finally gave up. I couldn't even get it to play reliably, let alone record anything.

Those NZ streams work pretty much perfectly for me in NextPVR (other than the Australian ones, which I can't use because they're region locked and I don't have a DNS/VPN service).

EDIT: I saw your post on the NextPVR forums, and have posted a detailed reply for you, in case you want to pursue resolving any issues you encountered.

Rikkitic

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#1947634 27-Jan-2018 23:27

Thanks very much for that. It is very kind of you. I will look at it tomorrow and see what I think. The ability to record FTA is not a huge need but I thought it could be a nice addition. I just was put off by the problems I ran into.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1947922 28-Jan-2018 19:07

fe31nz:

Never rely on optical media for archiving - optical disks simply do not last long enough. Hard drives often last longer than optical media.

Yes and no.

Your statement is certainly true of CDs and DVDs. The burnable discs use organic dyes which aren't that stable, particularly if exposed to heat and/or UV radiation (left uncovered in a sunny room etc), which makes them unreliable for longer-term storage. The same is true of the cheaper LTH Blu Rays, which use a similar organic dye.

However, the more expensive HTL DVDs don't use organic dye, and my understanding is that they are fairly reliable for long-term backup storage. Certainly big corporates like Facebook are using them for that purpose, and they are supposed to be very reliable for archival/backup cold storage. Apparently the archival life of M-Disc Blu Rays (which uses the same basic technology) is rated well over a century.

I certainly hope that HTL Blu Rays are suitable for backup/archival storage, as I have just finished a long-er term project of archiving my media server files (MP3s, MP4s, photos I have taken, old documents etc) 50 50GB HTL discs, which took over 200 in the end.

In any event, the golden rule is 3-2-1. Three different copies, on two different media types, with one copy offsite. Along with USB hard drives, optical disks form one strand of my backup strategy. BD-Rs for data that won't change, and BR-REs for data that will.