I tested a 1.7.x version some long time ago, but that did not work as well as the "original" version..
There has never ever been any official Livebuffer feature in any VDR version.
I hope it'll take a long time to make it into VDR, e.g. as long as it took to get any file-/recordings-management feature or other really useful stuff into VDR ... ^^
=== Kind regards Frank