[mythtv-users] mythtv FE/BE combo for an RV?

James Abernathy jfabernathy at gmail.com
Sat Aug 10 20:09:39 UTC 2019


> On Aug 10, 2019, at 3:15 PM, Mike Bibbings <mike.bibbings at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 10/08/2019 18:33, James Abernathy wrote:
>>> On Aug 8, 2019, at 3:01 PM, Mike Bibbings <mike.bibbings at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 08/08/2019 18:59, James Abernathy wrote:
>>>> While on a recent 4 month RV trip my main mythtv backend at home ran great and recorded all our show.  I tried to use an RP3B+ to provide similar OTA DVR features in my RV as we moved around.  I could not get this working with Mythtv Light before I left.  So on the RP3 B+, I used LibreELEC and TVH server/client and it sort of worked, but a big pain to setup each stop and it was not forgiving on signal issues in remote areas.
>>>> 
>>>> So now that I'm home I'm trashing the RP3 B+ and going to build a mythtv FE/BE combo on a Intel NUC with Xubuntu 18.04 LTS and Mythtv v30. I have it working with HDHR Connect Duo tuners and EIT EPG data.
>>>> 
>>>> So my questions are these:
>>>> 
>>>> 1.  The System Information page asks the question, Is mythfilldatabase running?  I think that I can ignore this since my guide data is OTA EPG provided by me setting the Video Sources to EIT only.  Right??
>>>> 
>>>> 2. When I move locations in the RV, obviously I need to rescan for the new channels.  I'm thinking something like: in mythtv-setup run the channel scan in Input Connections on the first tuner and the rest will just follow along? Then allow time for the EPG data to fill in.
>>>> 
>>>> Thoughts?
>>>> 
>>>> Jim A
>>>> 
>>> For 1. this message can be ignored  as long as  EIT kicks in and starts populating the Guide Data, for me it usually starts after around 5 minutes.
>>> 
>>> For 2. you probably want to delete all existing channels before doing a new channel scan, mythtv-setup might retain channels for your old location which could cause failed recordings/LiveTV if you just redo channel scan.
>>> 
>>> Easy way to delete the previous channels before a new channel scan is to use mythtv-setup>Channel Editor>Delete, then run Channel Scan on the same screen.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Setting up mythtv-backend on Raspberry RP3 B+  is a time consuming manual process.
>>> 
>>> Whilst dong some work on a Raspberry Pi4 I wrote a script to automate the process of setting up mythbackend having installed mythtv-light, it also works on Pi 3 see https://forum.mythtv.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=3232#p15773
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Mike
>>> 
>> Mike, I got your script from the mythtv forum that you referred me to.  It worked great on my RP3 B+.  As I commented there I’ve ordered a 4GB RP4.  I put some questions in the forum since there seem to be a crowd there who are interested. Since the RP4 doesn’t have MPEG2 HW decoder, I’m concerned that it might not be a good combined FE/BE.  If the RP4 works solidly as a BE, I can use my RP3 as  Kodi FE only.
>> 
>> Jim A
>> 
>> 
> From my testing lack of MPEG2 HW decoder is not a problem as the 4 cortex-a72 cores in the Pi4 are powerful enough for software decoding.
> 
> Note Kodi (17.6) from Raspbian Buster Repository does not work properly on Pi3 or Pi4.
> 
> Working version of Kodi 18 (pplware) for pi3 (do NOT install on Pi4) https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=192499&start=200#p1506904
> 
> 
> Mike
> 
So I’ll build up a Buster system on the Pi4 when I get it next week and get Mythtv-light working like I have it on the RP3 now. And set it up as a FE/BE combo and put it thru some tests.  If the recording on multiple channels of a HDHR Quatro work fine then I’ll test the mythtv-frontend.  If it works without screwing up recording, I’m done.  My fall back for FE with be to also use a RP3 with LibreELEC 9.1.002 with Kodi 18.3. That works great as a Mythtv FE. 

My home system is an old Ivy Bridge Core i7 with everything.  It worked for 4 months without issues while I was gone without even having to be rebooted. All I do now to it is replace a RAID drive when it fails and keep on going.

Jim A



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