Streaming TV around the house.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The thread on HDMI streaming menntioned streaming TV boxes, so I got interssted and did some research.

And came up with TVheadend - a TV server that can read a DVB card or dongle and allow streaming of TV programs to suitable clients.

So I installed in on my Liniux Mint Server and yes, it works pretty well.

Howver, be warned, this installation for me was everything that gives Linux a bad name. The code would not install without some manual installation having to be done.

And the instructions were totally opaque. Definitely written by a progranmmer for other programmers.

BUT it works . I can watch TV on any computer on the network that has VLC installed, and indeed after installation of the appropiate 'app', on my friggin smart phone.

And recording is a doddle too.

So its a great DIY replacement for a TV stremaing box+PVR but not for the faint heraterd. You can however download a complete OS installation that takes out some of the pain and will allow an obsolete PC to become a video server.

[T i m]

<snip>

At last some truth / honesty from TNP!

Yes, Linux is good, if you are interested in programming as a hobby or are happy to take it as it comes.

If you want to get on with your day (in 2019) with an OS that lets you do most things from the GUI, that represents 70% of the desktops in the world, then it has to be Windows (assuming you want the flexibility and vfm you don't get with OSX).

I couldn't get Linux to see my TV card and wasn't going to buy one just to placate Linux, especially when Windows sees it fine (after all, it was 'Designed for Windows). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had the PC, the tuner dongle and it runs 24x7 anyway.

My intrepretation of Occam is 'Do not multiply electronic boxes beyond neceessity'.

So far that server has elminated most USB sticks, the need for any DVD players on the (smart) tellies, the need for a CD player and tuner for the hifi, and the need for TV dongles on every PC.

And the cost was 5 hours of farting around to get it working

[Adrian Caspersz]

A lot of that is covered by this guy here. Beware - Oz accent....

[Dave Plowman (News]

And these are facilities you'll now use?

Take me through how convenient it would be to play a CD on your computer and pick that up on the Hi-Fi? Or indeed radio?

[Andy Burns]

Yes, I switched away from mythTV to TVheadend (with VLC and/or Kodi as front end)

Sounds like a Mint issue, install and upgrades from the usual repos on Fedora have been clean, I don't even have to build my own kernels to support the DVB-S2/T2 card which was previously a pain

[Pancho]

For streaming Freesat I used to use DVBviewer, Windows only, it was excellent.

Eventually I gave up on broadcast TV and hence had no need to stream on the LAN. Now I just stream direct from the internet, Youtube, Amazon Prime, Netflix etc, or use VLC to play video files stored on a LAN file server.

I did briefly try TVheadend it was a bit of work but usable there was a Linux paid for package that was easier, more polished, but I can't remember what it was called, maybe DVBStreamer?

[dennis]

Easy, tell Alexa to play the CD and route it to lounge/conservatory/etc.

Of course I wouldn't do that as I have FLAC files for the CDs on a server so I would play them.

I seldom get the usb DVD drive out these days.

[John Rumm]

Glossing over the whole CD != TV thing for a moment, the obvious solution is you rip the CD to your network storage device, and then play or stream that at the point of use. For older Hi-Fis without streaming capability, something like a Chromecast Audio will add a capability in a very easy to use form. A radio might be a less useful device for CD playing - but if it has an Aux in connection, then the same solution will work.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No. It wasnt IN teh Mint repo so I had to add a PPA and then it kept saying the size of the .deb was wrong, so I wget'ed that and installed by hand and fixed up the dependencies by hand, too.

My kernel is not quite late enough on the server to support HD dongles.

So if I want to go HD I will need to upgrade te server.

A job for winter I feel.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I rip em losslessly to FLAC, put them on te server and play that on any one of many devices round the house.

As far as radio goes there is nothing I can get on FM that I can't get at better S/N over the internet.

So my FM radio tuner is redundant now as well as the CD player and the DVD player.

To connect to my hifi I hacked a raspberry Pi with a DAC card to feed the HiFi, and control it from a web page using any computer or smartphone on the house network.

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