If you don’t want to miss anything on TV, like your favorite show, the ability to record live TV is essential. Moreover, you can change the streaming method to timeshifting, meaning pause, rewind and fast forward for live TV, and get a much better viewing experience. A DVR can provide all this functionality, but there is an excellent alternative based on software.
The alternative is called NextPVR, which is a personal video recorder software built on a client-server model. It includes all the TV functions you’d expect, like live TV, TV guide, recordings, search and scheduler. The NextPVR client is available for Kodi, allowing you to access your recordings stored on the NextPVR server. The server and client must be connected to the same local network for this to work. The supported platforms for the server include Windows, Linux, Mac and Docker.
Here is how to install the NextPVR server:
The server is required as it stores the recordings on its local storage.
Go to the NextPVR download page, and choose the platform you want to install.
To check if the installation was successful, go to the NextPVR dashboard in the following URL: http://localhost:8866 . The default login is admin/password.
Here are the instructions on how to install the NextPVR client:
- Launch Kodi
- Click Add-ons
- Click the add-on browser icon
- Click Install from repository
- Click Kodi Add-on repository
- Click PVR clients
- Click NextPVR PVR Client
- Click Install
- Wait till you see an add-on installed message
Here is how to set up the NextPVR client:
- Go back to Kodi home page
- Click Add-ons
- Click My add-ons
- Click PVR clients
- Click NextPVR PVR Client
- Click Configure
- Click Edit “Unknown” configuration
- Click Name to enter the name for the configuration and click OK
- Click NextPVR hostname to enter the IP address of your NextPVR server and click OK
- Click Cancel in the configuration window
- Click Enable to enable the add-on
Here is how to change the streaming method to timeshifting:
- Go back to Kodi home page
- Click Add-ons
- Click My add-ons
- Click PVR clients
- Click NextPVR PVR Client
- Click Configure
- Click Edit “Name” configuration, where Name is the name you gave to the configuration
- Hover over Streaming options tab and change Live streaming method to Timeshifting
- Click OK
Here is how to record live TV:
There are several ways to record live TV.
- Click on the record button when you’re watching a channel.
- Under TV > Guide, select the show you want to record and click Record.
- Click TV > Timers > Add timer to schedule future recording of a show.
After recording the video, you can access it by clicking TV > Recordings. NextPVR allows you to record multiple videos at the same time.
Now you can record live TV with NextPVR and Kodi, never missing your favorite shows again.