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I think it's about time to replace my SageTV DVR/PVR system, so I'm |
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looking for opinions and recommendations for a DVR backend to run on a |
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Gentoo desktop machine. |
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|
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Some Background... |
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|
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For many years, I ran a dedicated, combined frontend/backend MythTV |
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system (usually a Debian install). Then I switched to a mac-mini |
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frontend booting a dedicated MythTV frontend distro from a USB flash |
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drive with the MythTV backend running on my general-purposed Gentoo |
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box. I was never completely happy with the mac mini frontend, but it |
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was small and quiet and mostly worked. |
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|
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After that (about 8 years ago) I switched to using the SageTV backend |
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on that same Gentoo box with SageTV brand custom frontend set-top |
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boxes. |
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|
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About a year later, SageTV got bought by Google and mostly shut down. |
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Software continued to be updated for a few years, and EPG data was |
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kept flowing. The software has since been open-sourced, but the |
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backend development has slowed and development/support for the set-top |
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boxes ended (there are some nagging set-top box problems that are |
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never going to get fixed). The "lifetime" free EPG data spigot for |
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SageTV got turned off last year. |
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|
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SageTV is a large Java app with a bunch of custom libraries. For now, |
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the tarball of JAR files and binaries works, but it's not a long-term |
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solution. I tried building the SageTV backend under Gentoo and was |
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unsuccessful in an effort to produce an ebuild for it. The build |
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system is a completely broken mess of shell-scripts and makes all |
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sorts of assumptions about development host library versions (it |
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requires a lot of ancient library versions). |
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|
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And now... |
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|
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I'm looking for opinions on a DVR backend to run on a desktop Gentoo |
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box. Input is OTA ATSC via an Ethernet-connected tuner (SiliconDust |
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HDHomeRun). The ideal set-top frontend would be Roku. I'd also really |
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like a good Android frontend. My next choice for a set-top frontend |
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would probably be Kodi on Raspberry Pi 3B or Vero 4K HW. I'm going to |
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pick up a RPi3 this weekend and start playing with Kodi (OSMC or |
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LibreELEC). |
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|
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The main backend options seem to be MythTV, Plex, and TVHeadend. |
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|
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MythTV |
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|
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Pros: Good feature set |
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Open-source |
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|
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Cons: It's a giant bloated mess that pulls in all sorts of Qt stuff |
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Fragile frontend API/protocol that gets broken regularly |
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Poor music player (the last time I tried it) |
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Poor frontend support for Android. |
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|
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Plex |
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|
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Pros: Roku frontend |
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Good integration of existing media files |
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Good support for Android |
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|
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Cons: DVR support is new |
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Closed source |
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Commercial service |
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|
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TVHeadend |
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|
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Pros: Lightweight |
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Minimal dependencies |
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Open-source |
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Android frontend (I think) |
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|
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Cons: Weak recording management |
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Poor integration of existing media |
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|
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There are minimal subscription costs for all three ($40/year for Plex, |
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$25/year for the others), so that's a push. |
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|
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-- |
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Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! Youth of today! |
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at Join me in a mass rally |
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gmail.com for traditional mental |
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attitudes! |
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