New HTCP setup

[Plantje]

For the wake up issue, have you looked into "Wake on lan"? I think this should do what you want.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wake-on-lan-windows/

Yes, I have looked into that. Let's say the machine goes to sleep after 20 minutes of idle time. What happens then is the following:

• Machine is awake
• I go to bed and switch on the TV using the TV Mosaic service on my HTPC (watching recorded or live tv)
• After 20 minutes the HTPC still goes to sleep

Where the thing is: if the machine is asleep and a recording is scheduled, the machine will wake 10 minutes in advance (I set it to that), start recording, continue to stay awake during the whole duration of the recording and only then go to sleep. Doesn't matter if the recording lasts half an hour, an hour or one and a half hour.

I have also tested a Kodi add on where a magic packet is sent every so often. I would expect the timer of being idle for 20 minutes would be reset then every time the packet is received, but it is not. What happens then is the following:

• Machine is asleep
• I go to bed and switch on the TV using the TV Mosaic service on my HTPC (watching recorded or live tv). Since I use Kodi the magic packet is sent and my HPTC is waken up
• After 20 minutes the HTPC still goes to sleep
• A new packet is being sent and the HTPC wakes up again. But still, it did go to sleep for a while and I have to restart a lot of stuff.

So, I guess I'm stuck having a machine on 24/7. Not that big of a deal, by the way... I was just curious to know if the guys from TV Mosaic were able to give playing live or recorded TV through their PVR add on in Kodi the same priority/setting/wake setting or something like that as waking up the device for a recording.

[Plantje]

Thank you for getting back to that. A dedicated Windows machine running as a server for all my media, TV Mosaic and my tuners comes more and more to mind.

@Maverickz: What do you see as the main advantage of the Fire TV box over an Android TV box? And what type of tuners do you use?

I have had my Fire TV box for a few years and at that time they were, I think, the only box that used the Android TV OS (albeit a customized one). Now there are a few more choices. If I were buying new today, I might consider an Nvidia Shield if I had the budget, or perhaps a Xiaomi Mi box for less of a budget. The reason is both of these devices run the official Android TV OS so they can play Netflix and Youtube in 4k resolution AND give full access to the Google Play store (TV edition) for apps. The Shield also plays Amazon Prime Video in 4K but I am not sure about the Mi box (due to the Google Amazon feud). You would need to investigate that if you will be using Prime.

Currently I'm opting for the Xiaomi Mi Box S. Very affordable at Amazon and has good features. Only thing I am still looking for is a way to online search the apps that are available for Android TV. For some reason it doesn't seem to be possible to filter on apps for Android TV. Only option there seems to be: buying an Android TV device
Amazon Prime is not something I'm looking into. Just:

• Kodi (with TV Mosaic as PVR)
• Netflix
• Ziggo Go (will be available for Android TV soon)
• YouTube
• Some less important apps

Most "Android" boxes actually use the phone version of Android with a more TV oriented interface and may not be able to play Netflix or YT in HD even if the box claims to play 4k content. This has to do with licensing of the ability to play 4k content from Netflix and other providers.

The Android TV interface looks very nice! (My parents have Android TV on their Sony TV. But then again, it's over an hour drive, so I cannot just check the store there )

So in essence which box to get will depend largely on where you plan on getting your content from and which apps you want the most. If all you will be using it for is content you record locally or streamed from an "unlicensed' app such as Kodi then really any box that can play 4k could work.

Just for the record: I use Kodi for legal purposes only!

One more thing to note, not all boxes have an Ethernet port (all have Wi-Fi) but if you need one you can buy a USB hub with built in Ethernet adapter. Check device specs for details.

The Xiaomi one I am looking for doesn't have ethernet. But 5Ghz WiFi should be sufficient! And otherwise there is the option of a USB hub indeed. Thanks for the heads up!

Here is a document that a YT reviewer put together for Android boxes to show their specs and capabilities to help make choosing a bit easier...hopefully.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Cool thanks! Very helpful!

For tuners I use a Hauppauge Win-TV USB dual tuner plugged into the back of my previously mentioned server.
NOTE: To use this or any other tuner on a Windows Server OS, you will need to download and use a tool called serverbda to add some missing components to Windows Server OS'es. This is not needed for regular Windows OS's. Also Hauppauge comes with a tool called WinTV. You will need to start the installation process to install the drivers but activating and installing the main program is not required if you don't want it.

I'm not going to run a server OS. Just plain old Windows 10

For an antenna, call Antennas Direct (get the number from the website) and give them your address. They will check topography, station locations and distance from your house and recommend the proper antenna. I went with an attic mount installation because my HOA are a bunch of Nazi's.

This is not relevant as I am in the Netherlands and using cable TV. With which I am completely fine!

I get my epg data FREE from zap2it, using a free tool called zap2xml. You can find more details about setting it up here:
https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.p ... post527763

The EPG data that I get from the cable TV provider is perfectly fine as well.

Thank you for your exhaustive responses!

Currently I am looking to get the Xiaomi Mi Box S to replace the Meegopad T02 I have in the bedroom. That one is having some buffering issues and after quite some searching I think the device is just ready to be replaced. That way I can play around with Android TV, see if it fits my needs and if I like it. If I do the next step would be to add one in the living room as well and use that one as front end and my old HTPC device only as server to host TV Mosaic, my tuners, media and backups. And then later on I can always opt to replace that one as well...if needed.

Thanks again for thinking along!

[Maverickz]

For the wake up issue, have you looked into "Wake on lan"? I think this should do what you want.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wake-on-lan-windows/

Yes, I have looked into that. Let's say the machine goes to sleep after 20 minutes of idle time. What happens then is the following:

• Machine is awake
• I go to bed and switch on the TV using the TV Mosaic service on my HTPC (watching recorded or live tv)
• After 20 minutes the HTPC still goes to sleep

Where the thing is: if the machine is asleep and a recording is scheduled, the machine will wake 10 minutes in advance (I set it to that), start recording, continue to stay awake during the whole duration of the recording and only then go to sleep. Doesn't matter if the recording lasts half an hour, an hour or one and a half hour.

I have also tested a Kodi add on where a magic packet is sent every so often. I would expect the timer of being idle for 20 minutes would be reset then every time the packet is received, but it is not. What happens then is the following:

• Machine is asleep
• I go to bed and switch on the TV using the TV Mosaic service on my HTPC (watching recorded or live tv). Since I use Kodi the magic packet is sent and my HPTC is waken up
• After 20 minutes the HTPC still goes to sleep
• A new packet is being sent and the HTPC wakes up again. But still, it did go to sleep for a while and I have to restart a lot of stuff.

So, I guess I'm stuck having a machine on 24/7. Not that big of a deal, by the way... I was just curious to know if the guys from TV Mosaic were able to give playing live or recorded TV through their PVR add on in Kodi the same priority/setting/wake setting or something like that as waking up the device for a recording.

Try this, Open the properties for your network adapter and on the Power Management page and UNcheck the box to "Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer". The thought it to allow the normal network traffic (streaming media) to keep it awake instead of waiting for a magic packet. Not sure it will work, but worth a shot.

NOTE: leave the other two boxes checked. The image below is just a found image from some other site to show what the page looks like.

[Plantje]

I can definitely try that. Thanks!

Edit: I did also uncheck the option that the computer can turn off the network device in order to save power. As long as that one stays awake...
Aaaaaand edit 2 as soon as you uncheck the option that the computer can turn off the network device in order to save power the box that only magic packets can wake the computer is automatically checked again. The only way to leave that one unchecked is by checking the other two

[Maverickz]

So what happens if you leave both the top two checked but NOT the Magic Packets?

[Plantje]

Currently testing
First tests yesterday evening looked good, but I fell asleep. Working from home today, so I will do some more testing today. This is not the sort of stuff I want my wife to test. That's bad for the WAF

If this works I need to test if it works with the Xiaomi Mi Box S as well.

It's not a huge issue. Just would be nice if it works. Since the machine can be asleep for about 80% of the day.

[Maverickz]

Glad to hear the preliminary test looked good. Keep us posted, this could help some future viewer.

[Plantje]

Ok, it is going to sleep every now and then, but then I notice that it is awake again without an obvious reason.

If I look at the event viewer I see the following:

Event viewer.jpg (145.1 KiB) Viewed 376 times

It seems that event 100 from source EnhancedStorage-EhStorTcgDrv wakes the computer every now and then. Since it mentions "storage" I will update another setting I changed: I will allow the system to put the drives to sleep if not used.

[Plantje]

It seems that playing recorded TV on a different machine doesn't prevent the HTPC from going to sleep.
I am currently testing if watching Live TV on a different machine will prevent the machine from going to sleep.

[Plantje]

As far as I can see now: live TV does keep the machine awake, playing recorded TV doesn't.

Strange, because I think both are played through the same TV Mosaic PVR add on in Kodi.