TV server - usb hub questions

[dec]

Another little update:

Time shifting appears to work ok. I managed to test the alternative XBMC pvr.tvh add-on with Openelec. There is a pre-built plugin available for x64 builds of Openelec.

Brilliant!

[roobarb!]

Awesome work. It's really got me tempted to play about with the Tvheadend and the like.

[dec]

Incase anyone is interested, I'm using a Sandisk Extreme 16gb USB 3.0 stick for my boot drive for this project.

I've also put this info on the USB stick thread here:

http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25

So far my Joggler has remained up & running and appears very stable. I've had a few recordings set and don't appear to have missed any of them.

Playback and seeking seems very quick, when watching any recordings over the network. Possibly quicker than my previous setup - a HP Microserver!

[jimeney]

@Dec do you use Plex at all?

I'm hoping to use one of my jogglers to run TVHeadend to feed Plex using the tvheadend-ng channel to feed TV out to my NowTV boxes. Just got to work out how Plex will fare transcoding the stream(s) on my N54L microserver which doesn't have too much in the way of grunt. Do you use TVHeadend built from Source or just install via Apt?

[jimeney]

I guess my goal is to get this working on sqpOS v3 so I have squeezeplay in the foreground, tvheadend in the background. Do you think this will work?

[dec]

@Dec do you use Plex at all?

I'm hoping to use one of my jogglers to run TVHeadend to feed Plex using the tvheadend-ng channel to feed TV out to my NowTV boxes. Just got to work out how Plex will fare transcoding the stream(s) on my N54L microserver which doesn't have too much in the way of grunt. Do you use TVHeadend built from Source or just install via Apt?

I don't use Plex, so I can't help you there. Sorry!

I installed tvheadend from the latest stable Apt, as per the instructions on the tvheadend website.

Do the NowTV boxes actually require transcoding for the tvheadend streams? If they can handle MPEG2 video (if you are streaming SD UK tv - freeview?) then it shouldn't put a large strain on your microserver. I don't know if you plan to stream HD TV or not?

As I have no experience with either Plex or the NowTV boxes I can't offer much advice.

I guess my goal is to get this working on sqpOS v3 so I have squeezeplay in the foreground, tvheadend in the background. Do you think this will work?

I don't see why not. I don't think either tvheadend or sqpOS place a very heavy load on the Joggler. They also have no reason to conflict with each other (apart from processing power and throughput requirements).

Are you planning on connecting your Joggler over wifi or hard wired Ethernet? I think it will struggle over wifi, if that's what you were hoping to use?

I'd give it a go and see - I wasn't sure if tvheadend would work for me, but it seems ideal as far as I can tell!

Please let us know how it goes. I'm curious to know if it works.

Good luck.

[jimeney]

The Roku boxes don't decode MPEG2 unfortunately, but Plex should be able to transcode the transport stream. I know there is a transcode option on the later releases of TVheadend which is what I have successfully running on the N54l, my ideal is that I would plug the TV aerial directly into the N54L and be happy, but there's only one aerial point, in the living room, the microserver being situated elsewhere. The idea was simply to use the Joggler (which is in the living room) with Cat6 LAN connection as the source - you're right, I don't think the Wifi will cut it

[dec]

The Roku boxes don't decode MPEG2 unfortunately, but Plex should be able to transcode the transport stream. I know there is a transcode option on the later releases of TVheadend which is what I have successfully running on the N54l, my ideal is that I would plug the TV aerial directly into the N54L and be happy, but there's only one aerial point, in the living room, the microserver being situated elsewhere. The idea was simply to use the Joggler (which is in the living room) with Cat6 LAN connection as the source - you're right, I don't think the Wifi will cut it

Funnily enough, that's pretty much the main reason I setup my Joggler with tvheadend!

I did have tvheadend on my N36L Microserver, but wanted to move it out away from the aerial point. So I used my Joggler instead and it's ideal.

Are you planning on running Plex on your Joggler or Microserver?

I guess if the Microserver can already transcode (using tvheadend), then it should be able to handle transcoding with Plex?

Btw what O/S do you use on your Microserver? I've currently got Ubuntu installed but I'm looking at changing it over to Xpenology for simplicity.

[jimeney]

Funnily enough, I run XPenology, but in Proxmox which is a Virtualisation platform. The other VMs I also have are a VOIP PABX and a Sophos UTM gateway, Windows Server 2008 and a number of other Linux distributions, all running at the same time.

I have TVheadend running on XPenology (through Debian CHROOT v 3.9 rather than 3.4 available in package manager) with a number of packages Plex, Logitech Media Server, Surveillance Station, Couch Potato, Download Station and VPN. I think I probably push it a little hard, but the OS is very stable, and barely breaks a sweat.

The TVHeadend NG plugin seems to do everything I need, just need to hook it up. I'd be looking for the joggler to just pass the raw transport stream over the LAN, and Plex transcode it to the Rokus.

[dec]

Funnily enough, I run XPenology, but in Proxmox which is a Virtualisation platform. The other VMs I also have are a VOIP PABX and a Sophos UTM gateway, Windows Server 2008 and a number of other Linux distributions, all running at the same time.

I have TVheadend running on XPenology (through Debian CHROOT v 3.9 rather than 3.4 available in package manager) with a number of packages Plex, Logitech Media Server, Surveillance Station, Couch Potato, Download Station and VPN. I think I probably push it a little hard, but the OS is very stable, and barely breaks a sweat.

The TVHeadend NG plugin seems to do everything I need, just need to hook it up. I'd be looking for the joggler to just pass the raw transport stream over the LAN, and Plex transcode it to the Rokus.

Sounds good - but I think we're suitably off-topic now (sorry, my fault!).

I'll ping you a PM about your Microserver setup, as I have a couple of questions, but don't want to clog up this thread.