TvHeadend solution help with design

Psygnosis

So for the last I guess 6 years I've been mediaportal with djblu plugin which allowed the epg from sky and groups as well for freesat channels to be populated it worked pretty well with minimal maintenance except when the sql went bang.
This has stopped working and I'd like to reconfigure what I currently have to a tv headend system as this seems to be able to replicate what I want to do.

I have a fairly decent dedicated system for it
Intel g4560
8gb of memory

I have a Dual TBS DVBs2 sat card and a dvbt stick.
Also have a blackgold dvbs2 which I picked up on adverts. Its not compatable with linux as far as I can tell.
I might sell these and get a sat2ip instead though

What I'd ideally like is client/server system that sits under the tv. That kodi can connect to and use as the front end.

The sat2ip appeals to me as seems its simple enough to setup and is about the same price as getting new cards that work natively in linux.
Any one here using a sat2ip setup, do any current sat recievers on the market show up as sat2ip in tvheadend as that would buy me a bit of time while I get everything setup and working.

Any advice would really be appreciated guys.


Also what OS would you guys recommend. Using TVHEADEDEND in docker appeals to me. I'm ok on Linux mainly VMS at work so have never done anything with recompliling kernel for drivers or anything like that.

Johnboy1951

First off you will find a lot of relevant threads and information in this forum section
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=643

Sat>IP Tuner/Gateway

Telestar Digibit R1 4 x DVB-S/2 tuners
Device tuners are automatically seen by Tvheadend when connected to the same LAN.
It also outputs DLNA if that is required.
Also it is Unicable II compliant so with a Unicable LNB a single coax will work all four tuners.

I believe that a Vbox XTi-3442 (DVB-T/2) would also be seen by Tvheadend, but as I do not have this device you would need to confirm that.

Vbox also do a combo unit with 2 x DVB-T2 and 2 x DVB-S/2 tuners which might suit you better - providing the output is suitable for tvheadend.

I have my system divided ...... backend server for tuning, epg, recording etc etc running Tvheadend.

I am presently using an ancient Dual Core P4 Dell Dimension 5150 for this ...... it barely uses any resources as I do not have it driving a TV.
I plan to change this soon to use a lightweight device like the Tanix T3 running LibreElec. (Testing at present and is running well).

At each TV I have a client device ..... R-Pi2; Intel NUC; Tanix T3 ....... all running LibreElec OS which has one purpose - to facilitate Kodi with the least resources wasted.

In fact that backend old Dell is also running LibreElec.
LibreElec will run well with only 1GB ram (250MBs I think).

Yes TBS cards work very well with LE, as do quite a lot of the USB DVB-T dongles.

When I started down this path some years ago I built a HTPC box 'for under telly' using good quality components and case etc etc. Total cost was near €700
Now I can achieve the same result for less.

I had been interested in Blackgold tuners and waited quite some time for their promised Linux drivers, and eventually gave up and bought TBS ... which have performed very well.

All devices connected to the LAN, such as Phones, tablets, laptops, PCs can access the Live TV channels and all the recordings made (centralised) and also any other media I have stored on the HDD connected to the backend server.

That is only my view on things ..... lots of others in that HTPC forum.

Good luck with your plans!

Psygnosis

Wife is working this evening so just doing a install of linux mint at the moment and will check does it pick up my tbs card.
My TBS card one of the screw on parts the sat cable onto has broken it kinda works but the 2nd port works fine
The DVBT card is some obscure make someone gave me a while back.

Ill see how it goes this evening have around another hour to play around with it.

Must look into that vbox stuff I think I read a post of your before about.

Wish me luck thanks for response was'nt sure whether to put it into sat or htpc forum to be honest mods can move it they think its better suited to the other form.

If mint goes ok with tvheadend I may look at putting it into a docker although I've never used one before.

Johnboy1951

You should, for experimentation purposes, run LibreElec from a USB stick ... good instructions are available on their wiki.

The OS runs in ram and saves your settings etc to a 'storage' partition on the USB stick (or elsewhere if you wish).

It makes testing a pleasure as it is so easy to re-do.

Some info I had stored:


https://direktkauf.idealo.de/portal/checkout;jsessionid=721BC9A037D0FB4F0F6E7DE10A78B3F5?execution=e1s1

Telestar DIGIBIT R1 €108.73 incl. VAT
Free shipping



http://www.vboxcomm.eu/shop/tv-gateway-xti-3342-dvb-tt2/

TV Gateway XTi-3442/3452 (DVB-T/T2/C) 136.50 € final price (VAT included)



Tanix T3 ~€40 delivered

STB.

Psygnosis wrote: »

The DVBT card is some obscure make someone gave me a while back.

ID'ing the chip will help

https://linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis/dvb-drivers/cards.html

You may have to compile your own driver for it.

https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php
/How_to_Obtain,_Build_and_Install_V4L-DVB_Device_Drivers

Psygnosis

Thanks for the links thats a great price for the Telestar DIGIBIT R1 €108.73 incl. VAT


So Linux installed fine and can see my tbs cards in tvheadend.
Just as I thought thought though my dvbt dongle was'nt picked up its a kworld 424-D seems to be an old obscure model.

Looking at the dvb-t side of things seems that my gica T230 is best supported but make sure you get the T one not the C which happened a good few people who bought off of aliexpress. So may buy that for the moment as well.

Couple of questions if you don't mind. Can linux goto sleep and wake for recordings just like I had in windows or is it an always on sort of solution.

I need to do allot of reading on tvheadend to try and get my head around it.

STB.

Psygnosis wrote: »

So Linux installed fine and can see my tbs cards in tvheadend.
Just as I thought thought though my dvbt dongle was'nt picked up its a kworld 424-D seems to be an old obscure model.

Lot of the Kworlds are Afatech 9013 or 9015.

You'll know for certain by connecting to an OS that tries to load it or by unclipping the case off the stick.



Then go and try installing the drivers for that chipset and see if it will work straight off or re-compile.

Johnboy1951

Psygnosis wrote: »

Thanks for the links thats a great price for the Telestar DIGIBIT R1 €108.73 incl. VAT


So Linux installed fine and can see my tbs cards in tvheadend.
Just as I thought thought though my dvbt dongle was'nt picked up its a kworld 424-D seems to be an old obscure model.

Looking at the dvb-t side of things seems that my gica T230 is best supported but make sure you get the T one not the C which happened a good few people who bought off of aliexpress. So may buy that for the moment as well.

Couple of questions if you don't mind. Can linux goto sleep and wake for recordings just like I had in windows or is it an always on sort of solution.

I need to do allot of reading on tvheadend to try and get my head around it.

I do not use the 'wake for recording' or 'wake on LAN' or such so I cannot tell you how to do it. I believe it is there in Tvheadend.

I got a few RTL2832U DVB-T sticks (not T2 compatible) for about €8 each IIRC.
They are fully supported in Linux and plug & play in LibreElec

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/realtek-rtl2832u

I got ones that have a full sized socket for the aerial on board so no need for an adaptor cable.


EDIT: This one I got

https://www.ebay.com/itm/E4000-USB-DVB-T-RTL-SDR-Realtek-RTL2832U-R820T-DVB-T-Tuner-Antenna-Receiver-NEW-/122069996882?rsta=en_IE(en_AD)&cnac=IE&mail=sys&e=op&unp_tpcid=email-receipt-auction-payment&ppid=PPX000608&calf=50fbc033ac1f4&calc=50fbc033ac1f4&pgrp=main:email&unptid=b03e66f4-784f-11e7-9912-441ea14ee788&mchn=em&t=&s=ci&page=main:email&cal=50fbc033ac1f4&cust=5VJ516737J282990H

PabloAndRoy

Just a few cents from my own experience ...

I am running tvheadend backend on a RPi 2 ... have run 5 HD simultaneous streams off this no problem. You don't need anything with any serious grunt for the backend. I run it on Raspbian, but you can also use LibreELEC.

Also those RTL2832U sticks that Johnboy mentions work a treat for Saorview .. about 10 quid each ..

PabloAndRoy

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

.....

At each TV I have a client device ..... R-Pi2; Intel NUC; Tanix T3 ....... all running LibreElec OS which has one purpose - to facilitate Kodi with the least resources wasted.

...

Is this the Tanix TX3 with the S905W chip???

If yes, how are you finding the Tanix with the BBC HD channels? .. I am getting some nasty green/red rendering issues on most astra HD channels... maybe mine is a dud as I have not seen any other complaints ...

Psygnosis

Switched to libreelec. Had a mare with mint

Couple of questions if you don't mind
Got the bouquets working in tvheadend for freesat
Everything just shows though in ALL Channels Do i need to do anything to get groups/tags working? Or does it even do that.

With a dvbt card that you linked to. Would I be able to populate the saorview epg?

Last question
If I get one of those dvbs2ip boxes is it the same process for the bouquets

Going to order a dvbt card now as the one I have does not work at all in libreelec

PabloAndRoy

Psygnosis wrote: »

Switched to libreelec. Had a mare with mint

Couple of questions if you don't mind
Got the bouquets working in tvheadend for freesat
Everything just shows though in ALL Channels Do i need to do anything to get groups/tags working? Or does it even do that.

It should have set up the Groups automatically ... in the backend, look in the "Channel Tags" tab and then in the "Channels" tab make sure that the channels you want are set up with the groups you want ...

on Kodi on the front end go to Settings->TV/PVR-> make sure that you have set the groups to sync with the back end .. then from the channel list in the PVR client, push left and select the group that you need.

With a dvbt card that you linked to. Would I be able to populate the saorview epg?

yes it work perfectly

Last question
If I get one of those dvbs2ip boxes is it the same process for the bouquets

exactly the same. In fact the Sat>IP tuners just show up in the DVB Inputs section and you simply select each one to point at the network that you have already defined and you are done

Going to order a dvbt card now as the one I have does not work at all in libreelec

Johnboy1951

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

Is this the Tanix TX3 with the S905W chip???

If yes, how are you finding the Tanix with the BBC HD channels? .. I am getting some nasty green/red rendering issues on most astra HD channels... maybe mine is a dud as I have not seen any other complaints ...

Yes, and yes ....... it does not seem very capable of displaying the high bitrate Sat Full HD channels, without some artifacts.

I am testing the Tanix now as the backend server for tvheadend with a powered hub and two DVB-T usb sticks for Saorview. It picks up the R1 tuners as expected.

I have a 2.5" HDD connected and booting from that with plenty of space for storage for recordings etc.
If it works as well as I think it will (longer term) I will probably use an SSD for booting and storage.

I have to build a case for it all with a small fan as the hub and DVB-T sticks generate a considerable amount of heat.

I have another tanix running Android but anything on that is not Full HD so no problem there.


Thought: it is also possible that some tweak in LE would eliminate those artifacts, or maybe an alternate release would have different results.

Johnboy1951

STB. wrote: »

Lot of the Kworlds are Afatech 9013 or 9015.

You'll know for certain by connecting to an OS that tries to load it or by unclipping the case off the stick.

[img]h ttps://fmdxing.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/af9015a1.jpg[/img]

Then go and try installing the drivers for that chipset and see if it will work straight off or re-compile.

Don't forget the firmware file ..... might need to be installed.

Psygnosis

Ok Cool
I've googled this now a good bit so a bit lost on if what Im expecting is wrong

When I'm in kodi I get 3 groups
English SD
English HD
All Channells

In the web interface on the epg part I kind filter by content like
arts
sports
news
movies

Is there anyway of turning these into groups instead.
Its working pretty good now. Have it connected into my NAS and scanned all media. Set it to go to sleep
Checked my DVBS card TBS 6981 and one of the ports is totally goosed so going to get the sat2ip in the next couple of weeks while I play around with it a bit.

Johnboy1951

Psygnosis wrote: »

Ok Cool
I've googled this now a good bit so a bit lost on if what Im expecting is wrong

When I'm in kodi I get 3 groups
English SD
English HD
All Channells

In the web interface on the epg part I kind filter by content like
arts
sports
news
movies

Is there anyway of turning these into groups instead.
Its working pretty good now. Have it connected into my NAS and scanned all media. Set it to go to sleep
Checked my DVBS card TBS 6981 and one of the ports is totally goosed so going to get the sat2ip in the next couple of weeks while I play around with it a bit.

Under Config - Channel/EPG there is a tab Channel Tags

You can delete and create tags as you wish.

You will need to go through the channels to apply your tags ..... Sport, News, whatever ..... on the Channels tab under Tags.

Psygnosis

Hi Yeah the dvbt usb one I have wont work its a hyrid for capturing svideo as well. So no dice with it, it contains the following

KW-UB424-D) CX23102+CX24232+TDA18271

Johnboy1951

Psygnosis wrote: »

Hi Yeah the dvbt usb one I have wont work its a hyrid for capturing svideo as well. So no dice with it, it contains the following

KW-UB424-D) CX23102+CX24232+TDA18271

You should have a driver for the TDA18271

locate  -i  TDA18271

to check.

Psygnosis

Libereelec doesnt support that command. lsusb shows the following though
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1b80:d411 Afatech

Johnboy1951

Psygnosis wrote: »

Libereelec doesnt support that command. lsusb shows the following though
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1b80:d411 Afatech

Sorry, I thought you were using Linux Mint



Second item on the list ..... 1b80:d411 not supported when that was compiled

https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices/Full


I am not certain it will not work NOW ..... there are two versions of the firmware for it in my install

locate it9135
/lib/firmware/dvb-usb-it9135-01.fw
/lib/firmware/dvb-usb-it9135-02.fw

Ste-

If you unplug your dongle while in ssh replug it in and then do a dmesg it should show you which firmware it's trying to download. Either that or have both of them, they need to go into a specific location tho.

STB.

Psygnosis wrote: »

Libereelec doesnt support that command. lsusb shows the following though
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1b80:d411 Afatech

Yeah its afatech chip alright. d411 is the ID of that Conceptronic stick.

Heres a guide for installing these devices.

http://www.polycon.fi/~laa/digitv/

Psygnosis

Ok
So been busy
Rebuilt everything as kubuntu and having it running nicely enough now. Got the sat2ip box today and its just so much easier to use and changes channels so much quicker.
Made a bit of a noobie mistake. Sat2ip of course it needs a spare ethernet connection.
Had to route out a old router I have 100mb one and plug my homeplug into that then the pc and sat2ip box as well all back to the homeplug.
So not too happy with that.
Would the following work ok do you reckon with the sat2ip box
Anker 3-Port USB 3.0 HUB with 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Converter (3 USB 3.0 Ports, A RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Port, Support Windows XP, Vista, Win7/8/10 (32/64 bit), Mac OS 10.6 and above, Linux)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015875MQQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2PGPJL0BBLHLX&psc=1

Would it still get picked up ok on the network or would I need to mess about with the dhcp and network setting getting it to work.

Johnboy1951

100Mb/s should be plenty for Live TV streaming .... even multiple channels.

Maybe try it all out and see if you spot anything problematic?

Psygnosis

Hi,
Ok got my DVBT working but not getting a EPG. Any one know how to force the EPG to update on it

Johnboy1951

Psygnosis wrote: »

Hi,
Ok got my DVBT working but not getting a EPG. Any one know how to force the EPG to update on it

Over the Air EPG for Saorview ..... tick that option in Tvheadend (is that what you are using?) in Basic Settings of the Adapter.

You can also Trigger an OTA EPG update in
Config - Channels/EPG - EPG Grabber

If using something else you need to say what

PabloAndRoy

Psygnosis wrote: »

Hi,
Ok got my DVBT working but not getting a EPG. Any one know how to force the EPG to update on it

You might need to enable the Freesat and/or opentv sky UK EPG modules under config/channels/epg/modules.