Looking for some insight/feedback in using RPI 3/OSMC w/ext HDD.
HD Tuners - Any insight on whether a LAN-based or USB-based tuner is better to use? With USB, it’s fairly local and specific to the RPI. LAN-based means it has to share my network with at least a few other network devices. Any thoughts (product recommendations for any dual or triple tuners appreciated)?
Best TV program scheduling/management software (i.e. MythTV, etc.). Interested in ease of use, performance, capabilities.
This next one isn’t really specific to OSMC, but thought someone out there might have some useful experience and knowledge to share:
Outdoor HD antenna (I know, HD is just a marketing term for this and that most, if not all, stations broadcast their HD on UHF) - I live in the south bay of SF (San Francisco) in a 2-1/2 story townhome about 35-40 miles from transmitters in SF and Oakland. There are a few redwood trees (but no tall buildings) kind of in the path of the signal. An antenna would be placed ~25 ft. above ground on the roof (some of the redwoods are taller than that). I’d appreciate hearing any recommendations/experience from anyone on appropriate antennas. While it’s not critical that you live in the SF Bay Area, it’d be nice to get that kind of info.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help…I’m ready to cut that cable (in my case, satellite, cord).
Thanks much for the link. Had not seen that before.
I understand Kodi has a number of PVR addon options. I was curious as to users’ experience with any of them.
re: tuners - forgot to mention that I would like to have a dual or triple tuner (have since edited my original post). Not too many in USB. So, an add-on question: does OSMC/Kodi have the ability to support multiple separate USB (obviously from a powered USB hub) or LAN-based tuners.
I’d say go for an HDHomeRun Connect since you are doing OTA. The Connect is the direct descendant of the old HDHR Duals, except now with DLNA baked in. I personally use Mythtv, but you’ll need a regular PC to run that.
Thanks for the recommendation. I had been looking at HDHomeRun for OTA. Initially I was concerned about bandwidth issues, but then I remember the RPI 3 uses USB h/w for LAN anyways.
My understanding is that the Extend performs transcoding whereas the Connect does not. Any sense if spending xtra $$ for the Extend is worth it?
re: MythTV…been a while since I checked it out, but I thought I remembered MythTV was an add-on for RPI 3/OSMC. I’ll have go back and look. TVHeadend looks like it might do the job, as well.
Now…if I could just get some input on the antenna, I’m all set
I’d say it isn’t worth the extra money for the RPi. There is some people working on installing Mythtv. You should check out myth-users email list. At the end of the day it’d be much easier to run it on a regular PC, even as a VM.
Well I use the TVHeadend PVR Addon and I am happy as it let me do what I want
My answer would be yes, but actually now I saw that I have not been clear in my earlier reply. Kodi would only be the frontend you still would need a backend. My recommendation there is to use TVHeadend which you directly could install from the OSMC App Store.
Obviously depending on the number of tuners you want to run you might at one point run into USB bandwidth issues. Also the Pi will not be able to encode/transcode the recordings.
Nice TVH supports multiple tuners (assume each tuner has to have some kind of unique ID #). Is that either USB or LAN or combo? So, what is the reasonable limit on # of tuners before TVH/OSMC/RPI 3 starts to cause performance problems?
re: encode/transcode - should I care about that? Is there a playback performance or storage size concern I should consider?
When I wrote combo, I was asking if TVH could handle both USB- and LAN-based tuners at the same time. Or, do they all have to be either USB OR LAN, but no mixing?
Don’t forget the storage that you need.
When you will record TV, you need quickly very much disc space = NAS.
With a NAS you must review your network design and you can also use some NAS like application server for (some) TV Backend solutions
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I too live in the south SF bay. Here’s my experience. I don’t have experience with anything other than my own system. I’m using an Rpi3 with TVheadEnd backend and client and this USB tuner: https://amzn.com/B00XF7Z5DM. I’m told it can use multiple tuners, but my tuner takes about 300 ma, so yes, use a powered USB hub.
Antenna: I live in a single story townhouse with a TV antenna in the attic. I have an old (at least 25 years old) antenna with VHF and UHF sections. I have removed the VHS part and use only the UHF. I get all the major stations except Chan 7 ABC. They are still on VHF, so maybe that’s why I can’t get it, although I suspect it’s a config problem. I actually get better reception (depending on weather) with the Hauppauge tuner than with the tuner in my Panasonic Vierra TV.
Disk storage: 1080 HD generates about 5GB per hour, so if you do a lot of recording you’ll need a very big SD card or HDD. Right now I’m using the WD PiDrive 314GB. I tried using NAS. Recording worked well, but playback was miserably slow (meaning, impossible). Don’t know why. Could be my cheap NAS box.
MythTv runs OK on my Pi3. But I think there is no ready-to-use package. I compiled it myself and now I use it with an USB DVB-T Stick (SD only). There are some steps to compile and configure it (i.e. remote-x session), but for me it was worth the trouble. Even the html-site for configuring and programming recordings is working great. But I disabled commercial detection. My guess is that this would be too much for the raspi.
I really appreciate your feedback! Sounds like a “regular” (not special) outdoor antenna will work just fine (I’m down in Sunnyvale). One of my “neighbors” (big complex) mentioned about using an indoor antenna and said he never got great reception. So, I’m guessing that unless a redwood tree completely blocks a signal path to me, things should work just fine.
Re: Tuner. Appreciate the recommendation. I’m looking at the HDHomeRun dual tuner that’s LAN based. Haven’t seen any USB dual-tuners supported by OSMC/Kodi. Maybe I just missed that info.
Funny about Ch. 7. Just looked at the plots/stations for OTA HDTV and, sure enuf, Ch. 7 seems to have it reversed: HD is in VHF, STDTV in UHF. Hadn’t noticed that before. Also looks like KNTV (NBC) is only in VHF, but is at the higher end and may be able to be picked up on a UHF antenna.
Disk storage: I configured a USB disk-based system and I have ~850 GB on the HD available for movies, shows, etc. So, I should be OK for now. Nice to know the usage rate for planning purposes.
Thought I’d come across some free/open source TV scheduling websites. Maybe I need to do more searching. I’ll check out your suggestion, tho.
Thank you much for your feedback. It’s very helpful (especially for antenna considerations).
I appreciate the info. @theophilus mentioned that NAS can be problematic in smooth operation. As I mentioned, I have a 1TB HDD-based RPI 3/OSMC system so I expect I’m OK for now.
Want to apologize for the multiple postings. I’m still learning this system (lack of a quote button has thrown me off a bit I promise to be better going forward…
I promise to be better going forward…