PVR manager won’t start up connecting over network

Kodi 16.1+dfsg1-2 is running in Ubuntu 16.10 x64. Mediaportal PVR plugin installed via apt install as suggested in wiki. (1.13.2+git20160301-1).
My TvServer instance is running in a VM (same machine as Kodi). MediaPortal 2 spring 2016 / weekly snapshot 2016-08-20. It’s working fine. Kodi plugin for TvServer: TVServerKodi plugin v1.13.100.133

When Kodi starts, there’s a notification at the top of screen saying “PVR manager is starting up” and it always hangs at “Loading recordings from clients”.
Kodi log at ~/.kodi/temp/kodi.log is super scarse on any details. The only line about PVR is “PVRManager – starting up”. Log stops some 10 lines after, but those lines are from other modules.

Any help / explanation greatly apperciated.