XBMC + ForTheRecord (1 Viewer)

Paranoid Delusion

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  • June 13, 2005
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    As some of you may know, xbmc now has a plugin for 4TR, which gives TV support, this is using EDEN beta3 by margro.

    How far it has come from within the xbmc GUI.

    Live TV supported
    EPG supported
    Recording playback
    Single scheduled recordings can be done, so no series support.

    You need to enable the ForTheRecord plugin inside xbmc's config gui, then adjust your wanted TV settings under system.

    i also installed the MCERemote add-on, this to me is still the biggest issue with xbmc, using a remote is just not intuitive, especially a mce capable one, even with the afore said plugin.

    Some pictures in action

    sshot-42.jpgsshot-43.jpgsshot-44.jpgsshot-45.jpgsshot-46.jpgsshot-47.jpg

    Just to say, this is in no way ready for a production htpc, but both margro and Red-F are doing a good job and will be good competition for MP to compare against in the future, now if only xbmc can get there navigation issues resolved, as just too mad, can scroll through 405 movies in under 5 seconds, how the hell are you supposed to see a name at that speed lol :D
     

    hafblade

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    January 19, 2011
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    Hi I also tried the XBMC Beta with pvr plugin and I have to say that this really could be an alternative in the future.
    I really like the speed of the gui and the management of movies, music videos and so on. It's really more intuitive than some things in MediaPortal especially because it holds everything in the gui and not in some separate programs (like configuration in MP).
    But the best thing of XBMC is that it's an out of the box solution. You have less work to do to get the thing running and you have some similar amount plugins which you can use.

    But it also has some negative issues (at least at the moment). So it crashes sometimes (so ok it's a beta) and the video quality isn't as good as a lav-cuvid MediaPortal.

    There may also be some other issues but it didn't used it productively.

    My point is that my first htpc was a DVBViewer + XBMC htpc and so I like the idea of a tvserver integration in xbmc.
     

    Yucca

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    I wonder how they got XBMC to response to open network shares after the wakeing up from suspend. It´s way faster than MP and it seems that the TV server opens/changes a channel faster too...
    I hope they find some nice tweaks for MP in this case? I have cat6 network (full duplex) all over and still in MP I need to wait for a while when I put the computer on (from suspend mode). :(
     

    WileECoyote

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    I really wish you hadn't posted about the new version ;) I spent most of the weekend playing with it and have it set up in my prod environment. I have played with XBMC before, and only switched back to MP because the Live TV was not mature enough. Here is my experience from the Beta 3 'Eden' version...

    The Good
    • The GUI to me is MUCH faster than MP (Especially startup)
    • I LOVE the Confluence skin...
    • Shared database for Movies, Music & TV Series
    • Setup is slick, like hafblade said everything is done through the GIU
    • MP integration from ForTheRecord is great. I have live tv set up and it works great.
    • Movie & TV Series integration is fantastic (this has always been the case though)
    • Weather works ;)
    • I have programmed my MCE remote with the help of IRSS to do almost everthing the exact same as MP
    The Bad
    • You can only record current shows. To record anything else you have to go to the ForTheRecord web interface (which is okay with me.)
    • You can set up series recordings, but only through the web interface (or the ForTheRecord managment tools)
    • No HD Audio (DTS-HD & True-HD)
    • Recording, TV Series & Movies don't automatically update. You have to restart XBMC to refresh. (Im sure theres a way to do this, just havent figured it out yet.)
    • Setting up ForTheRecord for the first time is a real pain. I had to read many forums to get where I am now.
    The Ugly
    • Occasional crashes when I close XBMC. Luckily, nothing is lost (so far).
    Overall I am very impressed with this version of XBMC. Although Live TV is not included in Eden, Magro is doing a great job posting the latest builds with Live TV included.

    Wile E.
     

    Paranoid Delusion

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    Just to say the final Eden release will not include any PVR capabilities, looks like it will be targeted for Frodo.

    Also margro states, getting anywhere near the functionality of MP's GUI scheduling will be a long way off due to the hard coding needed for xbmc to be cross platform, so testers beware.
     

    hafblade

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    Yes you won't find such a complete tv solution like in MediaPortal.
    It has no series recording, no schedules and the remote control isn't as good (while watching tv) as in MediaPortal.
    And PVR will be in Frodo not in Eden! So we have to wait some month to get it.

    But when you are a user who like to browse his data really fast and who thinks that tv isn't sooooo important, could use it.

    For me the tv is much better in MP and to important so I'll stay with MP but it'll be a great competitor in the future.
     

    WileECoyote

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    It has no series recording, no schedules and the remote control isn't as good (while watching tv) as in MediaPortal.

    The Series recording is done via the ForTheRecord Management Console so it is possible, just not practical for most.

    As far as the remote goes, I have read a lot about people having issues with the remote in XBMC, but it is completely customizable (via the remote.xml file.) I have my MCE remote setup to use the exact same as it was in MP (the only exception is the record button.) The guide button takes me directly to the guide, the recorded TV takes me to the recorded TV, Live TV takes me to the Live TV area, etc...

    On a side note, I did figure out the Automatic updates so now my Video & Music libraries are updated every 15 minutes or so...

    Most of the time I watch either recorded TV or movies, so Live TV and scheduling is not that critical to me. Everything I expect out of Live TV I have (so far) found in the Magro Eden Beta 3 build...

    Wile E.
     

    Holzi

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    The Good
    • The GUI to me is MUCH faster than MP (Especially startup)
    • I LOVE the Confluence skin...
    • Shared database for Movies, Music & TV Series
    • Setup is slick, like hafblade said everything is done through the GIU
    • MP integration from ForTheRecord is great. I have live tv set up and it works great.
    • Movie & TV Series integration is fantastic (this has always been the case though)
    • Weather works ;)
    • I have programmed my MCE remote with the help of IRSS to do almost everthing the exact same as MP

    What do you mean with weather works? Check the WorldWeather Plugin. Weather for MP is better than ever! =)
     

    technick

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    May 6, 2009
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    After more tests TV is at alpha stage and is not useable for everyday but.... this version with DTS bitstream and a link in the main menu to dvbviewer work fine. For weather, plugin is automatically updated during first start, nothing else to do. I think now that Xbmc goes in the right way, the end 2012 version will be something very interesting and most important the dev team don't change rules every version so what is done is done and will work in the future without need to change again and again source code. (And I found their forum perfect :sneaky:, you found what you need in 2 seconds) (this is only my opinion)
     

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