VDR in Australia

[justdeb]

Hi All,

Is anyone in Australia using VDR? If so what are your experiences good/bad. I am currently using mythtv and it is quite good - just looking to see if there are any benefits to using VDR over Mythtv.

Regards

Justin

[colinjones]

I have only ever used VDR in Australia. Its good and the primary advantage is that it is well integrated into the LMCE interface so you don't feel like you are going to a different application just for TV. VDR is designed with DVB exclusively in mind, Myth was not. The devs are German (I believe) so they have a vested interest in DVB, whereas the Myth devs are N.A. (I believe) so they do not. VDR is definitely the future for LMCE (etc) outside N.A. (and a handful of locations in S.A. and Japan, etc) as the vast majority of the world uses or subscribes to the DVB standards.

Having said that, the VDR implementation in LMCE is very young (mostly CHT's work). Although VDR is a client/server architecture, in LMCE it isn't yet implemented that way so you can only watch TV on the device with the card in it (without a hack). The VDR integration into the Orbiter, VDR's OSD and remote control functionality is still very patchy. And there are some rare stability issues where VDR crashes out (or rather its wrapper) and you need to hit TV again....

Most if not all of this is being worked on right now, and the hints I have read are that most have been resolved and will be pushed out in an update "soon". Soon in this community is a very relative term! But I got intimations of weeks rather than months, so I have no intentions of ever going to Myth, I would rather wait.

Do a search for Totallymaxed comments with VDR in the criteria field - he has made several comments about the progress in recent weeks (he is CHT).

[wombiroller]

Hey Col, Justin,

The main reason I use MythTV is I have an IceTV subscription and as I understand it you can't use XMLTV feeds with VDR?

Also I like Mythweb for scheduling... I hear there are some VDR addons that may provide a similar interface but that it isn't quite as good..? Care to comment on this ;-)

Cheers,
WR

[darrenmason]

All of what colin said is true but I am using MythTV as it works well at the moment and VDR still needs a bit more maturing(in my view).

I am only using it with DVB cards and they work very well. One of the advantages of VDR that exists is that it allows recording of multiplexed channels and hence you could record ABC1 and ABC2 program at once using a single tuner - at least that is my understanding of it.
MythTV now supposedly supports this in the 0.21 version. We currrently use the 0.20 version.

I use the over the air guide from the DVB tuners exclusively (I was using shepherd but havn't bothered to set it up on this install as the OTA guide is serving its purpose. Although a few channels only get a few hours in advance (SBS I think is the worst)

I will be quite happy (I think) to move to VDR when I see it as an advantage. I must admit that the obvious jump out to a different application (and interface) is not great for the user experience.
However, that said, I tend to watch a lot of things just 10-15 minutes after they have started recording (this lets you skip ads and finish watching at the scheduled time). The MythTV interface supports this well and the right arrow 30 second skip is invaluable. I will need to be able to replicate this user experience before I switch I think.

Anyway, just thought I would add some more info to help with your decision.

regards
Darren

ps: I almost exclusively use MythWeb for scheduling as I find it the simplest.

[colinjones]

Hey Col, Justin,

The main reason I use MythTV is I have an IceTV subscription and as I understand it you can't use XMLTV feeds with VDR?

Also I like Mythweb for scheduling... I hear there are some VDR addons that may provide a similar interface but that it isn't quite as good..? Care to comment on this ;-)

Cheers,
WR

Why do you use the IceTV service? For automatic Ad skipping or just for guide/scheduled recording. If the latter, just use the OTA service like Darren said, its perfectly adequate ...SMS can have only s few hours, and Ten never put detailed descriptions of their shows, but its fine for surfing and scheduling recordings in VDR (and Myth from what Darren says). I wouldn't pay for a service, if you really just want an xml service and not the ad skipping, apparently oztivo is good and free.

[wombiroller]

Why do you use the IceTV service? For automatic Ad skipping or just for guide/scheduled recording. If the latter, just use the OTA service like Darren said, its perfectly adequate ...SMS can have only s few hours, and Ten never put detailed descriptions of their shows, but its fine for surfing and scheduling recordings in VDR (and Myth from what Darren says). I wouldn't pay for a service, if you really just want an xml service and not the ad skipping, apparently oztivo is good and free.

Because it gives me 8 days scheduling in advance for all channels with a good level of accuracy and detailed descriptions. I prefer not to watch tv live much as you have to watch the commercials! ;-)

I was going to try shepherd but it didn't appear to be as accurate or complete as IceTV and I thought I'd give IceTV a go...

[justdeb]

Collin,

If i was going to setup vdr is it easy enough to put the output to a common nas and watch recordings in a similar way to mythtv? Hmmm tough decision to make - i like mythtv, but have some issues with it that i suspect a rebuild will fix and vdr is something i know nothing about and as my wife is a little technology challenged i might wait before i goto VDR. Many thanks for everyones comments

[wombiroller]

Collin,

If i was going to setup vdr is it easy enough to put the output to a common nas and watch recordings in a similar way to mythtv? Hmmm tough decision to make - i like mythtv, but have some issues with it that i suspect a rebuild will fix and vdr is something i know nothing about and as my wife is a little technology challenged i might wait before i goto VDR. Many thanks for everyones comments

You can switch between without reinstalling if you want to have a try. Just go through the setup wizard and choose VDR... I have done this in previous build and got VDR working, then gone back to Myth.

[colinjones]

yes its very easy to direct the recordings to whatever shares you have - part of the autodiscovery process. If there is an issue with the wife (know where you are going!) stick with Myth for now until Andrew's company gets the new update out (hopefully soon!)

[justdeb]

Collin,

I see you don't sleep much either - particularly this time of the yr with the tour de france. it is almost 1400 hrs but i have not been to bed yet and will probably get some sleep around 3 - 4 am tomorrow.

Q. I rebuilt my core (some things were giving me the shits)(i am not a linux hardcore yet) and chose to run the backend options only. On every other occassion it has run i have never been able to get into the admin web to do various things. However this time i can - is this a bug?

Q. How do i run the wizard to run mythv/vdr setup as i cannot find it in admin web. I am curious to look at vdr and have been on the wiki and i think it will become better than myth once the new revisions are released and will probably use it then