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[rudyrednose]

Greetings,

I have been using MC since v9, and I have wanted to get rid of Windows on my HTPCs for a long time.
I want to know the "state of the union" regarding MC on Linux, and if it is ready for my prime time...

I am a cord cutter and currently depend on MC26 for ATSC TV (2 Silicondust HDHR4 devices, 4 ATSC tuners), music, movies, photos and home videos, no Netflix nor other streaming subscriptions. 
I already have a master licence for MC27, I am generally waiting for a bit more maturity before upgrading versions.

Lack of OTA TV support has prevented me so far of making the jump to Linux.

I have a Win10 MC server running 24/7, and several Win10 client HTPCs and Android tablets (MC26, JRemote2).

My HTPC clients always depend on the MC server, never standalone.  The main home theater HTPC drives a Steinberg UR824 octal DAC for audio, other HTPC drive receivers.

I generally schedule ATSC TV recordings from the clients.

MC server would remain Win10 for the foreseeable future.

I am familiar with Ubuntu, running it on another file server in the house. 
From what I read, I should install Debian on the HTPCs as it is always the first developed Linux version for MC.

If I move to MC27 Linux on the client HTPCs, what would be lacking or still have rough edges ?

Thank you all.  Recent MC development on Linux looks very promising.

[Awesome Donkey]

The main thing anyone interested in television on Linux and Mac should take note of is, television support on Linux and Mac requires a DLNA-capable tuner device (e.g. the HDHomeRun Prime). It won't work (and likely never will work) with any non-DLNA devices/tuners on Linux and Mac, because there's no driver support for them at all on Linux or Mac.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what other limitations there are, if any. But a DLNA-capable tuner device is definitely required for it, without that you're going to be limited to Windows for television support.

[mwillems]

Right now (with a HDHomerun cablecard networked tuner) I am having no issues with the current MC for Linux builds.  TV more or less works as expected. 

One rough edge is getting the EPG setup.  That was a bit of a pain because MC for Linux doesn't ship with the same helper tools as MC for Windows, but that's something that needs to be done on the server, not the clients (the server pushes out the EPG data to the clients).  If, as you say, you're just looking at Linux for the clients and plan to keep your server on MC for Windows, I think that would avoid that problem. 

Your Silicondust tuners will probably work fine.  I don't have any ATSC devices so cannot comment there, but if they're cards inside the server PC (not networked devices) and the server is staying on windows, they *might* work with Linux clients (as the server would have working drivers and could stream the video).  I think the only way to know is to setup one Linux client and see how it goes.

FWIW I'm pretty happy with the MC for Linux TV experience with my HDHomerun Cablecard device, but I understand that's only a partial answer.

[rudyrednose]

Thank you, you're Awsome. 

My pair of 4th gen HDHomeRun (HDHR4) are listed on SiliconDust's website as HDHomeRun CONNECT.

They support UPnP and I can see TV programs with VLC (the two are listed as UPnP devices).

On SiliconDust's website, it is confirmed the HDHR4 ist the first generation supporting DLNA, https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/dlna_upnp

As I said, the MC server would stay on Win10 (regarding EPG). 
So, can I expect full working functionality (ATSC OTA, movies, music and photos) if I move the clients to Linux ?

Cheers!

PS: thank you mwillems, you wrote as I was writing to Awsome Donkey.

[JimH]

FWIW I'm pretty happy with the MC for Linux TV experience with my HDHomerun Cablecard device ...

Are you able to get the encrypted channels in MC?

[mwillems]

Are you able to get the encrypted channels in MC?

If you mean DRM channels, no I haven't ever been able to get those, even with MC for Windows (but I haven't tried lately).  Should I be able to now?

[JimH]

If you mean DRM channels, no I haven't ever been able to get those, even with MC for Windows (but I haven't tried lately).  Should I be able to now?

Using DLNA, you may be able to. 

[mwillems]

It isn't currently working here, but I'll tinker with it.  Have there been any threads explaining how?

[mwillems]

So I currently have my Linux MC server setup using the "tuner stream" DMS option for my HDHomerun Prime.  The channel scan brings in the DRM channels, but any attempt to play them results in MC freezing indefinitely (I waited about 5 minutes before killing it).  All other channels work normally.

If there's a set of options/steps that would let me see that content I'd be very happy to hear about it!  Only about one in ten of my cable channels have DRM, so it's not a huge issue, but one or two of those channels are channels I'd like to be able to watch.

[JimH]

No.  You're the first to try.

[rudyrednose]

Greetings,

TV works.

Just want to give a bit of feedback, regarding TV on Linux client machines and Windows 10 JR server, for older HDHomerun HDHR4 dual ATSC tuners (HDHomeRun CONNECT).
I have two dual tuner HDHR4 devices (4 tuners).

On the Windows 10 JR Media Server machine I cleared my old TV setup.
I first updated My Silicon Dust software to the 20201009 version, then selected JRiver Media Center in the BDA Compatibility Mode and scanned the available channels.
Now in JR the television setup/Manage Devices, I see 4 (digital) tuners and 4 (DMS) tuners.  the first four are the ATSC tuners, the latter four are the DLNA streaming tuners.  I moved the DMS to the top, to give them higher priority.

On Linux MC client machine, I can watch correctly the 4 (DMS) tuners, but not at all the 4 (digital) tuners.

I then hid the channels related to (digital) on the Win10 server and I am now in business.

My only issue at this point is that in the TV schedule I am seeing 3 entries per channel : one for the 4 ATSC tuners and one for each (DMS) device.  Any idea how I might resolve this ?

My EPG chain is zap2it.com --> zap2xml.exe --> xmltv.xml file imported to JR.  The file is OK, it is within JR that the tripling occurs.

Thank you.