A problem with Kodi installed from experimental packages

Rascas

In a terminal:

Search available PVRs:

apt-cache search kodi-pvr

Install one PVR, in this case IPTV Simple Client:

sudo apt-get install kodi-pvr-iptvsimple

Install all PVRs:

sudo apt-get install kodi-pvr*

Also I wouldn't consider this a problem. The installation of all PVRs could be easily added to the RetroPie's Kodi install script, but some people may want it and others don't. It is debatable. This information could be added to the RetroPie's Kodi wiki page though.

jmebd

Don't mean to hijack your thread (I did what Rascas mentioned above and just installed all available ones just fine last week) but I have a question related to where DukeVindzor is going with this....

I setup nextpvr server on my main pc with a hauppauge dualHD (2 tuner) usb and works fine on the pc....in Kodi 16.1 have it setup with the nextpvr addon and it will see it just fine and stream "MOST" channels just fine. Only problem I have is with the 1080 channels.....720 comes thru just fine. The 1080 seems like it's studdering, or choppy per say. I'm on a wired network connection (windows 10 pc is hosting the backend).

I've tried to search for the problem elsewhere since it's not really a retropie issue but the only thing I've seen related to choppy ATSC (over the air tv) relates to buffering mods in the "advancedsettings.html" file (which I couldn't find anywhere on the retropie image after installing kodi from the experimental menu so I just made one an pasted some stuff in there, rebooted and still same choppy playback)....Or the other thing I found has to do with some code related to something called the m_RefreshRate not being updated when a screen resolution is being changed (there was a specific kodi build linked to the post but I don't wanna try that as everything else I have now works great).

Anyone know if the build that's installed thru the experimental menu "should" and/or "uses" and advancedsettings.xml file at all? Or anyone have any ideas or fingers to point me in a direction to rectify this choppy 1080 playback on my 3.7 Retropie/16.1 Jarvis/Raspi 3 (running from 128GB thumb drive with 10GB free) setup?

Rascas

@jmebd This Kodi build (which is compiled by me by the way) supports everything that other builds support on the Raspberry Pi, including OpenELEC and OSMC. The performance should also be on par or very close.
It is advancedsettings.xml and it must be created in ~/.kodi/userdata/advancedsettings.xml, it doesn't exist in any version by default.

But I think that your problem is related to the codec of the TV channels. For example mpeg-2 is very common, but the RPi doesn't support hardware acceleration of that codec, only if you buy the respective license. http://www.raspberrypi.com/license-keys/
So the first thing you should do is to check which codec your over the air TV provider uses. You can do this by opening some channel and press the "O" key.

jmebd

I'm at work right now so I'll try that at home tonight. Forgot to post that I had been trying different codecs out beginning last night....AC3, mpeg's, microsoft DTV (something like that) , something called Arc Soft (?)....there were several. I even tried installing the file from ac3filter for the audio but no go. Didn't know anything about the "o" key. Perhaps I need to check this in the nexpvr backend first???? or can I just do this in kodi on the pi? And are the info's that come up when you hit enter that shows the play, pause, rewind and has text above that showing 1080/720 etc (and I think what you were saying mpeg2 or whatever) just showing what's being thrown to it by the backend? Thus requiring the backend to be configured for what the provider uses first....

Rascas

@jmebd Im talking about Kodi itself, not about the backend.
When you play something in Kodi, if you press the "o" key, the details/advanced information of the video playback will apear on the upper part of the screen.

I am not aware of some PVR backend that can do real-time transcoding (converting de video to another format), but it may be possible. But If your ATSC is mpeg-2 I would buy the license instead, its pretty cheap.

jmebd

@Rascas Thank you! I'll give 'er a looksie afterwhile.

One final note....since I couldn't find that "advancedsettings" file anywhere.....is it even used? I created one and put in some buffering settings and such but didn't seem to do anything. Just wanting to make sure that isn't an issue....

Rascas

@jmebd There is no problem about that. Check my post above, I edited it for including that information.

DukeVindzor

@Rascas Thank you so much. I am kind of new to raspberry pi still, apologies for the troubles. When I said problem, I meant a problem for me as I was unable to figure out how to get Simple Client and the Kodi forum didn't come with an answer.

Thank you for your great work, I love being able to easily install both RetroPie and Kodi on the same Pi :)

jmebd

@Rascas Ok....sooo....got both licenses from Raspberry Pi store (thank you for reminding me of that as I never did consider that to be an issue) and installed them as my TV streams were showing mpeg-2. Installed and it "helped" quite a bit but I was still getting studdering on 1080 channels pretty frequently.

Found a post the other day that had to do with more settings in the advancedsettings.xml file that refers to minimum cache level in the PVR section (which someone mentioned that the other cache settings are NOT used for the PVR). So I put in (in addition to a bunch of other junk I found that sounded good on the Kodi wiki-advanced settings xml entry page):

and WALA! Perfect 1080 streaming while recording on the other tuner (Have a Hauppauge DualHD usb tuner).....

Which brings me to my next question, and I might be opening a pandoras box here but here goes.....

I also have another internal TV tuner card that has just 1 ATSC tuner (does other formats but just has 1 tuner)....wonder if I can add that into the mix on the nextpvr backend (probs have to check with nextpvr website??) and have 3 tuners to choose (use) from? (after splitting the coax and feeding both sources of course)....know of a limit in regards to tuners? I vaguely remember something about "Tunersalad" for people back in the windows media center days allowing an ungodly number of tuners....Think I'm just asking for trouble? ;)

Thanks again for all your help. I just hope it helps someone else out who might be going down the same route as me some day!

Rascas

@jmebd That kind of questions, it is better for you to ask them in the kodi oficial forum, or another forums more dedicated to that kind of subject. I have a PVR backend configured + some clients but I am no expert in this, it is a very simple setup and I don't use it much. My provider transmits the channels in h264, I never had stuttering problems or whatsoever, even on RPI 1. And this is a retrogaming forum, surely you will find better support for your doubts in more appropriate places.