Setting up a Pi3 as a Media Center (with FreeSat as well)

Hi all,

I have recently purchased a Pii3 (I have the orginal Pii as well). One thought I have for it is as a media center to watch and record live tv (via free sat).

I have currently an old PC configured with Media Portal and dual satellite card (with 2 satellite feeds) to do this,(Sorry if I am using the wrong phases but I am fairly new to this.)

My hope / goal is to somehow use the Pi3 to replace or add to this exisiting system. So that :-

I can watch / pause live freesat feeds.
Record programs / films etc.
and all the usual stuff a media center can do.

Can OSMC (or Kodi itself) do this?

Reading other forums I get the impression it can, however most people seem to use OSMC / kodi to access prerecorded programs or watch film/programs via ip streams (which is useful however is secondary for myself)

Can anyone give me a link or advise of how OSMC/kodi can do this.

Anyhow this is my first post so pls be kind!

You can install TVHeadend and buy a DVB-S2 tuner and then you can watch Freesat on it

Cheers for that, I found a post about it on a kodi wiki. I’ll investigate it.

The tvheadend server is available in the OSMC app store. So the only thing you need is a compatible USB stick and then check how to configure the sat channels.
Using the Kodi client then is the easiest step.

Hi cheeseman

Here’s list of compatible USB dvb-s2 tuners

https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-S2_USB_Devices

I’m using a tevii s660 working great on freesat. Haven’t tried recording on it yet but should work.

That’s good I have a tevii s660 i used to use in my old Microsoft Media center. I also have a Hauppauge WinTV Nova Satellite reciever and I am hoping I can get them to work together. Just started playing with OSMC and got TVHeadend Server installed. Having problems with Wireless now, but it may be power save issue I have heard about with the pi 3’s. Tried ‘sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off’ but for some reason this doesn’t work on OSMC flavour of debian. Anyhow I will soldier on and see what happens.

That’s good. You have to download a few firmware files for tevii s660 and place them in /lib/firmware folder. Can’t remember two file names off hand but if you enter dmesg in SSH while having tevii plugged in it should report looking for firmware and show name.

Tvheadend works great after you get used to it. There’s few tutorials on YouTube will help.

EPG works over the air for freesat using opentv:UK in tvheadend EPG setting.

Im waiting on pi3 to come. Yeah seems there’s few problems with the integrated WiFi Sam has update fix coming soon I believe.

If your stuck on anything with the tevii s660 let me know sure. Good luck.

Have you installed wireless-tools? sudo apt-get install wireless-tools