(OLD) Unofficial Kodi PVR Client for HDHomeRun DVR subscribers

[djp952]

Having trouble getting the record engine to work with this PVR client:

• I downloaded and installed the PVR add-on and am able to view live TV from my HDHomeRun Quatro - including the demo Premium channels.
• Purchased the DVR license from SiliconDust and associated it with my HDHomeRun Quatro.
• Did a "manual" install of the SiliconDust record engine on my NAS (NAS4Free, now known as "XigmaNAS").
• Issued the command "hdhomerun_record start" to start the record engine. There were no error or warning messages in the log file it created, and the System Status shown on the HDHomeRun RECORD webpage correctly lists the Record Path, Search Path, IP address and Free Space. HOWEVR: The "Storage ID" field is blank and the DVR does NOT appear on http://my.hdhomerun.com. (The Quatro does.)
• Tried to record from Live TV. The KODI (Actually LibreElec) interface shows the red dot in the guide, indicating that it is recording, but no recordings appear in the NAS recording directory and no recording is listed in KODI.
• No new entries were created in the log file of the record engine other than the entries created when the engine was started.

Any ideas?
Dan

This seems like a discovery problem. If the RECORD engine doesn't show up on my.hdhomerun.com, by default the PVR won't be able to find it either. There is an option to switch to the legacy network broadcast discovery -- go to the addon settings, general, "Use network broadcast for device discovery". This is an option a lot of people actually need to set for various reasons. What it does is switch back to the old "libhdhomerun" library, which sends a request out on your local network to find everything instead of pinging my.hdhomerun.com.

Having the red dot in the EPG is a little misleading on a number of levels. We currently can't tell what the RECORD engine is actually doing, so what's happening here is that I'm asking the SiliconDust servers for what *might* be recorded based on your rules and telling Kodi "yeah sure, that will be recorded. whatever man.". Since the RECORD engine isn't involved with that, it looks like you are cool with your authorizations and subscription, it's just not able to find your RECORD engine quite yet.

I think changing that setting will fix you right up, well, as 'right' as can be expected. Recordings are, and are likely to remain, a bit "wonky" in nature. Sadly we need a little more support from the backend or RECORD engine to un-wonky those in Kodi.

[danielwlewis]

This seems like a discovery problem. If the RECORD engine doesn't show up on my.hdhomerun.com, by default the PVR won't be able to find it either. There is an option to switch to the legacy network broadcast discovery -- go to the addon settings, general, "Use network broadcast for device discovery". This is an option a lot of people actually need to set for various reasons. What it does is switch back to the old "libhdhomerun" library, which sends a request out on your local network to find everything instead of pinging my.hdhomerun.com.

Having the red dot in the EPG is a little misleading on a number of levels. We currently can't tell what the RECORD engine is actually doing, so what's happening here is that I'm asking the SiliconDust servers for what *might* be recorded based on your rules and telling Kodi "yeah sure, that will be recorded. whatever man.". Since the RECORD engine isn't involved with that, it looks like you are cool with your authorizations and subscription, it's just not able to find your RECORD engine quite yet.

I think changing that setting will fix you right up, well, as 'right' as can be expected. Recordings are, and are likely to remain, a bit "wonky" in nature. Sadly we need a little more support from the backend or RECORD engine to un-wonky those in Kodi.

'Turns out I had the wrong owner and group set on the executable of the record engine so it didn't have authority to write to its own directory! (duh....)

There are some things I've noticed that I want to ask about now that it seems to be working:

1. If I start a recording, let it run a while, and then stop the recording, the folder and file are created on the NAS but the recording doesn't appear on Kodi when I go to "Recordings". However, if I reboot Kodi from scratch, the recording is there. Is that normal?

2. I can use Kodi to delete a recording, but found that I can't delete several recordings in the same folder by asking Kodi to delete the folder. Is that normal? (Correction: Must have done something wrong - that seems to be working now.)

Thanks!
Dan

[danielwlewis]

'Found what I think may be another issue:

1. Started a recording, let it record for a while, stopped the recording. Program was recorded normally (although it didn't appear in the list of recorded programs on Kodi until I rebooted Kodi).
2. I know this isn't "normal operating procedure", but I then went into my NAS and deleted the folder and file of that recording.

What surprises me is that there is still a Kodi Timer Rule for the recording. Kodi won't let me delete it, and rebooting Kodi doesn't remove it.

Dan

[mxlance]

Kodi/PVR EPG data issue

Saturday I signed up for HDHR DVR and Premium TV.
Install went well and all is working for the most part.

My wife really likes the having Live TV within Kodi’s PVR - ThankYou

Now for the bad news.
I have installed (zuki.pvr.hdhomerundvr-linux-x86_64-krypton-1.3.3.6808.zip)
on my HP Chromebox/LibreElec 8.2.5

All was good until after a few hours passed and no channels would play, two errors messages appeared one I could not read the other was a 503.

I rebooted the system, the PVR began to scan data, then the scanning froze.
I then attempted to clear data from the System/PVR settings, Kodi Completly froze and required a hard restart.
Next I tried to disable the pvr.hdhomerundvr, this crashed Kodi.
When Kodi restarted I re enabled the PVR Addon, channel data scanning began and finished all was good and the PVR worked as expected.

This is happening on both Chromebox/LibreElec 8.2.5 boxes
This is not happening with the kodi HDHR addon

The other odd thing is that I have not had this on my old kubuntu laptop. Using the same version of the PVR addon.

Any ideas? Do you need a log from Kodi?

Thank You in advance.

[danielwlewis]

I've noticed that when the TV signal strength or signal quality is marginal, that the bad reception that results can cause Kodi to reboot. Obviously the best solution is a better antenna, and I don't know if there's anything that can be done about it in the PVR addon since it's dependent on the SD DVR, but I hope so.

Dan

[obliojoe]

I realize the author is offline for a bit but I'm interested to see if anyone else has run into this...

I have a Samsung Galaxy View android tablet that is so great for Kodi. But the pvr plugin plays video on slow motion. Audio is normal but the video is reaalllllyyyy sloooooow. If I use the official hdhomerun app or the official hdhomerun kodi add on, it works great.

Also, this only happens with live TV streams. Recorded shows work okay.

Any thoughts?
obe

Interesting. The PVR doesn't actually do any decoding of the video, it just passes it onto Kodi as-is. The main difference I can think of is the timeshifting/seek ability. If by official Kodi addon you mean the "pvr.hdhomerun" addon Kodi ships, it actually also sends the data to Kodi the same way.

Can you try changing the addon "Advanced" setting "Stream Live TV channels directly from tuner device(s)" to ON to see if it makes a difference? This will get the stream directly from the tuners like the "pvr.hdhomerun" addon does. It would eliminate a lot of things from the list of possibilities.

Actually, it turns out i was wrong. The behavior happens in the "pvr.hdhomerun" addon as well. It was confusing because it seems that the behavior only happens on certain channels (or perhaps certain programs). For example, right now if open "The Mummy" on HBO2, it plays perfectly. If I open "Being John Malkovich" on HBO Signature, the audio and video get out of sync (video plays slow). CNN is playing slow but ESPN is playing normal. Happens consistently when I switch around to these channels right now. I also tried using the "stream direct from tuners" option but that did not fix it.

So I suppose this is another issue with Kodi then? Everything plays perfectly on the separate HD Homerun Android app.

Thanks, as always!
obe

[mxlance]

@danielwlewis

Following your suggestion.
I used the HDHR .Config application to check for poor signal quality.
I re-positioned my antenna, re-scanned channels, rebooted the HDHR DVR and rebooted all client systems.
This seemed to do the trick, all are working, no crashes and the guide is staying up to date.

I even have my Raspberry pi 3 up and running.

Thank you for the tip.

[usafle]

Jumping on the bandwagon of it plays perfectly fine on the Official app. I'm in a similar situation using a cable card setup. The Wife can watch certain channels using the official HDHomerun app on her iOS device... but when we try to watch the same channel in Kodi, it fails and/or isn't even listed in the guide.
Any ideas?

[djp952]

Jumping on the bandwagon of it plays perfectly fine on the Official app. I'm in a similar situation using a cable card setup. The Wife can watch certain channels using the official HDHomerun app on her iOS device... but when we try to watch the same channel in Kodi, it fails and/or isn't even listed in the guide.
Any ideas?

If it doesn't show up in the guide, it's most likely a DRM protected (encrypted) channel, which Kodi cannot play, so I hide them. This would only be applicable for the "isn't even listed in the guide" concern -- what are you seeing when the channel "fails"? Are you getting an error message in Kodi (a pop-up in the upper right), or are you just not getting anything on the screen for a bit and then Kodi eventually comes back like you never did anything at all? (software amnesia - lol)

[Ken.F]

Whenever I try to play a Premium TV channel Kodi crashes after about two seconds. The other channels seem to play fine.

[ringerlin]

Same here. Kodi crashes when using the PVR client integrated kodi tv interface to watch the premium channels. OTA channels are fine. It is also fine if use HDHomeRun view addon to watch the premium channels.

[usafle]

If it doesn't show up in the guide, it's most likely a DRM protected (encrypted) channel, which Kodi cannot play, so I hide them. This would only be applicable for the "isn't even listed in the guide" concern -- what are you seeing when the channel "fails"? Are you getting an error message in Kodi (a pop-up in the upper right), or are you just not getting anything on the screen for a bit and then Kodi eventually comes back like you never did anything at all? (software amnesia - lol)

I am trying to remember which channel the S.O. watches (and complains that it's not working on the Kodi system - either LibreELEC or Android)... I know it's some "chick" channel that I would never watch... LoL

From memory; the channel does play for a little bit and then just freezes or dumps back into the guide. I'm sorry I can't answer any better at the moment, I'm traveling for work and not at the house.

Just found it odd that it would play on the "Official" HDHomeRun app on her iOS, but nowhere else.

[sccrgoalie1]

Same here. Kodi crashes when using the PVR client integrated kodi tv interface to watch the premium channels. OTA channels are fine. It is also fine if use HDHomeRun view addon to watch the premium channels.

Same for me. Have you tried the Leia build?

[sccrgoalie1]

Same here. Kodi crashes when using the PVR client integrated kodi tv interface to watch the premium channels. OTA channels are fine. It is also fine if use HDHomeRun view addon to watch the premium channels.

Same for me. Have you tried the Leia build?

Just tested. Crashes in Leia too.

[ringerlin]

The official PVR client is still working but no DVR functionality. So I have to watch the live premium channels through the official one. And if needing to record a show, I'd switch to unofficial one and then back to official one.