[mythtv-users] Setup of Kodi on rPi2 as MythTV Frontend

[Tom Harris]

I’ve tried XBMC, and now Kodi, several times over the years.  I was always
put off by usability or compatibility issues, so I never stuck with it for
more than a quick trial.   But, after running into challenges with my
latest Atom/Ion mythfrontend upgrade, I decided to give Kodi a genuine
effort.

Frankly, I would still prefer mythfrontend on Pi2.  But, short of that, I
feel that after making the Kodi tweaks it is to the point where it’s usable
as a PVR frontend.  At the end of the day, a tiny little $40 device with HW
video decoding it pretty cool.  The video quality is very good, and the
audio/video is very stable — more so than my Atom/Ion I’ve been using for
several years.

All the tweaks took me a long time to figure out, so I wanted to post it
here for others and to help my memory for the inevitable future rebuild.
—-

Hardware:  Pi2 - $40 + case + uSD.   Small, low power, silent, widely
available. Quad Core, 1GB RAM, hardware video decoding*

Software: OpenElec - Small, Media-focused, Kodi built-in, simple setup (dd
image on to uSD)
  pvr.mythtv add-on connects Kodi PVR support with MythTV backend (google
search for install/config)

 * A license is required to enable the Pi's MPEG2 hardware decoding, it
costs ~ $4.  http://www.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/
   Install it in /flash/config.txt, something like: decode_MPG2=0x12345678

 At this point it's mostly complete..  But, as a long-time MythTV user,
there were a lot of UX issues that made it confusing or annoying for me.
Most of the following are optional, trying to make Kodi operate more like
mythfrontend.

1. Skip ahead/back responsiveness:  Kodi has logic to increase jump length
based on the number of clicks.  The down-side is that it delays the jump
waiting to count the clicks, 750ms by default.  Rather than trying to get
used to the Kodi way, I disabled this feature and eliminated the pause.
It's still not as quick as native mythfrontend, but is much closer.

  It was configured in System -> Video -> Playback.  Set "Skip delay" to 0,
and eliminate all +/- skip steps but one of each positive and negative.  I
went with my MythTV settings: +30s / -10s

2. Remote Control - Flirc: Kodi was mostly able to use the IR remote I use
in MythTV, with no additional config.  But, had some functions which were
not mapped (e.g. context menu to delete recordings).  Rather than diving
into the innards of the IR remote config, I bought a Flirc IR receiver and
configured my Harmony remote for it.  After a couple button tweaks it was
perfect.  I'll never go back to linux drivers, overlapping config files,
keymaps, etc.  Flirc is so much easier.
  Also, note that the OpenElec + Pi2 supports HDMI CEC control, so even
with no remote hardware or config, basic functions were controllable via my
TV remote.

3. Marking resume points in recordings:  Kodi is optimized for viewing
static video files, and the logic for that doesn't work well with viewing
currently recording programs.  For example, if you in the last x% or y
seconds of the recording, call it done and clear the resume point.   So,
when you are viewing a live recording, reach real-time, and exit to let it
queue up more, it doesn't remember your position.   I fixed this by
disabling all the logic for when to call a recording complete.  This works
fine for TV viewing, but people who use Kodi for viewing video files may
not like it.  The settings are in ~/.kodi/userdata/advancedsettings.xml
(location may differ on other platforms).

<advancedsettings>
<video>
<playcountminimumpercent>101</playcountminimumpercent>
<ignoresecondsatstart>30</ignoresecondsatstart>
<ignorepercentatend>0</ignorepercentatend>
</video>
</advancedsettings>


4. Skins - I tried several skins looking for one that is more MythTV-like.
There were some that reduced the unusual UX of Kodi (e.g. the sidebar menu
that would sometimes fly open).  The skins I ended up using are
"Confluence" (which is the default) and "Aeon Nox".  Basic behavior is
good, and I configured Aeon to hide the options I don't use which
simplified it quite a bit.    What I like about the Kodi skins I went with
is that the OSD is very minimal and covers very little of the screen.
But, I did not find that any of the skins made it behave significantly more
like MythTV.


Remaining Issues:
- Live TV programs being recorded don't update their end-time while
viewing.  Fixing the resume points minimizes problems caused by this.
- Kodi UX is still "unique".  The behavior of the exit/escape key is unlike
any other DVR, the OSD displays the play/pause control cluster as if it's
expecting mouse control and can be hard to get rid of.  I've gotten used to
most of it and adapted my remote keys to help.  But, I still think there
are some bad UX choices.
- Skip ahead/back is not as responsive as MythTV.  Skipping ahead 4x to
pass two minutes of commercials is slow because you need to pause between
each skip button press.  It’s better than most streaming devices, but not
close to native mythfrontend.
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