Raspbmc's role in PVR

Raspbmc can function as both a PVR backend and a frontend. For PVR support in XBMC, it is necessary to have both a backend and one or more frontends. Let's see what a backend and frontend is:

  • Backend: A backend is the part that tunes the channel, records your scheduled programs, and serves those channels and recorded television to the frontends. One backend can serve multiple frontends, if it is sufficiently powerful enough and there are enough tuners available.
  • Frontend: A frontend is the part that receives content from the backend and plays back live television and recorded programs to the user. In the case of Raspbmc, XBMC serves as the frontend and allows us to play back the content. Multiple frontends can connect to one or more backends. This means that we can have several installations of Raspbmc play broadcast content from even a single tuner.

As we've now learned, Raspbmc has a built-in PVR frontend in the form of XBMC. However, it also has a built-in backend. This backend is TVHeadend, and we'll look at getting that up and running shortly.

Standalone backend versus built-in backend

There are cases when it is more favorable to use an external, or standalone, backend rather than the one that ships with Raspbmc itself. Outlined as follows is a comparison:

Standalone backend

Raspbmc backend (TVHeadend)

A better choice if you do not find TVHeadend feature-rich or prefer another backend.

If you only intend to have one frontend, it makes sense to run everything off the same device, rather than relying on an external system.

If you have a pre-existing backend, it is easier to configure Raspbmc to use that, rather than reconfiguring it completely.

The process may be simplified for you as, generally, one can just connect their device and it will be detected in TVHeadend.

If you are planning on having multiple frontends, it is more sensible to have a standalone backend. This is to ensure that the computer has enough horsepower, and also, you can serve from the same computer you are serving files from, and thus, only need one device on, rather than two (the streaming machine and the Pi).

Raspbmc's auto-update system covers the backend that is included as well. This means you will always have a reliable and stable version of TVHeadend bundled with Raspbmc and you need not worry about having to update it to get new features.

If you need to use a PCI or PCI express-based tuner, you will need to use an external backend due to limitations of the Pi's connectivity.

Better for wireless media centers. If you have low bandwidth throughput, then running the tuner locally on the Raspberry Pi makes more sense as it does not rely on any transfers between the network (unless using HDHomeRun).

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