XBMC Live TV / PVR – DVBLogic’s DVBLink – Part3

In Part 1 we looked at the DVBLink Server “back-end” in Part 2 we looked at the official DVBLogic XBMC add-on for DVBLink.

In Part 3 we will cover the 3rd Party XBMC add-on for DVBLink developed by Zeroniak. The forum thread for the 3rd Party add-on can be found here. There are download links and installation instructions on this thread. EDIT: That forum thread seems to be dead now, try this page here instead for the download links. The actual discussion about this add-on can be found here now.

First thing to note is that you will not be able to install the 3rd Party add-on using a stable version of XBMC Frodo. I was running Frodo Version 12.2 on my test machine and when trying to install the add-on it would not install. I had to upgrade XBMC to a nightly build from 30th May 2013 in order for the add-on to be installed. This is an issue for me not sure I want to update all my Linux HTPC’s to XBMC nightlies.

Note:- for the purposes of this guide I am using the default XBMC skin Confluence, however I will also show how the Live TV stuff looks in Aeon MQ4 skin as well.

Add-on Requirements

• 
  DVBLink Connect! Server v 4.5.3 (Installed and functional, please test that you can stream tv )
• 
  XBMC nightly builds (This is very important as the addon uses functionality not yet in the official release)
• 
  You can find the nightly builds here : http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/
• 
  The addon has only been tested with the nightly from 30-May-2013.

Download the correct .ZIP file from the forum thread for your platform and install into XBMC using the Install from Zip file option.





Now because this 3rd Party add-on is a PVR client we can enable Live TV in the XBMC settings



Select the Enabled option and then click OK



Select the DVBLink PVR Client from the list to enable it.
Note on this screen shot you can also see a list of some of the other PVR Clients that are available for XBMC!





Now configure the add-on, enter the IP address of your WHS or NAS or leave as localhost if you installed DVBLink Server on the same machine as XBMC.

Specify a client name, each XBMC HTPC that connects to DVBLink should have a unique client name.

If you specified a user name and password in the DVBLink Server configuration webpage in Part 1, enter those details here.



An explanation of the add-on settings can be seen in this user guide here

Stream – I didn’t change anything in here.



Likewise in Advanced I didn’t change anything, click OK.



Back out to the main XBMC menu and you should have a new Live TV menu item !
You can see the sub-menu items: TV Channels / Radio Channels / EPG / Recordings / Timer.

I haven’t added any Radio channels yet so will not cover that part.



TV Channels



Pressing i (info) on a TV Channel.

Switch will play the TV Channel record will start recording it.



If I start playback it looks like this, if I press OK on the remote again it goes full screen.





On the transport controls at the bottom, if I click the TV screen icon, it brings up a Channel list on the right hand side.



If I select the EPG icon from the transport controls, it brings up a mini guide.



If you use the Confluence menu on the left you can switch from TV Channels to Radio Channels / EPG: Timeline / Recordings / Timer / Search



EPG

A better looking EPG than the official add-on IMHO and you can scroll right in to the future!
One issue I have is that the channel numbers being displayed are not the actual channel numbers as they are in DVBLink. It just lists the channels in number order, for example on this screen shot BBC Four should be channel 9 not 8 and Pick TV should be channel 11 etc. Not sure how to correct this?



I am not sure if this is a problem with this XBMC nightly build or with the 3rd Party DVBLink add-on but when pressing up and down in the guide the UI can get a bit screwed up and it highlights more than one channel and starts flickering, this is a UI navigation bug of some kind.



XBMC Context menu whilst highlighting a TV show currently airing in the guide. I don’t think this add-on support series record which is a serious limitation.



XBMC Context menu whilst highlighting a TV show which will be aired sometime in the future. Notice the Record option has changed to Add Timer.



Upon selecting Add Timer you see a Record Yes/No dialogue. Again no option for series record can be seen.



If I choose Yes a notification pops up and a timer icon appears on the TV Show.



Here is another screen shot showing a recording notification



Bringing up the context menu again on the same show, I now have a Delete Timer option.



TV Show info



TV Recordings

Here you can see the recorded TV shows.



Recorded TV Show info



Playback of a recorded TV show.



Context menu on a recorded TV show



Timer

Timer shows upcoming recordings





Live TV Settings in XBMC

There is a lot of settings relating to TV in the main XBMC settings area under Live TV, I am not going to cover all these settings in this post as I haven’t as yet figured out what they all do.



3rd Party DVBLink PVR Client add-on with other XBMC skins

Because this 3rd Party add-on is a PVR Client add-on unlike the official DVBLogic add-on which is a Program add-on, the 3rd Party add-on integrates properly with other skins. I am using the Aeon MQ4 skin.
Live TV menu



Live TV menu – sub-menu options

I only get a Search option, I would have liked the sub-menus items to be like they were in Confluence, I cant seem to add these sub-menus either using the Aeon MQ4 Customizations.



TV Channels

In Aeon MQ4 the TV channels are in this view and it appears you cannot change this view to another more sensible view like list. So I have to press left or right directional arrows on the remote and then the different channels move left or right etc.



TV Show info



EPG

No longer has any colours on it and I still have that wacky UI navigation bug on the EPG.
There are square boxes where the channel logos can go, I need to look in to how to add channel logos.



Recordings



Summary

As you can see the 3rd Party DVBLink add-on for XBMC integrates better into XBMC and the new Live TV / PVR functionality of XBMC, rather than being a stand alone Program add-on like the official add-on from DVBLogic. However with no apparent way to series record, that is going to be a problem!

Pros-

• Proper XBMC PVR Client add-on
• Works with other skins and UI adapts and is not a static UI like the official add-on
• Better looking UI overall and blends in better with XBMC

Cons-

• Buggy EPG navigation this is probably this XBMC build not the add-on
• No series record?
• Has to be installed on an XBMC nightly build, not good if your currently running a stable version

Final thoughts on this XBMC series

Well I hope you have enjoyed this entire blog post series on XBMC, I think this will be my last post for a while on the subject, but not too long!

XBMC PVR is not as mature as Windows MCE and I always knew that, but I think in time it will catch up with MCE. As Live TV on the HTPC is not a main feature I use I have been able to migrate away from MCE to XBMC. I am happy however I will now have Live TV in XBMC when I configure the rest of the machines, but I know I will have to wait some more time till things improve somewhat. Hopefully that’s not going to be too much longer now!

Let me know your thoughts and if you plan to migrate from MCE or not ?

XBMC Live TV / PVR – DVBLogic’s DVBLink – Part2

In Part 1 we looked at the DVBLink Server “back-end” in Part 2 we will look at the Official XBMC add-on for DVBLink aka the “front-end”.

There are actually two XBMC add-ons as far as I can tell, one is an official XBMC add-on from DVBLogic the second is a 3rd Party add-on. There are major differences between the two XBMC add-ons for DVBLink and how they work, I recommend you try both and decide which one you want to use.

Official XBMC add-on for DVBLink

The official add-on can be found on this wiki page. There is a download link to a .zip file, below are the instructions from DVBLogic.



DVBLink Client for XBMC can be downloaded free of charge from our website [1]
After downloading, unzip the folder contents to c:\program files\xbmc\addons (on Windows) or to ~/.xbmc/addons (on Linux).
The DVBLink Client for XBMC appears under Programs menu of XBMC.

Installing the add-on

I simply installed the add-on in XBMC by using the Install add-on from ZIP file option.





The add-on can then be found under the Programs area of XBMC (Note I am currently using the default XBMC skin Confluence).





Bring up the context menu (C key on keyboard) and select Add-on settings



If you installed DVBLink server on the same machine as your XBMC install you can leave the Server Address as localhost, however if you installed DVBLink Server on to your WHS or NAS change this and enter the IP address of your WHS or NAS.

If you specified a user name and password in the DVBLink Server configuration webpage in the settings area as discussed in Part 1 then you need to enter those same login details here.

Click OK to save your changes.



The official XBMC add-on for DVBLink is a stand alone Program add-on where as the 3rd Party add-on is a PVR Client, the differences will become more clear when you see the 3rd Party add-on covered in Part 3.

Launching the Program add-on

For now to launch the official XBMC add-on for DVBLink from the Programs area of XBMC simply select the DVBLink Client entry from the list.



DVBLink Client add-on User Interface

You will then see a screen like this one, the UI is blue and is similar to Windows Media Center.



If you push up arrow on the remote control or keyboard TV Recordings is the first menu item.



As you can see I only have one Recorded TV show currently. DVBLink records TV shows in the .TS file format in case you were wondering!



If I select Add recording, I have options to add a manual recording or select from the TV guide



If I select the TV guide option it brings up this screen, which isn’t actually the TV guide its just a help page that tells you: Adding recording from TV guide. Please select a program from the guide and press “Record” button. If you select the Go to button you are then taken to the EPG proper.



TV Guide – Displays Now and Next

I am not sure about this, the guide only seems to show now and next. I can’t scroll forward in time anymore that that. I have confirmed with DVBLogic and this is expected behaviour which is a little disappointing, would be nice if you can look forward in time more.



If I click enter on a show it is buffered and then starts to play /stream from the tuner in the WHS.



If I press i on the keyboard (Info) whilst I have a TV show highlighted in the EPG, you see a page like this, here I can select to Play / Record / Series Record.



If I press i on the keyboard (Info) or just select OK whilst highlighting a channel in the EPG….



I am taken to a screen like this one, that lists programs on this particular channel.



If I scroll down to the very bottom of this program list the guide data goes all the way up to the 13/06/2013 its the 06/06/2013 today. So extend guide data is available for individual channels, just not in the main EPG view!



You can also access the TV Guide from the main menu



The next menu item is Live TV, if I select this it just plays the last TV channel I was watching.



Whilst a TV show is playing if I bring up the context menu (C on the keyboard) it looks like this and displays a channel list. I can then select another channel from the list and it starts playing that channel.



Search





Keyword Search







Categories

I selected Movie and nothing gets displayed, I then selected some other categories Documentary and Comedy and again no items were displayed.



Some other Categories did work like Music and Kids



I believe the guide data obtained from the DVB stream is not great for information like genres / categories. I am currently using DVBLink’s in-built eit scanner.

It has been recommended to use something like Digiguide EPG loader or EPG Collector for a richer set of guide data. This would improve the categories in the add-on.

Summary

As you can see the official DVBLink add-on for XBMC isn’t too bad, its functional. It’s certainly not as advanced as Windows MCE but I never expected it would be. It is however a stand alone XBMC Program add-on and as such does not integrate fully with the XBMC Live TV / PVR stuff unlike the 3rd Party add-on which I will cover in Part 3.

Pros:-

• Easy to install and setup
• Clean looking UI similar to Windows MCE.
• Functional and supports series recording

Cons:-

• Is a XBMC Program add-on and not a XBMC PVR Client
• You will always get this blue UI and it won’t blend in with your XBMC skin like Aeon
• Main EPG view only shows Now and Next – although you can get extended guide data by selecting individual channels

XBMC Live TV / PVR – DVBLogic’s DVBLink - Part1

If you have been reading my recent series of blog post about XBMC, I did mention I would be looking at Live TV in XBMC. And in fact most of the comments and feedback I have received has been from people asking to know more about Live TV and PVR functions of XBMC.

Now before I start a disclaimer as I am not an expert on this at all and there are several XBMC PVR Clients and back-ends which can be used.

As I already know a little about DVBLink and this works with XBMC I have decided to go this route. I purchased a new BlackGold BGT 3620 dual DVB-T2 tuner card, I have install this tuner and the DVBLink software on to my Windows Home Server 2011 HP Microserver box.

In Part 1 I think I will give a basic overview of DVBLink back-end and then in Part 2 we will look at the XBMC client(s) and the front-end. OK so here goes!

DVBLink is a software product from a company called DVBLogic, visit their home page for more product information:

“Our range of DVBLink products for NAS and for Windows based PC's offers everything you need to enjoy your favorite Satellite (DVB-S/S2), Cable (DVB-C and QAM), Terrestrial (DVB-T/T2 and ATSC), IPTV and Analog TV channels and recordings within your home network and on the go!”
The base product is DVBLink Server:-
“DVBLink Server is a core component of the DVBLink product suite that ties all DVBLink products together.”

DVBLink Connect! Server is an add-on:-

“DVBLink Connect! Server lets you enjoy your favorite TV channels throughout your whole house and on the go.
Access live and recorded TV content in your home network in XBMC, Windows Media Center, running on network computers, on DLNA enabled clients such as Sony PlayStation3, on netbooks and laptops, and on Xbox 360.
Stream your TV channels over the internet to desktops and mobile devices like laptops and netbooks using your web browser.
Stream your live TV programs to your iPhone, iPad, Android and WinPhone devices and even set recordings using the EPG remotely on your phone.”

DVBLink TVSource:-

“DVBLink TVSource seamlessly integrates TV channels from Satellite, Cable (DVB-C and ClearQAM) or Terrestrial (DVB-T/T2 and ATSC) tuners into DVBLink server infrastructure, including support for SD and HD video, multichannel audio, EPG information, teletext and subtitles.
Programs from these channels can be recorded onto a hard disk of a host system (NAS or PC) and live and recorded TV can be streamed to Windows MediaCenter and its extenders, XBMC, DLNA clients, mobile clients for iOS, Android and WinPhone platforms and to web browser interface.”



Now I no longer have any Windows MCE HTPC’s running so all of what I will be covering is a solution without Windows MCE. But there is no reason why you could not run DVBLink with both Windows MCE and XBMC clients together.

Tuner Configuration

Once I had installed the BlackGold drivers for the new tuner card, I was able to select the Sources tab in the DVBLink configuration webpage and configure the two tuners (its a dual tuner card). In the screen shot below you can see DVBT1 and DVBT2 which is the names I gave to each DVB-T tuner.



Tuner configuration – Device type as I am using UK Freeview over the air aka DVB-T / DVB-T2 I selected Terrestrial.



Under the TV Providers tab I selected DVB-T UK (Full Frequency Range)



On the Scan tab the Transponders are listed and you press the Scan button to start scanning for the TV and Radio channels. When completed it will then list the channels found and on which Transponders.



EPG Scan tab, I am currently just using the in-built eit scanner, this scans the DVB stream also known as in-band - for guide data.

I found that in order to get EPG data for all the channels I had to run the EPG scan routine several times until all channel data had been discovered.



If you click on the EPG Stats button after a completed scan it looks like this



Channels tab – I didn’t have to do anything in this tab



I then had to repeat this tuner configuration process for the second tuner on the dual tuner card.

Channel Selection

Back on the main DVBLink Configuration page under the Channels tab there, this is where you select the channels that the tuner(s) have detected and select them. This means that any channels you select here will be available to the DVBLink system and HTPC clients. Any junky channels like shopping or adult etc I did not add / select so I will not see any of those channels in my EPG / Channel List.



Simply tick the channels you want and click the right arrow in the middle to move those channels in to the selected channels list.

There is also a play button on each channel which is so you can preview / watch that channel. I did have some issues with Google Chrome and VLC and the previews would not play for me in the browser.



Channel Merge

Once I had selected all the channels from each of the tuners, you then need to merge the channels, I just selected the Merge by name option.

You can see in this screen shot that each channel has two instances below it, this is because I have a dual tuner. If you had a quad tuner presumably you would have four instances of each channel.



Channel Settings

In channel settings you can review and edit the channels, edit the names and channel numbers if required. There is also parental control options to lock individual channels I have not tried the parental controls as yet.



EPG Sources

In the EPG sources tab, this is where you assign the EPG source to a channel. So when you first look in this area all the channels are blank like the 4Music channel you can see in the screen shot below. You have to highlight the channel from the pane on the left and then find the correct / matching EPG source in the right pane, if you double click the EPG source in the right pane it will assign it to the highlighted channel, see second screen shot and look at the 4Music channel again.





I assigned all my EPG sources manually one by one but there are also Automatic EPG source assignment options.

Settings

On the settings tab you can see the default port numbers for the DVBLink server you can also specify a user name and password which the clients would then need to access the server. There are also backup and restore settings options which will be handy once you have done all the initial configuration you can backup your setup and then use that to restore if you have to rebuild the server or whatever. There are also various other settings on the settings tab none of which I have edited as I left them all at default settings.



TV and Media Library

Channels and Guide

If you select the TV and Media Library tab you are taken to the Channels and Guide area, here you can now see all the channels you selected earlier and you should see there is guide data and you can click the Play button on each channel to play that channel.



TV Records

TV records tab displays recorded TV shows, I only have one recorded show which I recorded last night. As I am not using Windows MCE when I select to record something from the EPG in XBMC it is the DVBLink Server recorder that handles it.



If I select the sub option of Scheduled Recordings if looks like this, I don’t currently have any recordings scheduled. But you can see the free space on my server.



By default DVBLink is set to store recordings some where on the local C:\ drive of the server, can’t remember the path now. I wanted to change the location of where the recordings are actually stored. To do this I clicked the Settings button on the top right, selected the Schedules tab and then edited the recording path to point to the D:\ServerFolders\Recorded TV folder of the WHS.



Summary

So that is a quick basic overview of DVBLink, if you haven’t used DVBLink before hopefully this will give you a better understanding of the “back-end". In the next part I will look at the “front-end” i.e. the DVBLink XBMC add-ons, yes there is more than one. I may also cover some of the other clients like iOS and Android as well.

Overall DVBLink is a great way to centralise your tuners and distribute your Live and Recorded TV to all devices / clients on your LAN and you can also access Live TV / Recorded TV / EPG from outside the home via the WAN.