MythTV PVR

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Home icon grey.png   ▶ PVR ▶ Recording software ▶ MythTV PVR

MythTV is a open source software PVR project that is designed to run on Linux, although other operating system packages are available. With MythTV you can watch Live TV, schedule recordings, view episode guide information, and many other features you expect from a DVR type appliance device. But more interesting for Kodi users is that as MythTV uses a distributed application structure it can also be configured as PVR backend (PVR server) for Kodi, supporting multiple Kodi frontends as clients, with MythTV acting as the PVR backend that does work of tuning TV signals, recording, scheduling, and post processing jobs.

By levering existing third-party PVR backend applications such as MythTV that specialize in receiving television signals and support a client–server model which Kodi can access via a PVR client addon, these PVR features allows you to watch Live TV, listen to radio, view a EPG TV-Guide, schedule recordings and enables many other TV related features, all using Kodi as your primary interface once the initial pairing connection to MythTV have been done and configuration of the PVR client addon for it is complete.


Installing MythTV

MythTV can be set up on a variety of Linux distributions and also on Mac OS X. The MythTV Wiki page has several pages of detailed instruction sets for various distros and tuner types.

The released PVR client addon for Kodi have been tested with MythTV PVR backend (server) version 0.27 - 0.28.

MythTV quick start guide

Incomplete.png INCOMPLETE:
This page or section is incomplete. Please add information or correct uncertain data which is marked with a ?

If your tuner hardware is not detected or is having issues, check http://linuxtv.org for driver support.

Connecting XBMC to MythTV

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  1. Go to Settings -> Add-ons -> Enabled add-ons -> PVR Clients and select the MythTV add-on
  2. Select "Configure"


MythTV addon designed for Kodi (pvr.mythtv)

The addon supports MythTV Backend version 0.27 - 0.28. It inter-operates with new API provided by MythTV backend since 0.27. To use it first you have to enable the API services of your backend by running mythtv-setup and set the security pin as "0000". Addon provides Live TV, recording playback and schedules services. It includes its internal demuxer for mpeg-ts standard and allows access of sources and storages of all MythTV infrastructure including master and its slave backends.

Settings

General

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MythTV Backend Hostname or IP
The hostname or IP address of the server where MythTV / master backend is installed. If backend and frontend run on the same machine then 'localhost' can be used.
MythTV Backend Port
The default is 6543 but this will need updating if you have changed it in the MythTV settings.
MythTV Backend Port for API services
The default is 6544 but this will need updating if you have changed it in the MythTV settings.
MythTV Security PIN for API services
The default is 0000 but this will need updating if you have changed it in the MythTV settings.
MythTV Backend Ethernet address (WOL)
Add the MAC address of your backend to allow the addon to wake up the backend using WOL. Also addon will wait any user activities to send the magic packet, otherwise the backend won't be wake up to save power.
Enable Live TV
This enables Live TV. Switch it off if you do want to use MythTV only for watching recordings.
Allow Live TV to move scheduled shows
This allows MythBackend to move scheduled recordings to another tuner if the scheduled tuner is blocked by an active Live TV playback. If turned off, you might miss recordings!
Conflict handling
This allows to configure the Live TV vs. scheduled recoding conflict handling. The setting determines how the addon should handle upcoming recordings for a tuner, that is being used for Live TV at the moment.
- Prefer Live TV when recording has later slot: (default) Continue watching Live TV in case there is a known later slot for the recording. Reschedule to record this repeat instead. If there's no later slot, stop Live TV and start the recording now.
- Prefer recording and stop Live TV: Stop Live TV and start the scheduled recording.
- Prefer Live TV and cancel conflicting recording: Ignore the conflicting, upcoming recording and continue to watch Live TV instead.

Recording template

Configuration of the default rules for new recordings. Recording rule templates have been introduced in MythTV 0.26. For older MythTV versions, please use and configure the addon-Internal template provider.

Pvr.mythtv001.png
Template provider
- MythTV: Use MythTV's default recording rule template
- Internal: Use XBMC's respectively the addon's settings
Automatically Look Up Metadata
Advises the MythTV backend to download metadata for this recording.
Commercial Flag new recordings
Advises the MythTV backend to run the commercial flag job for this recording.
Allow recordings to expire?
Allows the MythTV backend to automatically delete the recording when necessary.
Transcode new recordings and Transcoder
Advises the MythTV backend to automatically transcode the recording into a different format.
Run user Job #1-4
Advises the MythTV backend to automatically run the user defined jobs for this recording.
Note
Start and End Offset is configured in XBMC Live TV settings

Advanced

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Include more debug information in the log file
If turned on, additional debugging information is written to the log file. This should be turned on if you want to debug or report problems. It should be off for normal usage.
Enable demuxing MPEG-TS
Enables the addon internal demuxing of the stream. Advantages are faster channel switching and better timeshift functionality.
Note: This might not work with all video formats. Disable this settings in case you experience playback problems.
Block backend shutdown
If turned on, backend will waiting KODI exit or sleep before shutdown. Even turned on, addon allows backend shutdown when screen saver becomes activated. It should be turned ON for normal usage.
Note: This option do not block shutdown or suspend initiated by KODI itself.
Tuning delay (sec)
Depending of your hardware, a delay could be needed to spawn Live TV.
Group recordings by title
Always , Only for series , Never
Enable commercial skip (EDL)
Always , Dialog , Never


Next step: Configuring XBMC




Troubleshooting

  1. If you're experiencing troubles with the addon, MythTV section of XBMC Forum is the correct place to ask for help.
  2. Always include a full debug log with the addon setting Include more debug information in the log file enabled. (also please make yourself familiar with XBMC troubleshooting)
  3. Issues that are only related to this addon (not to XBMC itself or XBMC's general PVR code) should be reported here: https://github.com/janbar/xbmc-pvr-addons/issues (if unsure, ask in the forum first!)

Development

Additional guides and links