bottletop
Active Member
Introduction
The Humax HDR Fox T2 with custom firmware is an excellent combination, so I intend to keep using it for as long as I can.This is my plan for the eventual replacement of my Humax HDR Fox T2 (eg if the Humax hardware fails completely).
This is not my original work. I have gathered information from the internet and trying it out.
Others have done the heavy lifting, I am just documenting my attempts here. It will remind me why I did things for when I need to reinstall (like where did I put my notes?). It may help others. This is all work in progress and I will update as I go along. I am a Humax HDR FOX T2 user in the UK, so the settings will reflect me trying to set this up as my HDR replacement.
Hardware
Which Raspberry Pi?I only considered a Pi 3B+ (£34) or 4B (2GB £34, 4GB £54, 8GB £74).
For the 3B+ you will probably need to purchase the license keys (MPEG-2 £2.40, VC-1 £1.20).
So I decided on a 4GB 4B.
The 4B is has more memory and faster than the older models.
It should cope with 1080p playback now and in the future the promised 4k should be silky smooth.
As it is not as established as the older models, some software and drivers are not fully optimised for it yet.
Breakdown of hardware costs
£54 Rasperry Pi 4GB
£20 case (with fan and or heatsinks)
£60 2x USB DVB-T2 tuners (or a single dual tuner)
£10 RF aerial splitter (if using multiple USB tuners)
£9 psu
£20 Flirc remote control dongle (not absolutely needed, but simplifies remote control matching)
£7 micro HDMI to HDMI cable
£5 sd card
£185 Total
Other hardware
£55-70 external 2TB USB portable drive to hold recordings.
It will be possible to use 1 Raspberry DVB-T2 TV Hat and additional USB DVB-T2 dongle(s). You can only install one Raspberry DVB-T2 TV Hat on a Raspberry Pi. I decided against against the TV Hat as I may wish to use the GPIO pins for other functions in the future.
Alternative case, eg like an old STB stripped out so that you can populate the innards with the Pi, tuners, hard drive and probably a fan for good measure. It's extra work and look better than spaghetti layout of the Pi and components.
If you don't have a Raspberry Pi, you can probably try KODI out if you have a spare PC & DVB-T/DVB-T2 hardware. In this case just install KODI onto it and try KODI without buying additional hardware.
Software
What I plan to installLibreELEC (with KODI)
TVHeadend (backend for tuners)
TVHeadend HTSP Client (to communicate with TVHeadend backend)
Other options
OSMC/KODI - alternative to LibreELEC/KODI but it's not available ready yet for the 4B
Self install KODI, TVHeadend etc - I'm not ready for that task yet.
MythTV - using this instead of KODI is an option, but I haven't tried it yet.
What I have discovered so far
Good points- Accurate Record - This works. Do this for each recording profile - tick option TVHeadend server Configuration/Recording/Digital Video Recorder Profiles/(Default profile)/Use EPG running state.
- Series Recording - This indirectly works, but is not selectable via the KODI GUI (you can change guide context menu to add a timer, but this still performs program matching). Using the KODI GUI allows you to do various fuzzy matching options for channel, program titles and summary so that may be adequate for some people. You can use the backend web interface (i.e. IP-OF-LEELEC-PI:9981) to create a series link timer (this works 100%).
- There are 2 Android apps that you can use to view the TV guide and schedule recordings, but neither of them do series link properly.
- There are 2 IOS apps, that do allow you to view TV guide and schedule recordings, but I have not tried them.
- HDMI-CEC - this is enabled by default, so if your TV supports it, you can use the TV remote to navigate around KODI GUI. The only issue with this is that some keys aren't mapped and some keys aren't obvious. So you end up bouncing back and forth through the menus, options, TV menu, KODI GUI. Attaching a USB keyboard to the Pi helps with the setting up greatly.
Bad points
- Always on - as the Pi doesn't have a battery back up clock it needs to stay on all the time (ie it can't wake up from standby due to lack of clock, but it may be possible with the addition of a battery backup clock module)
- Occasional freeze ups - although this could be due to my setup mistakes.
- It's not as cheap as I first thought (after adding up all required parts).
- Takes a time to set up and acclimatise to KODI.
Undecided
There are a myriad of set up options that look daunting at first, but it this is due to the complexity and range of software/hardware combinations it caters for. It does allow fine tuning to individual requirements, so you can set it up to be as simple or as comprehensive as you like..
I have only tried it with 1 USB DVB-T2 tuner, without Flirc, on a Raspberry Pi 4. It works fine and allows you to record more than 1 program simultaneously as long as they are all on the same mux. I expect more tuners allow more simultaneous recordings.
Post History
2020-11-25 It's nearly Christmas so I thought I'd release this info. It also gives others a rough idea in terms of material cost, time and effort.Sources of information
https://libreelec.tv/https://libreelec.tv/raspberry-pi-4/
https://osmc.tv/
https://osmc.tv/download/
KODI/TVH series record via menu (post 7, last) https://tvheadend.org/boards/14/topics/21175
https://raspberrytips.com/kodi-guide-osmc/
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