[mythtv-users] Thinking of moving on from MythTV :-( Any suggestions? (for the UK)

[Tim Draper]

---- On Sun, 01 Jan 2017 19:16:41 +0000 Damian <myth at surr.co.uk> wrote ----
> > There is nothing wrong with mythtv. It isn't your problem.
>
> I know that there's nothing wrong with MythTV :-)
> The problem is either with my configuration of MythTV, or my hardware.
> I just don't feel geek enough to keep on top of it and don't like having
> to run to this group for help every time I get stuck.
>
> >
> > If you can't get channels then you have to do basic fault finding. You
> > mention that the problem is with "TV". Do you mean that? If your own TV
> > can't get the channels, then you cannot expect mythtv to do the
> > impossible. Check your aerial and cabling.
>
> I meant the Live TV from within MythTV.
> I don't have a real TV to check signals with, but did have TV guys come
> out and check the signal a couple of years ago. The signal runs through
> 2 boosters now.
>
> >
> > If the TV works, then perhaps you meant "Live TV". Not the same thing at
> > all. There are known problems with Live TV. If recording is also an
> > issue, the tuners are the next step. Tuners /do/ get old and die,
> > although some last a longer time than others.
>
> Maybe it's the tuners? I don't know.
> Things are usually (not always) fine immediately after I reboot the
> server (which has the backend on it).
> I have 2 USB tuners plugged into the backend.
> Even when things were working well, these would suddenly stop working
> after a few weeks. Not with some channels working though, the system
> would find nothing until it was all rebooted. Then it would be fine again.
> It's worse than that now though.
> I also bought 1 HD tuner about 18 months ago, but have never been able
> to get it to work. It's no longer plugged in, I gave up on it several
> months ago. That was frustrating, but as we don't watch much TV we're
> happy with standard definition if HD just isn't playing nicely.

290/292 pctv usb tuner by any chance? mine has same issues and i bought the 292e explicitly because of its 'just works' claims on here and other forums. my experience of it, is it drops out every few weeks requiring a reboot to recover. my BE is in the loft so no easy to re-plug.
I've abandoned DVB-T signal on my BE now and relying soly on DVB-S2 which is rock solid.

fwiw i also run dual boosters as even with an upgraded ariel, both the TV and myth pictures become pixelated at times. iirc my panasonic tv said quality was good, signal was low so i'm actually boosting good quality (and little noise) so it seems to work well for my setup even if it's not (my) preferred design.

i understand your frustration in your OP, but i've looked around and nothing can compare to mythtv even with a few long standing bugs (biggest for me is the liveTV playback is jittery unless you pause/play it while buffers fill up). Watch live/record/playback of TV content, browser interface, and the odd video file playback is all i care about. Mythtv seems to do it all better than others. The other issues i have seem to be caused by lower level issues and not mythtv. i think some are caused by FFMPEG and USB tuner requiring reboots to fix (i think kernel module at fault). Also a sleep issue on one of my NUC FE's where it wont resend EDID to my AVR, which results in no signal. i think an intel gfx driver issue. fussy thing this linux is :P

i tried kodi maybe 9-12months ago with mythbe but couldn't get any connectivity between the two so gave up with mythBE and kodi FE's.

from my experience, USB tuners do not work well as a reliable mid/long term solution for a 24/7 up BE. i somewhat regret not buying IP based tuners, and to some degree, locking myself to a ITX form factor where the DVB-S2 PCI-E card takes the single expansion slot in it.