ServerWMC and Kodi 19.3 on Android TV

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GnatGoSplat

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ServerWMC and Kodi 19.3 on Android TV

#1

Post by GnatGoSplat » Sat Nov 13, 2021 9:32 pm

The latest TV box/dongles are becoming increasingly more powerful with good 4K capabilities, enough so that I now wonder if all my HTPCs are overkill. While it takes a couple hundred dollars investment in hardware to build an HTPC with 4K capability, I can pick up an Android TV box for $25 or less that can do 4K HDR without breaking a sweat.
Been thinking about what might be the pros and cons of going to a single WMC machine running as a server using ServerWMC and Kodi 19.3 on Android TV boxes. The obvious con is the UI will obviously not be the nice and simple WMC UI, but other than that, what are other drawbacks? Will watching LiveTV be limited to one client, or can multiple clients watch LiveTV at the same time?

prsa01

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#2

Post by prsa01 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:54 pm

I have used this setup (been awhile) and it worked fine. It certainly is not as seamless as the old extender setups but does allow you to watch, setup recordings, etc. The guide setup is slightly different than what you see on the wmc box. IIRC, I did occasionally have communication/network related glitches but nothing that made it unusable for me.

I may very well go back to this setup for my bedroom, just haven't had the need for awhile.

GnatGoSplat

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#3

Post by GnatGoSplat » Mon Dec 06, 2021 3:16 pm

Thanks, I ended up going with NextPVR backend instead of ServerWMC. I just wasn't sure if ServerWMC could handle multiple live streams at a time, and I knew for fact NextPVR can. NextPVR also supports multirec which WMC didn't (recording multiple channels from a multiplexed one), so I didn't think ServerWMC would support it either. So far, it works perfectly and the centralized PVR capability is quite a bit of an upgrade over the individual and isolated WMC machines.

The only drawback so far is the WMC UI is so much better looking than Kodi, also much more intuitive to use. Microsoft did a really good job with WMC, it's a shame it never really took off. My wife is loving the centralized PVR capability so looks like WMC is out of my life for good, but I'll definitely miss it. End of an era. I'll miss upgrading and maintaining the individual HTPCs as well. That was a huge part of the fun for me, lol.

TomoA6

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#4

Post by TomoA6 » Thu Feb 10, 2022 12:07 am

Do any of these solutions allow you to record CableCard channels with DRM?

Space

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#5

Post by Space » Thu Feb 10, 2022 4:32 am

TomoA6 wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 12:07 am Do any of these solutions allow you to record CableCard channels with DRM?
The only PC solution that allows that is WMC on Win7 or Win8.x, although I do think there may be a way to use WMC as the backend for DRM channels on some other DVR solutions (using ServerWMC), but I don't know much about it.

TomoA6

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#6

Post by TomoA6 » Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:59 pm

Space wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 4:32 am
TomoA6 wrote: Thu Feb 10, 2022 12:07 am Do any of these solutions allow you to record CableCard channels with DRM?
The only PC solution that allows that is WMC on Win7 or Win8.x, although I do think there may be a way to use WMC as the backend for DRM channels on some other DVR solutions (using ServerWMC), but I don't know much about it.
Maybe the Microsoft PlayReady SDK can be investigated.

Code: Select all

Microsoft has also released the PlayReady PC Software Development Kit, 
which enables application developers to include support for decrypting 
PlayReady-protected content in their Windows-based applications.

dkm

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#7

Post by dkm » Thu Feb 10, 2022 8:26 pm

By all means please do. This was looked into several times over the years and no one could make it work without either a lot of money and/or influence. SiliconDust had, essentially, an entire kickstarter devoted to it several years ago and to this day has not delivered on it.

That said, I don't know if it's been looked at recently. Most of us are either still rolling with WMC 7/8.1 or have moved on to other streaming alternatives.

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