[jiggsaw]

I ordered a HD Homerun and it will be here next week. Which of the backends have fast channel switching through XBMC?

[negge]

I don't know about the HD Homerun but in general tvheadend (and likely VDR too) is hands down the fastest.

[teeedubb]

Mythtv is fast these days too thanks to the work of the people involved.

[jiggsaw]

Has anyone tested the WMC channel switching? PVR is going to be on a windows box.

[negge]

AFAIK all Windows backends are painfully slow. Any reason you have to use Windows?

[ConfusedTA]

ArgusTV with the Margro pre-builds of XBMC offer quick channel switching.

The initial tuning of the first channel is still a few seconds, but after that, it's almost instant.

[opdenkamp]

slow channel switching doesn't have anything to do with the os, but with the implementation of the add-on.

[sub3]

NextPVR is also quick with the Margro builds of XBMC. Most of my channel changes are about a second.

[produno]

I also agree on Nextpvr having fairly quick channel changes with the margro build. Plus i find its the easiest frontend to use and set up and ive tried a few. So an added bonus.

[margro]

slow channel switching doesn't have anything to do with the os, but with the implementation of the add-on.

To clarify this a bit: implementation here refers mainly to the way the demuxing (separation of the streams like audio/video/teletexts).

XBMC has currently two groups of PVR addons, those with an internal demuxer (TVHeadend, VDR-VNSI, XVDR and soon MythTV) and those without (all others like: ArgusTV, MediaPortal, NextPVR, MythTV).

The PVR addons with an internal demuxer have in general fast channel switches.
The PVR addons without demuxer rely on XBMC/ffmpeg for the demuxing which is considerably slower.

My test builds contain a few changes that speed-up the internal XBMC demuxing process for Live TV. These changes can be found in this pull request: PR3590. These changes have no effect for TVHeadend and VDR.

[QueK9]

NextPVR is also quick with the Margro builds of XBMC. Most of my channel channels are about a second.

Where can these builds be found?

[iHateMemphiz]

googe is our friend: https://www.scintilla.utwente.nl/~marcel...build.html

[QueK9]

googe is our friend: https://www.scintilla.utwente.nl/~marcel...build.html

Not really but thanks for the link nonetheless.

[jiggsaw]

slow channel switching doesn't have anything to do with the os, but with the implementation of the add-on.

To clarify this a bit: implementation here refers mainly to the way the demuxing (separation of the streams like audio/video/teletexts).

XBMC has currently two groups of PVR addons, those with an internal demuxer (TVHeadend, VDR-VNSI, XVDR and soon MythTV) and those without (all others like: ArgusTV, MediaPortal, NextPVR, MythTV).

The PVR addons with an internal demuxer have in general fast channel switches.
The PVR addons without demuxer rely on XBMC/ffmpeg for the demuxing which is considerably slower.

My test builds contain a few changes that speed-up the internal XBMC demuxing process for Live TV. These changes can be found in this pull request: PR3590. These changes have no effect for TVHeadend and VDR.

Thanks, that's some good info. So WMC doesn't have an internal demuxer? Also, I currently have 2 XBMC setups... 1 HTPC running Win 7 and a Pivos Xios. Am I correct in saying that I won't be able to use your builds with the Pivos? Would I basically be stuck with slow channel switching on that unit?

[negge]

@jiggsaw: like he said, only tvheadend, VDR and some time in the future MythTV has an internal demuxer. You can get decent channel switch times on a Pivos if you use one of those backends.