Saorview on linux

PrzemoF

Anyone tried to use something like that [1] with linux? I not longer have any windows PC.
If you have that thing please post the result of "lsusb" command - if I know the usb vendor:product number I can find out if it works.

[1] http://www.ebay.ie/itm/USB-DIGITAL-DVB-T-TV-Receiver-TUNER-DONGLE-FREEVIEW-LAPTOP-PC-Computer-/280798329954?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item4160e27c62

Knasher

There are a bunch of people over on this thread who are talking about what looks to be the same device and a number of them mentioned that it works under linux. So I'd imagine it does, I've ordered one from that site myself but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't comment further on it. A couple of people were saying that some versions require a patched kernel, but should be okay when 3.4 is released.

PrzemoF

Thanks! I'll buy it.
I'm running 3.3-rc7, so it might already be in or in worst case in a next few weeks.

Johnboy1951

PrzemoF wrote: »

Thanks! I'll buy it.
I'm running 3.3-rc7, so it might already be in or in worst case in a next few weeks.

When you get hold of it you might post the results of the lsusb command, and also whatever dmesg output is for the device.

Thanks. I am considering a second device .... my existing one if an Afatech 9015 so is well supported.

PrzemoF

Opss, too late. I bougth it about 10 minutes after posting...
Thanks anyway!

Khannie

Yeah, I've used something like that. Worked a treat. You just need to find the correct firmware to load. Should be grand.

Redisle

Yeah I just got an identical dongle working with the new XBMCBuntu yesterday. Took me a while to figure out but you just need to put the firmware file from here into /lib/firmware (on Debian derived systems at least) and plug the stick in then check dmesg and you should see it get recognised.

If all goes well you should get a dvb section in /dev.

lsusb output:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 15a4:9016 Afatech Technologies, Inc. AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick

dmesg:

[   10.952267] dvb-usb: found a 'Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
[   12.431478] dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9015.fw'
[   12.500543] dvb-usb: found a 'Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick' in warm state.
[   12.500684] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[   13.413146] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb1/1-6/rc/rc0/input6
[   13.413348] rc0: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb1/1-6/rc/rc0
[   13.413360] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 500 msecs.
[   13.413371] dvb-usb: Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick successfully initialized and connected.
[   13.425382] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_af9015

Device seems to work fine. Having problems with my MythTv backend related to SQL but thats another story entirely. Im pretty happy with XBMCbuntu Eden too. Full Ubuntu install in the background but no gnome. It uses lightdm and a small LXDE install so you can exit XBMC and login to a normal desktop for the web browser.

Have set it up on a Revo R3600 and have installed Transmission,torrentwatch-x,samba and webmin among other things. It's going to replace my old P4 server for downloads since it idles ~25W while the old P4 uses ~95W even when underclocked to 1.5Ghz. Have it automatically logging in the XBMC front end while all this stuff runs away in the background. Plan is to also use it to watch live TV and schedule recordings using the mythbox xbmc plugin. Might get rid of Sky if it works properly.

Btw, if you are not in a rush these can be had for about 5euro from HK. You may also want one of these adaptors unless you are very close to the transmitter. Also worth pointing out that the included antenna (magnetic base) won't work without a solid ground plane. I'm about 1km from the transmitter here and it won't work without being stuck to some solid metal. Currently have it stuck to an old Iron frying pan behind the TV

Also of note is the fact that the IR receiver was picked up. Not sure how easy that is to get working but there is probably an option in MythTV somewhere.

Hope this helps!

Johnboy1951

I have been using one of those devices for quite some time

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 15a4:9016 Afatech Technologies, Inc. AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick

You did not show enough info to determine what tuner chip is in your device .... following is the output showing the tuner here ..

usb 1-6: new high-speed USB device number 15 using ehci_hcd
usb 1-6: New USB device found, idVendor=15a4, idProduct=9016
usb 1-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-6: Product: DVB-T 2
usb 1-6: Manufacturer: Afatech
usb 1-6: SerialNumber: 010101010600001
dvb-usb: found a 'Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9015.fw'
dvb-usb: found a 'Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick' in warm state.
dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
DVB: registering new adapter (Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick)
af9013: firmware version:4.95.0.0
DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Afatech AF9013 DVB-T)...
tda18218: NXP TDA18218HN successfully identified.
Registered IR keymap rc-empty
input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.1/usb1/1-6/rc/rc1/input14
rc1: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.1/usb1/1-6/rc/rc1
dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 500 msecs.
dvb-usb: Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick successfully initialized and connected.
Afatech DVB-T 2: Fixing fullspeed to highspeed interval: 10 -> 7
input: Afatech DVB-T 2 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.1/usb1/1-6/1-6:1.1/input/input15
generic-usb 0003:15A4:9016.0008: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.01 Keyboard [Afatech DVB-T 2] on usb-0000:00:0b.1-6/input1

The IR controller works ...... although I have no real use for it, I did set it up to test it when I first got the device.

Unfortunately there is no means of knowing what tuner or even what device you are getting prior to purchase.

That is something I find very annoying.

Buying one of these for use on Linux is akin to a lucky dip!
It may or may not have a supported tuner

Redisle

On a fresh install the first dmesg gave me the same info as above:

[ 6915.484688] dvb-usb: found a 'Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
[ 6915.509271] dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-af9015.fw'
[ 6915.578334] dvb-usb: found a 'Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick' in warm state.
[ 6915.578470] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[ 6915.579741] DVB: registering new adapter (Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick)
[ 6915.619311] af9013: firmware version:4.95.0.0
[ 6915.623439] DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Afatech AF9013 DVB-T)...
[ 6915.642185] tda18218: [COLOR="Red"]NXP TDA18218HN[/COLOR] successfully identified.
[ 6915.643949] Registered IR keymap rc-empty
[ 6915.644571] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb1/1-6/rc/rc0/input7
[ 6915.644760] rc0: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb1/1-6/rc/rc0
[ 6915.644772] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 500 msecs.
[ 6915.644785] dvb-usb: Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick successfully initialized and connected.
[ 6915.655791] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_af9015

So looks like the same chipset as yours. I bought that off the link the original BA thread ages ago, it's one of the 5 euro ones. I would imagine all the ones in similar packing would be the same chipset tbh.

PrzemoF

I have it up & running. I used w_scan to generate list of channels for vlc and vlc as the player.

I'm experiencing weird sound problems, but I blame weak signal however the video is perfect.

Now I have to find an extension cable to connect that 3.5 mm antenna soocket to a normal antenna..

AnCatDubh

PrzemoF wrote: »

Noiw I have to find an extension cable to connect that 3.5 mm antenna soocket to a normal antenna..

Perhaps one of these?

Redisle wrote: »

You may also want one of these adaptors unless you are very close to the transmitter.

PrzemoF

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Perhaps one of these?

The power of boards.ie
I was searching on ebay for a half an hour yesterday - couldn't find anything like that!
Thanks a million!

Johnboy1951

I also noticed it for sale here for €2

http://www.satboxes.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=76

Jonathan

PrzemoF wrote: »

Thanks! I'll buy it.
I'm running 3.3-rc7, so it might already be in or in worst case in a next few weeks.

No. It will be included in 3.4rc1 though.

PrzemoF wrote: »

I have it up & running. I used w_scan to generate list of channels for vlc and vlc as the player.

I've added DVB-T scan files for Ireland to the dvb-apps repository. They should be included in the next release.

PrzemoF

You mean the firmware will ba part of the mainline (I had to copy it from the net)?

Redisle

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Perhaps one of these?

Lol, guess my original post was a bit long and the info was missed! :pac:



One thing about these tuners is they are very slow to change channel, but that could be more related to the low end machine I am using it on. (~20 seconds).

I did some testing on the built in IR receiever too and it isn't much use for me at least since it only supports NEC IR codes and I want to get the system going with a Harmony. (Needs RC-6). Hence I ordered a HP MCE Receiever for that. The integrated IR reciever happily picks up button presses from the included remote and remotes from other cheap Chinese gadgets though.

Jonathan

PrzemoF wrote: »

You mean the firmware will ba part of the mainline (I had to copy it from the net)?

I'm not sure about the firmware. I'm talking about support for the buy in coins devices. The module included with 3.2 incorrectly identifies mine as an ITE 9137 device.

Redisle wrote: »

One thing about these tuners is they are very slow to change channel, but that could be more related to the low end machine I am using it on. (~20 seconds).

It's probably your machine, given that the tuner isn't actually retuning (all the Saorview channels are currently on a single Mux).

Bluefrog

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. Just to say that I have just installed one of these devices on my Raspberry Pi B+ and it is still receiving all channels both T.V. and radio. I just thought I would post this as getting my head around what is now required for successful viewing of Saorview with such a setup was pretty time consuming to say the least with up-to-date info next to impossible to come by.

L.Jenkins

Got a manual :P Would make for an interesting project.

Ste-

Bluefrog wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. Just to say that I have just installed one of these devices on my Raspberry Pi B+ and it is still receiving all channels both T.V. and radio. I just thought I would post this as getting my head around what is now required for successful viewing of Saorview with such a setup was pretty time consuming to say the least with up-to-date info next to impossible to come by.

What channels do you receive on your setup ?
and can you record on it ?

AnCatDubh

Bluefrog wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. Just to say that I have just installed one of these devices on my Raspberry Pi B+ and it is still receiving all channels both T.V. and radio. I just thought I would post this as getting my head around what is now required for successful viewing of Saorview with such a setup was pretty time consuming to say the least with up-to-date info next to impossible to come by.

Curious, are you simply receiving and viewing on the same device or have you a tvheadend/some sort of distribution over lan/wlan of saorview to your tv (xbmc or the like)?

I have, on and off, been trying a tvheadend/Ri Pi B model/vlc setup and have yet to get to a stage where i'd be happy to ditch sky. Lots of busted streams. I'll keep trying as time permits as others appear to have had success with almost identical setups and i'll crack it one day

Tom Dunne

Don't leave us hanging here! Give us details!

(I currently have xbmc running on a Raspberry Pi under my tv)

Hotblack Desiato

AnCatDubh wrote: »

I have, on and off, been trying a tvheadend/Ri Pi B model/vlc setup and have yet to get to a stage where i'd be happy to ditch sky.

You'd easily get a good Freesat+ box (same functionality as Sky+) for less than a year's worth of basic Sky.

The Humax Foxsat-HDR with modified firmware (Raydon) can stream video on your LAN, and SD recordings can be archived off to other devices. The newer YouView box is no good as the whole hard disk is encrypted and the firmware locked down.

Bluefrog

Ste- wrote: »

What channels do you receive on your setup ?
and can you record on it ?

TV:
RTE1 HD
RTE2 HD
TV3
TG4
3e
RTE News Now
RTE ONE + 1

Radio:
RTE Radio 1
2FM
Lyric
Raidio na Gaeltachta
RTE Pulse
RTE 2XM
RTE Junior
RTE Gold

I'm using TVheadend and yes recording seems to work fine though the file sizes are pretty big (2-3gb per half hour) so you would definitely need to be running something post-record to convert to a more compressed format. The other snag with recording is that you would have to post-process too to dump the ads - TVHeadend won't do that for you. It's doable I would imagine but it's not something I'm especially interested in with the online catchup services etc

Bluefrog

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Curious, are you simply receiving and viewing on the same device or have you a tvheadend/some sort of distribution over lan/wlan of saorview to your tv (xbmc or the like)?

I have, on and off, been trying a tvheadend/Ri Pi B model/vlc setup and have yet to get to a stage where i'd be happy to ditch sky. Lots of busted streams. I'll keep trying as time permits as others appear to have had success with almost identical setups and i'll crack it one day

Everything is running off the one Pi B+ - Raspbmc on the frontend, TVHeadend grabbing the broadcasts from the stick. If I had done a little more research I might have given the Banana Pi a bit more of a look with the extra processing muscle and RAM but the B+ holds it's own OK - skins seem to have a big effect on performance - I settled on Transparency! as the font size was workable on my old tv that only has composite input. I have over-clocked the PI to high performance too. Have a webcam running off the pi too (using motion) which activates only when I'm out (to watch what the dogs are up to) - I use Tasker on Android & SSH to work that. It's an old HP USB webcam, had used it on Ubuntu and Mint before so I figured it would be Debian friendly.

I should say too that finding the right firmware for the stick was a bit of a trial and error process. Seems there are various releases bearing the same file names and I found only an older one would work for me. I can give that to anyone who needs it.
I've changed the SSH ports and passwords and opened up both the IPTABLES on the Pi and port forwarding on my router so I can SSH back in from outside the home network.

I won't go into the streaming content side of things here beyond that the NotFilmOn XBMC plugin is not bad for UK TV.

Finally the Pi is also doing some cron scheduled tweeting for me using the Python Tweepy library for lostandfoundpets.ie - it does the tweets reminding people that the Twitter account is semi-automated so they should use the main site to get the word out on listings as quickly as possible.

If anyone wants a look at any of the config files, give me a holler

L.Jenkins

Would certainly be interested in the config files you're using on the device.

Bluefrog

The /boot/config.txt file looks like this:

arm_freq=900
core_freq=375
force_turbo=1
disable_overscan=1
gpu_mem_512=128
gpu_mem_256=112
start_file=start_x.elf
fixup_file=fixup_x.dat
hdmi_ignore_cec_init=1
max_usb_current=1 #this one boosts power for the USB connected devices (stick and camera)
sdtv_mode=2
sdtv_aspect=3

it's geared towards a composite connection with the T.V. with an aspect ratio of 16:9 for the screen and PAL obviously.

The adjustment to IPTABLES (firewall) to allow SSH from outside local network. I've commented the last few lines that are the ones I added to open the ports - the 'XXXX' and 'YYYY' indicates your chosen port for each service.

/etc/network/if-up.d/secure-rmc

#!/bin/bash

dec_to_bin() {
  local remainder=''
  local string=''
  local number=$1
  while [ 1 ]
  do
    let "remainder = $number % 2"
    let "result = ($number / 2)"
    number=$result
    string=$remainder$string
    if [ "$result" == 0 ]
      then
      break
    fi
  done
  echo $string
}

bin_to_dec() {
  local toprocess=$1
  local result=0
  while [ 1 ]
  do
    let "result = ($result*2)+${toprocess:0:1}"
    toprocess=${toprocess:1}
    if [ "$toprocess" == "" ]
    then
      break
    fi
  done
  echo $result
}

ip_octet_to_bin() {
  local oct=`dec_to_bin $1`
  while [ ${#oct} -lt 8 ] ; do
    oct=0$oct
  done
  echo $oct
}

ip_to_bin() {
  local ip=$1
  local first=`echo $ip | cut -d. -f1 | awk '{print $1}'`
  local second=`echo $ip | cut -d. -f2 | awk '{print $1}'`
  local third=`echo $ip | cut -d. -f3 | awk '{print $1}'` 
  local fourth=`echo $ip | cut -d. -f4 | awk '{print $1}'`

  first=`ip_octet_to_bin $first`
  second=`ip_octet_to_bin $second`
  third=`ip_octet_to_bin $third`
  fourth=`ip_octet_to_bin $fourth`

  echo $first$second$third$fourth
}

bin_to_ip() {
  local first=${1:0:8}
  local second=${1:8:8}
  local third=${1:16:8}
  local fourth=${1:24:8}
 
  first=`bin_to_dec $first`
  second=`bin_to_dec $second`
  third=`bin_to_dec $third`
  fourth=`bin_to_dec $fourth`
  
  echo $first.$second.$third.$fourth
}

bit_and() {
  local in1=$1
  local in2=$2
  local out=''

  while [ 1 ] ; do
    local toadd=0
    if [ "${in1:0:1}" == 1 ] ; then
      if [ "${in2:0:1}" == 1 ] ; then
        toadd=1
      fi
    fi
    out=$out$toadd
    in1=${in1:1}
    in2=${in2:1}
    if [ ${#in1} == 0 ] ; then
      break
    fi
  done

  echo $out;
}


get_subnet() {
  local ip=`/sbin/ifconfig $1  | grep 'inet addr:'| grep -v '127.0.0.1' | cut -d: -f2 | awk '{ print $1}'`
  local mask=`/sbin/ifconfig $1 | grep 'inet addr:'| grep -v '127.0.0.1' | cut -d: -f4 | awk '{ print $1}'`

  ip=`ip_to_bin $ip`
  if [ ${#ip} -eq 0 ]; then
  logger -t secure-rmc "$1 has no IP"
  exit 1
  fi
  mask=`ip_to_bin $mask`

  local subnet=`bit_and $ip $mask`

  local counter=0
  local todo=$mask
  while [ 1 ] ; do
    if [ "${todo:0:1}" == 1 ] ; then
       let "counter = $counter + 1"
    fi
    todo=${todo:1}
    if [ "${#todo}" == 0 ] ; then
      break
    fi
  done

  subnet=`bin_to_ip $subnet`
 
  subnet=$subnet/$counter

  echo $subnet
}

logger -t iptables "Configuring ip tables for interface $IFACE"
if [ "$IFACE" != "lo" ]; then
    NETMASK=$(get_subnet $IFACE)
    if [ ${#NETMASK} -eq 0 ]; then
	logger -t secure-rmc "netmask not found"
	exit 1
   fi
    iptables -A INPUT -s $NETMASK -i $IFACE -j ACCEPT
    iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport XXXX -j ACCEPT # for external SSH
    iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport YYYY -j ACCEPT # for motion mjpeg stream
    iptables -A INPUT -i $IFACE -j DROP
fi

And finally the stuff that lets me run the motion daemon on demand over SSH for the webcam.

/etc/default/motion

# set to 'yes' to enable the motion daemon
start_motion_daemon=no

/etc/motion/motion.conf

daemon=on
output_normal=off #as I don't want it to save files when it detects motion
webcam_port=YYYY
webcam_localhost=off
webcam_maxrate=1
height=480
width=640