VU+ /Enigma2 Kodi

[arzy]

Hi All, I have a t3 which I use as a back end PVR. I have various raspberry Pi's running Kodi. This issue I am having is that the Vu + /Enigma 2 plugin is failing to start / very unstable.

Are there any there any other plugins that will work?

I use Kodi to view recordings, set recordings, stream/watch TV. When the plugin works every thing is sweet.

I am currently running the latest Librelec (8.0.2) KODI on a raspberry Pi2.

Any help much appreciated.

[MrQuade]

I have tried a couple of the plugins that look like they are for Enigma boxes, but only the Vu+ one has worked for me.
I don't use it a great deal, so I don't have any long-term use experience. I run Kodi on an Intel based HTPC which may make a difference too.

I prefer using the Wiz's primary user interface seeing as it is much quicker to "surf" channels than Kodi/Vu+ (the pause while buffering the network stream after channel changes grates on me).
Also, the Kodi plugin updates the channel list and EPG every 2 minutes by default, and this periodic connection tends to tie up the Wiz's OpenWebIF, which in turn causes a busy spinner to appear on the Wiz's main screen. Seeing the spinner every 2 minutes when I am watching TV on the Wiz means that I have to disable the Kodi Vu+ plugin most of the time.

Which makes me think. How many Kodi boxes do you have connected to your T3 at the moment? If each one is hitting the T3 periodically, and each one is causing the T3's GUI to hang each time, then you may be encountering a situation where they are all trying to smash the T3 simultaneously which is causing one or more connections to time-out.

[arzy]

Thanks for your reply. I have just tried the option in LE, wait for network connection upon startup. Seems to be working. When this plug in works its great as I have television and access to recordings wherever I have a network connection ( I have 40 1gbs connections throughout the house )

I have four pi's that run Kodi with various video add-ons

[craigh]

Hi

I have numerous PI's and ex-android boxes running Libreelec 7.x series all with the VU+ PVR plugin.

We use it mostly to
- get visibility to the TV Guide
- access a free tuner in rooms with just a monitor

We access all recordings using smb mapped drives (to multiple BW T series boxes) that substitutes for the file access provided by the plugin. This is just a modification to the Kodi skin.

Have not had any real issues with it at all.

Have not gone to Libreelec 8.x yet as not all my boxes are fully supported.

I have all the boxes set to wait at startup till network is active more for the shared SQL DB needed for the library list that VU + but I could see how that may have issues as well.

Have also pushed out all the times for how often each one polls the T series boxes to lower the load as early on I would sometimes see the spinning wheel come up on t3

[quack]

Hi,

I have finally managed to get this working using a Beyonwiz T3 on the latest beta firmware, serving a RPi3B running OpenElec 8.0.2 and Kodi 17.3 using the fuse(neue) skin. It also works under the default Kodi skin. However, The EPG does not show any program descriptions. I have tried a number of different Kodi skins but to no success. This suggests that the Beyonwiz T3 might not be serving the descriptions. Does anyone here have any ideas?

Thanks.

[MrQuade]

It depends on the broadcaster as to which own devotion field they populate.

I am looking at my Kodi setup at the moment and can't see descriptions on channel seven, but they are present in channel nine for example.

[prl]

... own devotion field ...

Trevor's still at it!

[MrQuade]

... own devotion field ...

Trevor's still at it!

Damn! he did it twice and I only spotted the second one and corrected it

[quack]

Thanks for replying.

I do not understand what is different between the information Kodi gets from the Beyonwiz, and that which appears on the Beyonwiz's EPG (using the Beyonwiz OS). That is a gap in my knowledge. When accessing the Beyonwiz directly through the web interface I get all the descriptions for all the channels. Somehow these are not passed to Kodi, Kodi does not ask for them or Kodi ignores them, I guess. I live in Townsville but that should not be a factor considering that the descriptions are there in the Beyonwiz's own EPG.

Now, the OpenWebif EPG does not display the program descriptions in its table but they are shown in a popup window when clicking on a program. This does not happen with Kodi.

[MrQuade]

The channels can send through information in the "description" field or the "short description" field of the standard EPG. The Wiz will show both short and regular descriptions, but it seems Kodi is only programmed to show one of them.

[prl]

... I do not understand what is different between the information Kodi gets from the Beyonwiz, and that which appears on the Beyonwiz's EPG (using the Beyonwiz OS). ...

The broadcast EPG contains two entries for each event for program name and description information, the short_description and the extended_description. The short_description contains the program name and possibly also a short description of the program. The extended description can contain a longer description.

Australian broadcasting practice is quite random on how the two descriptions are used. Some broadcasters transmit only the short_description description information and omit the extended description, some transmit only the long description description information, but leave the short description information empty and some transmit the same information in both (or that was how it was last time I looked).

The standard, such as it is, for how this information is supposed to be broadcast is in FreeTV Operational Practice OP 44 Implementation Guide for DVB EIT Present/Following Information (EITp/f), sections 2.2 and 2.3. Although the OP is for the present/following (aka now/next) EPG information, the OP for the full guide refers to OP 44 for the contents of those fields.

If you use the IceTV EPG, the episode name is put in the short description (if it makes sense for the type of program) and the episode synopsis is put in the extended description.

When the Beyonwiz shows a program description, it tries to be a bit smart about it. If the two descriptions are the same for up to the first 20 characters, only the extended description is shown, otherwise the two are concatenated together and displayed.

I don't know what Kodi displays, but there are plenty of opportunities for getting it wrong.

[prl]

... The Wiz will show both short and regular descriptions ...

It's a bit more complicated than that See above.

[MrQuade]

It's a bit more complicated than that See above.

Thanks for the detailed explanation . While I am ignorant of the details, I figured the Cliff's Notes version world be sufficient for quack's purpose

[quack]

Thanks for the detailed explanations. It seems that I am out of luck and will have to live with no program descriptions/synopses when accessing the EPG through Kodi. I will pursue this further in the VU+ and Kodi forums.