XBMC PVR Client & For The Record: Argus TV-Server

Hi!

I think we should have a big thread here regarding XBMC and Argus TV-server.

We need some clarity of which clients and methods that are the newest, best and most stable.

I know that there are a lot of people waiting for the possibility of replacing MediaPortal client/server with XBMC as front-end, and FTR Argus as their TV back-end.

How far away is this? Is it possible now to get live TV from Argus in XBMC?

I'm in no way any expert on this, but I'm doing my best to contribute to this project. I know there are a lot of people who is confused with which client is the newest etc.

Finally dushmaniac is trying to clear this up, which really is a good initiative. I think this will make it easier to cooperate to get a working front-end for the different TV-servers.

So to all users/developers experienced in the Argus TV-server, and the development of a XBMC-PVR/FTR plugin, please post your progress here, and help the community gather information in one place.

Also it will be easier for the users to see the development, and easier to donate some money to the brilliant developers, who make our wishes come true!

I think this thread will just be over-run. We need a sticky post showing a list of current backends and their status. That's all.

NorDemoniac Wrote:I think we should have a big thread here regarding XBMC and Argus TV-server.

there's no argus tv server add-on available. you could create a thread (or use this one) for development purposes.

Quote:We need some clarity of which clients and methods that are the newest, best and most stable.

my repository (check my sig) is the main development repository for PVR. pvr-ppa is the stable release branch and master is the development branch. the tvheadend add-on will always contain the latest changes and should be the most stable one around. vdr/vnsi usually follows changes pretty quickly too.

Quote:I know that there are a lot of people waiting for the possibility of replacing MediaPortal client/server with XBMC as front-end, and FTR Argus as their TV back-end.

if you say so never heard anyone ask something about that backend here.

Quote:How far away is this? Is it possible now to get live TV from Argus in XBMC?

0. nobody started working on an add-on for that backend yet.

Quote:I'm in no way any expert on this, but I'm doing my best to contribute to this project. I know there are a lot of people who is confused with which client is the newest etc.

again, tvheadend is the only one that's always up to date and vnsi is up to date too most of the time. until PVR support is fully integrated in mainline XBMC (and the API is 100% stable), the tvheadend add-on will also be the only add-on that we (team XBMC) focus on and fully test.

so if you are to start a new add-on, take the tvheadend one as an example.

Quote:Finally dushmaniac is trying to clear this up, which really is a good initiative. I think this will make it easier to cooperate to get a working front-end for the different TV-servers.

that thread is mainly about changes to the earlier API from pvr-testing2. if you got questions about the API, you're free to ask ofcourse.

loggio Wrote:I think this thread will just be over-run. We need a sticky post showing a list of current backends and their status. That's all.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...BMC-PVR%29

Dushmaniac,

Margro has a fortherecord (argus) plugin in his builds (windows only) that currently a user by the name of Red F (located at the 4therecord forums) is working on as we speak... The wiki link ( http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title...ka_XBMC-PVR%29 ) you sent me above even has it listed as number 5 in the list of backends... Argus is the name of ForTheRecords tvserver backend. The plugin has been in the making for a while now and works quite well for viewing tv in its current state using the XBMC PVR addon API... I've used it several times, i thought you would have known this??

Available in Margro's Binary builds.

Info @: http://www.4therecord.eu/forum/viewtopic...=20&t=1600

Margro's WINDOWS binary builds, here: http://www.scintilla.utwente.nl/~marcelg...build.html

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Loggio.

Dushmaniac knows about the plugin only under the name ForTheRecord .

I've updated the wiki to make it more clear that Argus = ForTheRecord TV tuner.

As already explained by loggio, Live TV/Radio is working fine (windows only, frontend and backend must be on the same PC) and playback of recordings is also functional. Channel swithing is a bit faster than with Mediaportal.

EPG support is still work in progress. Timer support is limited/unavailable due to a mismatch between the timer API and the advanced schedule possibilities of ForTheRecord.

right, names names

Really? So the XBMC-PVR can actually connect to Argus?!

Can I install XBMC and XBMC-PVR side by side? I don't want to break my current XBMC, but I want to test the PVR, just to see where we're at.

Thank you all for your responses!

Will the ForTheRecord/Argus plug-in eventually have Linux support?

(I'm just wondering but why is it limited to Windows right now only?)

@sofang:
The ForTheRecord plugin and the (new) MediaPortal (TSReader) share the code that reads the Live TV stream directly from the timeshift buffer. I borrowed this code from MediaPortal itself. Unfortunately, the TSReader code from MediaPortal is heavily based on MFC code. Rewriting it to make it cross platform is just a lot of work, so it will take some time. The largest part of the work is to add direct access to the timeshift buffer via a Windows SMB share under Linux.
Because PVR addons are plugins, I can't simply access the existing SMB code from XBMC within the plugin.

Since FTR 1.6.0.0, we can also use RTSP streaming, which does not require the TSReader code. It should not be too much work to add this to the FTR addon similar to the (cross platform) MediaPortal (ffmpeg) PVR addon. With RTSP streaming (via ffmpeg) added, we can build a functional Linux/OSX version.