PVR
Template:Frodo As of v12 (Frodo), XBMC supports Personal Video Recorder (PVR) controls and features when paired with a PVR "backend". This allows you to watch live TV, listen to radio, view an EPG, schedule recordings and enables many other TV related features. A PVR backend is a second process/application that can either run on the same machine running XBMC, on a stand-alone device (able to feed several XBMC machines), or completely by itself with XBMC only running when needed. When paired with a backend, XBMC handles the interface allowing the user to watch live TV, scheduled recordings, time shift (not yet supported), etc.
Due to the somewhat complicated nature of setting up PVR for XBMC, this guide was created to help users from start to finish.
PVR History
XBMC has long had support for viewing recordings from backend recording services such as MythTV and TVHeadend through the use of specialized video sources that communicate with the backend software. This did not allow XBMC to be used a true PVR frontend since users still had to view EPG data and schedule recordings via the backend interface. Each of these sources was also part of the XBMC core codebase, so changes in the backend API often broke the integration until XBMC pushed out an update.
Serious efforts to create a PVR frontend for XBMC started with a project during Google Summer of Code 2008. Project student Alcoheca began the fork of what would eventually become the XBMC PVR branch. As this project became more mature it opened the door for skinners to start taking advantage of custom interfaces for PVR and add them to various XBMC skins.
With the release of XBMC 10.0 (Dharma) came the addition of the addon framework to XBMC. Although binary addons were not available the PVR branch of XBMC started to use these as a structure for having various backends plug-in to a common API structure.
During the development cycle for XBMC 12.0 (Frodo) the merge of the PVR and mainline XBMC branches was approved during the XBMC Devcon. This made the PVR API available to all mainstream XBMC users, although the addons are still to be maintained in a separate repository and not distributed with XBMC releases.
Supported Backends
If you want to use a PVR addon with XBMC, there are a few prerequisites. First, you need a TV tuner or IPTV source, and working backend to connect to XBMC. Below is a list of currently supported backends. The source for these addons can be found in the XBMC PVR Addons Repo
1. HTS Tvheadend
- OS: Linux
- Homepage: lonelycoder.com
- Addon maintainer: dushmaniac
- Forum support topic: XBMC forum
- Installation: https://www.lonelycoder.com/redmine/projects/tvheadend/wiki
2. VDR
- OS: Linux
- Homepage: tvdr.de
- Addon maintainer: FernetMenta
- Addon Forum support topic: XBMC forum
- Installation: http://linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/VDR_installation
3. MythTV
- OS: Linux
- Homepage: mythtv.org
- Addon maintainer: dteirney
- Addon Forum support topic: XBMC forum
- Installation: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Packages
4. MediaPortal
- Backend OS: Windows
- PVR addon OS: Windows, Linux
- Homepage: team-mediaportal.com
- Addon maintainer: margro
- Addon Forum support topic: MediaPortal Python plugin/PVR addon
- Installation: http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/12_Installation
5. For The Record Argus TV Server
- Backend OS: Windows
- PVR addon OS: Windows, Linux, OS X, iOS
- Homepage: 4therecord.eu
- Addon maintainers: margro, red-f
- Addon Forum support topic: ForTheRecord forum
- Installation: http://www.4therecord.eu/wiki/index.php?title=English_Installation_Guide
6. DVBLink TV Server
- Backend OS: Windows
- PVR addon OS: Windows
- Addon maintainers: zeroniak
- Addon Forum support topic: DVBLink forum
- Installation: See DVBLink forum
Configuring XBMC
Once you have a working backend, you can begin the process of getting the right addon to work with XBMC. The official backend addons are a part of the XBMC PVR Addons Repo
more info needed here
- Getting the repo
- Compiling
- Getting the addon to XBMC