If you have one of zgemma or Vu (enigma based) device you may not be aware that you can access and control your device from Kodi. This is pretty simple and quick to setup and will open up a whole bunch of options for you eg. watch your recordings on any device with Kodi (on the same network), set recordings on your receiver from any device running Kodi on your home network ( this can also be dome remotely and I will cover this in another blog), check on what recordings are set and even delete them if needed.
There is a bit of jumping around in this tutorial as I have to cover a few different scenarios, I hope this doesn’t make it confusing, but feel free to leave comments. I will have a section created on Ares Forum for more support if its needed.
Setup Process
- Set Fixed IP on zGemma
- Check OpenWebIf is installed and set correctly.
- Make a Custom Favourites List (optional)
- Add PVR to Kodi
- Configure PVR
Receiver Setup
The first step is to give the receiver device a fixed IP address, check that the WebIf plugin is installed. This process is going to vary a lot, as there are lots of different devices and even similar device have skins that will change how you navigate to the relevant settings.
So in general terms, you will need to look for the network settings, probably the adapter option and set a fixed IP address. You need to check your network to ensure you don’t use one that has been used by another device I will cover the screens on the unit i borrowed for this article. Yours may look different – but the principle remains the same.
- Select Device Setup
- Select Adapter settings
This gives us the network card in the device and its configuration. Yours will no doubt be set with DHCP and no IP addres entered, this is normal. However to make this work consistently we need to give the zgemma a fixed IP address. An IP address is just unique “phone number” on a network, this how the network knows where to send things and how we will connect Kodi to your zgemma.
You need to set DHCP to no and enter the details for fixed setup. Its important to not choose the same address as another device, or neither will work very well. You can look on your router for a list of connected devices or use an app like Fing – explained here this will show you whats on your network so you can choose a safe unique address.
If you have trouble with his part – try these pages for further info
- http://www.howtogeek.com/168379/10-useful-options-you-can-configure-in-your-routers-web-interface/
- http://www.howtogeek.com/233952/how-to-find-your-routers-ip-address-on-any-computer-smartphone-or-tablet/
Setting up your network interface might seem daunting at first, but its fairly straight forward with a little info to help you;
- IP Address 192.168.1.xxx
- Netmask 255.255.255.0
- Gateway ( this is your router IP address – this will be the IP address it gives to access the settings or admin panel.
- Sky 192.168.0.1
- Virgin 192.168.0.1
- BT 192.168.1.254
- Plusnet 192.168.1.254
- EE 192.168.1.1
- Talk Talk 192,168.1.1
- DNS You can use default settings for your ISP, however, I recommend using google or opendns options
- Google 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4
- OpenDNS 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220
- (you will see i have 192.168.1.252 in my settings – DONT use this, this is my local DNS cache server I use for super fast lookups.)
Ok hopefully you made it through those options without too much fuss, the more experienced will no doubt have whizzed through these. Next we need to configure Kodi, specifically add a PVR to allow acces to the zgemma or enigma based device.
Check OpenWebIF
Well again I cant give a definitive route to find this or adding it if its not present on your build, but look for plugins or plugin management or something similar – if the OpenWebIf plugin isnt present its usually a simple process to add it, by searching and selecting the relevant options.
On my box this is how it looks, i have enable it and accepted the default settings. There is no need to change these (normally) but changing these settings requires a good knowledge of networks, so “noobs” leave this alone, other than ensuring its installed and enabled.
Setting Up Kodi
OK so now we need to setup the PVR in Kodi, tell it the IP address we set previously on the zgemma box. This will open up all the functions we can take advantage like EPG, access recordings from any device with Kodi, set recordings etc. So lets set the PVR up;
- Click System
How we go from here depends if you already had a PVR clilent enabled previously, if you did – skip to the “click add ons” if not you need to enable the TV section and PVR manager.
- Click TV
- Click Enabled
This will generate an error – “PVR manager enabled with no PVR enabled, enable at least one PVR Client” – dont panic, we wil get to that shortly. First ensure you check the “Disable ‘connection lost’ warnings – if you dont it will bug the hell out of you, trust me!
Skip to the “PVR Clients” section now… (depending on our version it might take you straight to the PVR clients after clicking the error message)
The next three steps are only if you already had a PVR enabled for an m3u list or you have a paid sub etc.
- Click Add ons
- Click My Add ons
- Click PVR clients
- Click VU+/Enigma2 Client
NOTE: if you have a linux system, your PVR list will be empty and you need to install those that your require.
Linux Users Only
You will need to add PVR cients manually, the table below show the options and the install in the CLI for Ubuntu.
This will generate a screen similar to this, which asks you to confirm the install;
Now you can start Kodi and go through the process to select and enable the enigma pvr client.
Enable & Configure PVR Client (All Users)
Now we can enable and configure the PVR client to access our zgemma box. Lets enable it then I can run through the settings;
- Click Enable
- Click Configure
We have three screens of settings in the PVR which I will run through now;
- General
- Channels
- Advanced
The first screen is General;
Earlier we set a fixed IP address on the zgemma – this is why, so we can configure the PVR to read from it (if you dont fix the IP everytime your reboot your router or zgemma the IP can change).
- Set IP Address from earlier, mine is 192.168.1.210
- Update Interval in minutes – (takes a bit of clicking 1440 mins is 24 hours btw)
Second screen Channels Options
Its important to note that if you dont set the “Fetch only one TV bouquet” option, every channel will be loaded – this took about 20m on my laptop. I chose the Sports bouquet for this tutorial but you can also create a Kodi Favs bouquet with your selected channels in and add that instead.
Third screen is Advanced options
If these things make no sense to you, leave them alone! You will however have to enter the username; as you can see this is set to root here, which is the default setting. I have also set the “Use only the DVB boxes curent recording path” this is to avoid any confusion for average users – more advanced users can setup remote recording devices etc.
If you now toggle the disable/enable (to deactivate and reactivate the pvr client) it will start reading the bouquet you chose, you can see here top right on the picture.
Depending on the siaze of the bouquet you selected this can take a few mins to 20mins – so choose wisely !
When this update has completed, head back to the home screen. You should now see a new tab enabled;
I will ignore the Radio as its mostly useless until i figure out what more can be done with it. However, pay attention to the new submenus for TV, I will run through those here, this is crux of why you would want to do this.
Channels
This is just a list of channels in the epg and as such I havent included the image here.
Guide
Here you see the EPG info for all the channels (there are over 1000 in this list so this is just a snapshot!)
You can select a stream to watch by right clicking…and select “Switch to channel”
Its worth noting you set “instant record” here or add a timer for multiple recordings.
Recordings
As you might expect you will get a list of the recordings made on the device which you can now watch on your Kodi device – anywhere on your home network, from any Kodi enabled device (just note i tested this with a Firestick and it really couldnt handle 10mbps streams produced by 1080 content ).
Recordings
Under this tab you can see a list of programs you have set to record.
Search
This is quite a neat little feature as inevitably you get viewing clashes as you only have 2 tuners available, so using the search feature you can find every occurence in the next 7 days,,,,
So there you have it, a great way to get TV to every room with a Kodi device, access your TV recordings anywhere too, which might avert some domestic upheavals and allow you to watch the football whilst “TOH” watches ,…well whatever she likes, who cares, you got the match on right?
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