Can Vero V and OSMC run a Channels DVR Server?

Help and Support Vero V
1

My old Shield Pro has been struggling lately and I’m thinking about trying out the Vero V. Right now I use my Shield as my bedroom Kodi box but I also use it to run a Channels DVR Server. I know that OSMC is capable of installing linux packages with apt but I don’t know if it can install any package or if it can run a server like Channels. I don’t think it uses a ton of resources since the company provides a custom image for running on a rasp pi 4, but I don’t want to compromise performance of the Vero V either. It also needs to be able to run in the background 24/7 so recordings work. Would it still run in the background while the Vero is asleep?

I could probably get the Vero V and still keep the Shield plugged in and just use it for running my Channels server but I’d like to just have one box if possible.

Here’s the linux installation guide: https://getchannels.com/dvr-server/#linux

Any insight is appreciated!

2

I think you’re going to get stuck at the requirement to install the Chromium browser (if you’re going to use TV Anywhere). There is no windowing engine by default with OSMC (since Kodi is suppose to be the only GUI on the device), so Chromium won’t install. I think there might have been some work getting X Windows (or something like it) running on OSMC, but I’m not sure where that effort went.

3

We do have an X11 environment but it’s unofficial.

It looks like Chromium is only needed for TV Everywhere and not the actual DVR server. So if OP only wants the DVR server installed, the instructions should work OK.

You could also consider TVheadend for DVR (available via App Store) but I don’t know if you have other devices that explicitly depend on Channels

4

I actually do use it for TV Everywhere, almost exclusively. And I do have 1 other device that depends on Channels.

5

OK. I don’t know what TV Everywhere is. It sounds like a web interface. You would only need the browser to use it on the device itself, I assume.

6

TV Everywhere is a US based service that lets you get certain cable channels via a stream. You have to be subscribed to the channel through your provider, and the channel has to allow TV Everywhere to stream it.

If I remember correctly from when I used ChannelsDVR for awhile, Channels uses the Chromium libraries for managing the login process and decrypting the streams. It never launches the browser, but I don’t think there’s anyway to install the Chromium libraries ChannelsDVR needs without installing the full version of Chromium.

Be happy you’ve never heard of TV Everywhere. It’s the typical US clusterf-.

I’d honestly recommend getting a Pi4 and just running ChannelsDVR on that. It’ll be much simpler.

7

Yea, I think that’s probably the route I will end up going, would have been nice to have one less device but not a big deal really. Thanks for the info!