TV Function within Plex
Is it possible to get a TV Function within Plex like Media Center has ??? This is the only thing i think Plex is falling short in. I have used many media centers and Plex is by far the best out there. Surely someone can take the source from windows media center and bring it to plex. Please can some one have a go and make this happen. I think im not alone in wanting this. Every meida Server should or will have the ability to have a TV Tuner Card in it.
There is already a plugin for that: http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/EyeTV_Live
That only works with HDhomerun or eyetv.
Mythtv works with any tv card hardware.
There is a really nice plugin for XBMC called Mythbox, that would be awesome to have ported to Plex as a channel or plugin, the project is open source so there should be no issue porting it to plex as long as the source code is shared and it remains free.
There is more about it in this post in the channels forum and an awesome youtube video of it at work.
http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/46485-can-we-port-xbmc-add-in-mythbox/
edit: I should add that you would need a mythtv server as well as a plex media server which could possibly cause a conflict if they are both in use at the same time.
Interesting news yesterday.
DVBLogic have released an add-on for XBMC that apparently provides live TV / recorded TV & EPG (no timeshift that I can see)
http://dvblogic.com/NewsN/63
The deployment model is interesting & very plex-like: a single DVBLogic instance running centrally that shares tuners and services with any XBMC client.
If this works, I think I’ll be moving my clients to XBMC and using the plex add-on to leverage the excellent PMS. (unless DVBLogic have plans to roll this into Plex as well? - should be fairly lightweight on the client side?)
Peter
Why bother with this when the Mythbox plugin is free?
If one of the devs here was interested they could easily port it as a channel or plugin for plex since it is open source as well.
Well Mythbox requires you to have Myth backend installed which runs mostly on Linux.
DVBLink Server runs on Windows. But client app can run on any OS.
One word of warning though before you switch to XBMC… If you’re thinking DVBlink plugin will replace MCE7 or even come close to being usable, you’re in for alot of pain. First plugin GUI looks horrible, 2nd there is no useful deinterlacing filter in XBMC so your SD will look like ■■■■ 3rd some recordings wont play , 4th EPG GIU is not GRID you’ve come to expect, its one channle list style with no plans to bring grid EPG…
Look around DVBLink forums and you’ll see that after novelty wears off, pretty much everybody switches back to MCE7 as this plugin is just not anywhere near ready… ( oh and its not even using XBMC’s PVR fork, so you wont get XBMC integration at all )
Well it looks like XBMC has beaten plex to the punch with official pvr support (as a front end)
To bad cause i was really looking forward to stream my DVB-C CI coax channels from DVBLink to Plex server to Plex clients.
This sort of integration would be awesome. At first, I’d be more than happy just being able to play recorded programs. While this might be possible by having Plex scan the files saved by DVBLink, I wonder if some programming would have appropriate metadata – like local news programs. Since DVBLink doesnt support transcoding, for example, it seems a very good marriage, too. PLEX easily handles playback whilst DVBLink handles EPG and recording/capture.
I don’t really watch much live TV any more, so for me that would be less interesting.
Well, since PMT (or whatever it’s called these days) is catching up with XBMC 12 by re-integrating the newer code, the obvious solution to me is to maintain the LiveTV code from XBMC in the plex client. This would allow the plex client integrate with any one of a number of PVR back ends.
However this particular feature has been purposefully ripped out.
Now I can see some reasons as to why this might be (support issues, skin issues, development resources etc.) but it would be great if it could be maintained even as an unsupported option.
Over the recent holidays, I set up Frodo RC2 on my clients (with Plexbmc add-on) and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a plex client. I’m still using PMS for media management etc. but XBMC with LiveTV meets my needs exactly.
It’s such a pity that Plex devs don’t give this more attention.
Agree.
I was really sad to see that Live TV (PVR addons) was stripped from PHT.
Right now I switch between XBMC and PHT when I want to watch Live TV and Movies (this is not very family-friendly, control-wise).
2 options going forward:
1. Change my clients to XBMC, enjoying the Live TV stuff and using the PlexBMC plugin for movie watching.
2. PHT adds back the Live TV stuff from XBMC Frodo (maybe in a separate release/branch), and I can use Plex for everything.
I would really like option 2 to happen, love the Plex community and my Plex Media Server :)
Devs (Tobias), is it possible that Live TV (PVR Addons) could come back at some point?
Thanks,
+1 for dvblink … till then, i switch to plexbmc
In my opinion it shouldnt be a plex client thing but instead DVBLink on Plex server, so all Plex clients can stream/watch what is coming from DVBLink.
A Plex channel could work for this if someone would pick it up.
Bringing up a quiet post here to think out loud oubout PVR and Plex.
Guys,
I've tried to use XBMC with MythTV (Windows & Mac) backend for PVR functionality - never could get any of it to work correctly. I did get my HDHomerun to play a channel in XBMC - was choppy as hell.
I've tried the EyeTV Plex plugin, EyeContact - it's great that these things exist, and someone worked their butt of to get these to where they are now, but to be honest - it's not user friendly. And maybe it gets too geeky for me to install (and I've installed some complex stuff).
From all of the HTPC forums that I coast through - the biggest issue is, "would my wife, or house guest be able to easily use my media center? Watch TV, movies, listen to music?" Usually the answer is, "No." Mostly because these are computers with software, and computers can act up. Or there's always a weird 'thing' that you have to do to get that one thing to play right etc.
All that being said - I am going to think differently about how I use my media center a little different.
I'm thinking that GoogleTV is very intuitive and better at merging all my data together.
I'm going to be testing out a Vizio Co-Pilot (GoogleTV device) with a few different media center hardware pieces (one at a time).
3 scenarios:
- Windows 7 Media Center PC (Asrock 3D pc)
- Ceton Echo (WMC Extender)
- EyeTV on a 2012 Mac Mini
I will be trying out the Plex app on the Google TV and only using WMC and EyeTV to deliver Live over the air TV.
See, I've been trying to find the "ultimate media center all-in-one software" running on a computer. Dont get me wrong, WMC is the closest, and so is Ceton Echo (although the Echo wont show the Netflix WMC app).
So now it's time to see how complex 2 hardware devices work. But the idea is simple:
I want Live OTA TV & all my stored media
Live TV - WMC or EyeTV
All my other media (Netflix, Amazon, Movies/Photos/Music on my NAS) - Plex GTV app.
thoughts?
Hi Guys,
I agree with most of what you've said here. Our opinion is very much the same in that Plex is the best of breed but DTV functionality is something people want in a HTPC. While there's a number of indirect solutions, clean integration at the HTPC with at least support for mainsteam cards seems obvious and somewhat standard functionality for some.
I can't go into much detail yet but a group of us here in Australia are working on this very peice supporting Hauppauge hardware 2250 and 2210. The design is seamless operation just as per XBMC or WMC. Playback, recording, timeshifting & hardware configuration within the Plex interface.
We're planning a release late this year so look out for DTV Unity for Plex.
Cheers,
Mark.
Hi Guys,
I agree with most of what you've said here. Our opinion is very much the same in that Plex is the best of breed but DTV functionality is something people want in a HTPC. While there's a number of indirect solutions, clean integration at the HTPC with at least support for mainsteam cards seems obvious and somewhat standard functionality for some.
I can't go into much detail yet but a group of us here in Australia are working on this very peice supporting Hauppauge hardware 2250 and 2210. The design is seamless operation just as per XBMC or WMC. Playback, recording, timeshifting & hardware configuration within the Plex interface.
We're planning a release late this year so look out for DTV Unity for Plex.
Cheers,
Mark.
awesome, looking forward to this.. altho is it possible to implement technisat skystar dvb-s2 too, as it's very common too
Any News ?
Bump.
I currently use PMC for a backend to groom my media and add metadata with WMC to schedule and record OTA TV. XBMC is a better set top box with excellent Live TV support including EPG. Too bad there is not a single solution today that does all of these well. Plex & XBMC clients are installed on all my mobile devices. All of this gets the job done now that I have all of these talking to each other, but it took a lot of work. A homogeneous solution would be much simpler, and make home media more usable for the average Joe. Plex has a 90% solution with the recent addition of Chromecast support for the mobile apps but the live TV/DVR/EPG gap is a big one. Hope someone is working this.
So does anyone have any advice so its easy for my family to have Live TV and Plex together that is user friendly. Right now i have them use Window Media Center for Live TV/EPG/DVR and then a short cut inside media center to go to Plex. I programmed my remote to hit the exit button and it goes back to media center when they are done with Plex. There are a few issues i am having:
1. When they first go into Plex the screen resolution 2/3X goes wrong and we have to exit out and back in to fix it or I have to go into to settings and fix the resolution??
2. If my kids and wife(which they do often) forget to quit out of plex and hit "Exit" on the remote then the next time going back into Plex wont work and we have to grab the mouse for the computer and actually go to the app that way??
3. XBMC works well for all but just doesn't have a user friendly way for Live TV(i don't think so)??
I would love to be a beta tester for any type of Live TV testing inside Plex!! I have a Ceton Tuner and a HDHomeRun Prime Tuner.
Thanks a lot for any advice
So does anyone have any advice so its easy for my family to have Live TV and Plex together that is user friendly. Right now i have them use Window Media Center for Live TV/EPG/DVR and then a short cut inside media center to go to Plex. I programmed my remote to hit the exit button and it goes back to media center when they are done with Plex. There are a few issues i am having:
1. When they first go into Plex the screen resolution 2/3X goes wrong and we have to exit out and back in to fix it or I have to go into to settings and fix the resolution??
2. If my kids and wife(which they do often) forget to quit out of plex and hit "Exit" on the remote then the next time going back into Plex wont work and we have to grab the mouse for the computer and actually go to the app that way??
3. XBMC works well for all but just doesn't have a user friendly way for Live TV(i don't think so)??
I would love to be a beta tester for any type of Live TV testing inside Plex!! I have a Ceton Tuner and a HDHomeRun Prime Tuner.
Thanks a lot for any advice
I actually made a plugin that brings in Live TV from Mediaportal. It works on all Plex clients except for Plex/Web. You will have to install and setup MediaPortal and MPExtended before it will all work. You can find the plugin in the Unsupported Appstore or on Github.
