Vtuner support?

[im85288]

I have been looking into using tvheadend as a Linux based tv server to see what sort of performance it can achieve.

Whilst researching I found out about a vtuner project (not new, but new to me!)

https://code.google.com/p/vtuner/

What it promises to do is allow me to say install a vtuner server on my VU solo 2 and then install a vtuner client on the PC that runs tvheadend..which should then allow that PC to see/use the tuner from my solo2 as if it were attached to the local PC.

This is where a lot of confusion for me comes in, I'm not certain if this works with VU hardware??
Also, looking at the latest blackhole image release notes it states something about driver support for vtuner..but is it referring to the same vtuner software as above?

Interested to hear if anyone has done this setup and if so was the performance with a virtual tuner satisfactory?

[Rob van der Does]

vTuner support for STB's refers to the use of USB-tuners connected to the STB.

If I understand you correctly what you want to achieve can easily be done by setting up XMBC on your PC.

[im85288]

Thanks for the clarification Rob, so they are indeed two different implementations.

I have and do use XBMC all the time and I presume you are referring to using the VU+ PVR addon which does work fairly well...However having used it for a good 6 months now I have started to get frustrated at the slow channel changing time and the lack of timeshift support. Following a thread by the author of the addon he has stated that the channel changing problem is not something he intends to fix (as a rewrite would be needed and he is not experienced in it) and also that timeshift support is not working either.

This lead me to look at the TVHeadend backend to use in place of the VU+ PVR addon...it has far better support and from what I understand much better channel changing response time and timeshift also works. In addition to that there are other benefits for streaming to all sorts of devices so worth a try in my opinion.

So this lead me to thinking about using the tuners already in my stb boxes rather than attaching a tuner directly to the PC that will run the TVHeadend backend. As you can see from the link it was successfully done about a year ago on dreambox hardware...and I was hoping this would be possible on the VU boxes...

Other than that I do have an alternative solution, but that involves trying out something like this:
http://www.tbsdtv.com/launch/moi-dvb-s2-streaming-box.html which I have actually ordered..but need to wait about 3 weeks for delivery :mad:

[Rob van der Does]

What exactly is your goal in the end?

And isn't streaming (as can be done via the WEB-IF) not sufficient?
You might also want to look at a tool like DreamBoxManaerSuite.

[im85288]

What exactly is your goal in the end?

And isn't streaming (as can be done via the WEB-IF) not sufficient?
You might also want to look at a tool like DreamBoxManaerSuite.

My aim is simply to have a better experience when using the PVR part of XBMC, as I stated the VU+ addon has slow channel changing and no timeshift support...I am aware of PrismCube etc however from what I understand performance has been compared to a Raspberry PI, which is not enough for me for a media center..so currently I use OpenElec, installed on a fairly new mac mini which gives me enough performance for XBMC with movies, tv shows, spotify etc etc..the only problem is the PVR part

As for streaming..it is not really why I am switching to the tvheadend backend..just one of the many plus points from what I read, recordings to NAS, streaming to up to 7 clients etc etc..But like I said not a major concern for me.

Thanks for the tip on DreamBoxManagerSuite...however it is not something that would suit my needs.

I guess from your answers that you do not know of support for using virtual tuners in vu hardware, looks like the second link I posted is the way forward. Thanks anyway

[im85288]

Just to come back to this for anyone that was interested, I received the streaming box and have set it up using the tvheadend backend. Since switching to this set up, Live TV in XBMC is working perfectly. Channel change time is almost instant..actually faster than my solo 2 box, timeshift works fine, recordings are easily scheduled with things like series link working correctly and if you make the tvheadend available outside your network you can watch on your ipad, iphone etc when out and about. All in all very impressed