Tvheadend

UP!!!!

yes please UP!!

Roman Bug wrote:

hello to all
who can tell the maximum simultaneous connections to TVHeadend from clients to view different channels?
sank

Good question..

How long is a piece of string?

It depends on your hardware & network more than anything, all I can suggest is push it as far as it'll go until she can't take any more..

this depends on a few factors.

how many tuners you have and network speed.

for each tuner you have you can view all channels on 1 mux.

for streaming you'll need to make sure you have enough bandwidth to allow them through.

Is there anyway to view all channels simultaneously on all muxes on 1 tuner?

Ahmed Nabil wrote:

Is there anyway to view all channels simultaneously on all muxes on 1 tuner?

Nope, not possible I'm afraid. One mux/transponder per tuner.

Ahmed Nabil wrote:

Is there anyway to view all channels simultaneously on all muxes on 1 tuner?

No, a single tuner can only access 1 mux at a time.

To attempt an answer to the original question, there is no hard limit. The limiting factors are:

1) Tuners - the number of tuners limits how man muxes you can tune simultaneously.
2) Network bandwidth - at some point you'll max this out.
3) CPU - the performance of the hardware hosting TVHeadend can also be a limiting factor.

All this means that you're limited by your specific hardware, and the only way to find the upper limit is to experiment.

If it's of any interest I run TVHeadend on Raspberry Pi model B with 3 DVB-T tuners. Recently I tested it while it was recording from all 3 tuners, I connected a client & verified I could watch any channel. While doing this the Pi's CPU load was around 25%.

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

Ahmed Nabil wrote:

Is there anyway to view all channels simultaneously on all muxes on 1 tuner?

No, a single tuner can only access 1 mux at a time.

To attempt an answer to the original question, there is no hard limit. The limiting factors are:

1) Tuners - the number of tuners limits how man muxes you can tune simultaneously.
2) Network bandwidth - at some point you'll max this out.
3) CPU - the performance of the hardware hosting TVHeadend can also be a limiting factor.

All this means that you're limited by your specific hardware, and the only way to find the upper limit is to experiment.

If it's of any interest I run TVHeadend on Raspberry Pi model B with 3 DVB-T tuners. Recently I tested it while it was recording from all 3 tuners, I connected a client & verified I could watch any channel. While doing this the Pi's CPU load was around 25%.

What tuners were those, the most I've managed is 2 on my RPi!

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

What tuners were those, the most I've managed is 2 on my RPi!

I am running 3 of these:
http://www.dx.com/p/mini-dvb-t-digital-tv-usb-2-0-dongle-w-remote-controller-72026#.VdzuepNzlhE

What problem did you encounter with more than 2 tuners?

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

What tuners were those, the most I've managed is 2 on my RPi!

I am running 3 of these:
http://www.dx.com/p/mini-dvb-t-digital-tv-usb-2-0-dongle-w-remote-controller-72026#.VdzuepNzlhE

What do those tuners show up as in Linux? rtl2382u?

What problem did you encounter with more than 2 tuners?

Bandwidth starvation when streaming more than 2 services over the network & general glitching from the tuner (RTL2382U) using an RPi2. The tuners work fine with my HP Microserver.

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

I am running 3 of these:
http://www.dx.com/p/mini-dvb-t-digital-tv-usb-2-0-dongle-w-remote-controller-72026#.VdzuepNzlhE

What do those tuners show up as in Linux? rtl2382u?

No, they are ITE 9135.

What problem did you encounter with more than 2 tuners?

Bandwidth starvation when streaming more than 2 services over the network & general glitching from the tuner (RTL2382U) using an RPi2. The tuners work fine with my HP Microserver.

Hmmm, I would have thought an RPi2 would handle a lot more than that, as my RPi1 doesn't break a sweat.
We have mp4 DVB-T here, so if you have mpeg-2 there would be higher network bandwidth, but the Pi should still be able to manage more than 2 at once.

One thing I did find was that I needed a strong signal - although a TV was fine with the signal, the DVB-T adapter was giving marginal results until I upgraded antenna, cabling and distribution amplifier.

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

I am running 3 of these:
http://www.dx.com/p/mini-dvb-t-digital-tv-usb-2-0-dongle-w-remote-controller-72026#.VdzuepNzlhE

What do those tuners show up as in Linux? rtl2382u?

No, they are ITE 9135.

What problem did you encounter with more than 2 tuners?

Bandwidth starvation when streaming more than 2 services over the network & general glitching from the tuner (RTL2382U) using an RPi2. The tuners work fine with my HP Microserver.

Hmmm, I would have thought an RPi2 would handle a lot more than that, as my RPi1 doesn't break a sweat.
We have mp4 DVB-T here, so if you have mpeg-2 there would be higher network bandwidth, but the Pi should still be able to manage more than 2 at once.

One thing I did find was that I needed a strong signal - although a TV was fine with the signal, the DVB-T adapter was giving marginal results until I upgraded antenna, cabling and distribution amplifier.

Yes it's mpeg2 and most DVB-T channels are 544x576 (commercial - non-PSB) the rest are 720x576 or 704x576 (mainly PSB) at stupidly low bit-rates that make even youtube 360p look good, all shoved into a mux of 24mbps.. One mux for example has 14 24 hour streams & they're adding ANOTHER (null packets have increased).

On the bright side at least we have DVB-T2 with 1080p HD and a few SD at 544x576 in h264!

I have a number of tuners I've tried on the Pi (both RPi 1/2).

2x RTL2382U - both glitch like crazy on the Pi but are fine on another machine (This is more than likely a driver issue).
1x Afatech af9013 - It works fine BUT it dies after a number of tunes I believe ITE now own Afatech.
3x Dibcom - Haven't tried more than one in the Pi but it works okay (glitches though fine elsewhere), the other (dual) is being used in my HP Microserver.

And now I've purchased 2 of these & I hope I have more success with them on the Pi!

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

And now I've purchased 2 of these & I hope I have more success with them on the Pi!

Good luck. I've had no problems with SD or HD once I sorted out my signal strength issues.

Make sure you have up to date firmware installed.

It would be interesting to know how many could be run by a Pi, but I suspect handling the antenna signal would become a problem. My setup uses a 4 port distribution amplifier to supply antenna signal to 3 rooms plus the Pi - which then uses a 1 > 3 passive splitter to feed the tuners. I suppose a 1 > 4 splitter would work with a strong feed signal, but any more & you might need a distribution amplifier just for the tuners.

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

Bandwidth starvation when streaming more than 2 services over the network & general glitching from the tuner (RTL2382U) using an RPi2. The tuners work fine with my HP Microserver.

Just thinking about this, have you tried streaming 3 services over the network from the same mux [& thus only using 1 tuner] vs streaming 3 services from 3 different muxes?

That might help differentiate between network bandwith issues vs tuner issues.

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

Bandwidth starvation when streaming more than 2 services over the network & general glitching from the tuner (RTL2382U) using an RPi2. The tuners work fine with my HP Microserver.

Just thinking about this, have you tried streaming 3 services over the network from the same mux [& thus only using 1 tuner] vs streaming 3 services from 3 different muxes?

That might help differentiate between network bandwith issues vs tuner issues.

I have, I've even tried one stream & it still glitches, I also got quite a few I2C errors from the sticks which suggests either the sticks or driver is dodgy.

I myself am using a 4 way powered amplifier which seems to be doing the job pretty well, so I should be fine splitting it again using a passive 1>2.

Where can I find the latest firmware? Openelec github repo?

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

Where can I find the latest firmware? Openelec github repo?

This page covers the various options:
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Firmware

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

One thing I did find was that I needed a strong signal - although a TV was fine with the signal, the DVB-T adapter was giving marginal results until I upgraded antenna, cabling and distribution amplifier.

You weren't kidding :(, these ITE 9135/Afatech AF9033 are seriously crap at receiving signals, the worst I've seen!

Muxes broadcasting at 50kw it'll receive fine, 25kw it will just about manage. Anything lower and it's a no go, This is with the above mentioned booster!

The rtl2382u connected the same way has no issues receiving all services whatsoever.
So these are pretty much useless for me, oh well you live and learn.

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

You weren't kidding :(, these ITE 9135/Afatech AF9033 are seriously crap at receiving signals, the worst I've seen!

It's a pity there isn't a site that compares devices & provides this sort of info.