Tvheadend

Another with cheap Chinese tuner.
No chance to get something working,
without good contents in system,
and chip maker with good Linux support.

P1 are all muxes added?
P2 this is not for direct wathing
use ip:9981/playlist
P3 for Pi support use PI forum or etc.

Thanks for your reply.

Nooelec is a USA company and the chipset used is globally recognised, so your ocmments onthat don't seem to make sense.

P1 - how would a newbie like me know if all muxes are added?

P2 - Using VLC to view is mentioned a lot in the forums for testing the raw feed from the backend.
If I use the URL you suggest, nothing happens.
I'm using the Libre Elec UI to try to view the T Vchannels.

P3 - Oh boy.

Hello fellow UK user!

Unfortunately the RTL2832 + R820T2 based chips do not support DVB-T2, so there is no chance of you receiving HD services with it.

Hello Mark and thanks for your helpful comment. That would explain it.
I'll research cheap DVB-T2-compatible tuners then.

I havce Virgin Media and a Tivo box, but they actually remove some Freeview channels from the feed and will helpfully sell them back to you. My TV Sonia Bravia also has recording capability, but it's breath-takingly awful user interface is a misery to use in so many ways. The £179 Humax box calls to me, but it's ugly and anyway, I fancy a tinkering challenge. None of which you asked to know!

Thanks again,
Chris

Chris Wesley wrote:

Hello Mark and thanks for your helpful comment. That would explain it.
I'll research cheap DVB-T2-compatible tuners then.

Get an August T210v2 used from Amazon for £15 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B008D8K50Q. They're a rebadged Mygica T230. [I have three].

I havce Virgin Media and a Tivo box, but they actually remove some Freeview channels from the feed and will helpfully sell them back to you. My TV Sonia Bravia also has recording capability, but it's breath-takingly awful user interface is a misery to use in so many ways. The £179 Humax box calls to me, but it's ugly and anyway, I fancy a tinkering challenge. None of which you asked to know!

Thanks again,
Chris

If the v2 is like my adapter then on tvheadend it presents three interfaces under config/dvb-inputs/tvadapters. To receive both HD and non-HD you need to enable only the MN88473 DVB-T under that menu and you can leave the RTL2832 DVB-T as disabled and leave the the DVB-C as disabled too. Then go to networks and force scan.

I thought I read the pi zero was a little slow but I haven't tried it myself.

Thanks guys. I just bought the second hand tuner you recommended.

So I;'ve received the new adaptor, an august DBV-T210 V2 recommended. I now see and can view HD channels using VLS to open the m3ulinks from tvheadend.

Sometimes.

Other times it says "no free adaptor". Clear enough, but why? I'm just closing VLC to stop viewing a channel. Is there a cleaner way I should be doing that?

Other times, nothing appears and the VLC debug (and getting to see that is a project in itself) says "no input".

But the biggest problem is that no channels appear in Kodi at all now. Before the channels appeared but didn't work - you'd get dodgy sound but no picture. Now there's no channel list at all.

Also on boot, is says "PVR manager is starting up: 0%" for maybe 5 minutes, and sometimes it never completes and I reboot.

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

Chris Wesley wrote:

So I;'ve received the new adaptor, an august DBV-T210 V2 recommended. I now see and can view HD channels using VLS to open the m3ulinks from tvheadend.

Sometimes.

Other times it says "no free adaptor". Clear enough, but why? I'm just closing VLC to stop viewing a channel. Is there a cleaner way I should be doing that?

Other times, nothing appears and the VLC debug (and getting to see that is a project in itself) says "no input".

But the biggest problem is that no channels appear in Kodi at all now. Before the channels appeared but didn't work - you'd get dodgy sound but no picture. Now there's no channel list at all.

Also on boot, is says "PVR manager is starting up: 0%" for maybe 5 minutes, and sometimes it never completes and I reboot.

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

• Looks like you may need to flush the pvr data in Kodi.
• What does dmesg say?

If you're really stuck, come chat to me on IRC/Freenode - I'm mpmc in #hts.

Thanks Mark for your suggestions. In this environment, the PVR (Personal Video Recorder?) and live TV seem to be intimately linked, but I don't see why they should be - they're entirely different things. Perhaps I have a misunderstanding here that, if removed, might clear my way to solving this. Why should cleaning the PVR database affect the live TV channels which Kodi knows about? Why does PVR manager start when I click TV in Lodi. Why do I need to wait for PVR manager to start before anything works? And why does it take so long to start? (just in case anyone knows and wants to tell me).

The long "PVR manager is starting up: 0%" is annoying and unexplained. Sometimes it never stops saying that and I must reboot. Why?

Anyway, I cleared the PVR database & rebooted. No change. No channels in Kodi.
Rebooted the RPi - twice. Still can't get past this PVR start-up message.

dmesg shows below. Anything helpful in tghere? I can't find it.

[ 0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
[ 0.000000] Linux version 4.9.29 (chewitt@buildbox) (gcc version 6.2.0 (GCC) ) #1 Thu May 25 02:51:38 BST 2017
[ 0.000000] CPU: ARMv6-compatible processor [410fb767] revision 7 (ARMv7), cr=00c5387d
[ 0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT nonaliasing instruction cache
[ 0.000000] OF: fdt:Machine model: Raspberry Pi Zero W Rev 1.1
[ 0.000000] cma: Reserved 8 MiB at 0x15400000
[ 0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writeback
[ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 90112
[ 0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 80935838, node_mem_map 95cd3e00
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 792 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 90112 pages, LIFO batch:15
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 89320
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: 8250.nr_uarts=0 bcm2708_fb.fbwidth=1824 bcm2708_fb.fbheight=984 bcm2708_fb.fbswap=1 smsc95xx.macaddr=B8:27:EB:93:D6:5E vc_mem.mem_base=0x1ec00000 vc_mem.mem_size=0x20000000 boot=/dev/mmcblk0p1 disk=/dev/mmcblk0p2 quiet root=/dev/ram0 rdinit=/init BOOT_IMAGE=/kernel.img usbcore.autosuspend=-1
[ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 338760K/360448K available (5651K kernel code, 226K rwdata, 1252K rodata, 2264K init, 374K bss, 13496K reserved, 8192K cma-reserved)
[ 0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
[ 0.000000] vector : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
[ 0.000000] fixmap : 0xffc00000 - 0xfff00000 (3072 kB)
[ 0.000000] vmalloc : 0x96800000 - 0xff800000 (1680 MB)
[ 0.000000] lowmem : 0x80000000 - 0x96000000 ( 352 MB)
[ 0.000000] modules : 0x7f000000 - 0x80000000 ( 16 MB)
[ 0.000000] .text : 0x80008000 - 0x8058d020 (5653 kB)
[ 0.000000] .init : 0x806c8000 - 0x808fe000 (2264 kB)
[ 0.000000] .data : 0x808fe000 - 0x80936a48 ( 227 kB)
[ 0.000000] .bss : 0x80936a48 - 0x80994568 ( 375 kB)
[ 0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS:16 nr_irqs:16 16
[ 0.000028] sched_clock: 32 bits at 1000kHz, resolution 1000ns, wraps every 2147483647500ns
[ 0.000068] clocksource: timer: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 1911260446275 ns
[ 0.000149] bcm2835: system timer (irq = 27)
[ 0.000518] Console: colour dummy device 80x30
[ 0.000537] console [tty0] enabled
[ 0.000566] Calibrating delay loop... 697.76 BogoMIPS (lpj=1161216)
[ 0.026922] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[ 0.027135] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.027147] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.028029] Disabling cpuset control group subsystem
[ 0.028156] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[ 0.028539] Setting up static identity map for 0x8200 - 0x8238
[ 0.030234] devtmpfs: initialized
[ 0.038163] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 1 part 20 variant b rev 5
[ 0.038506] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 6370867519511994 ns
[ 0.038531] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[ 0.039768] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[ 0.041218] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 0.043597] DMA: preallocated 1024 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[ 0.052147] cpuidle: using governor ladder
[ 0.052161] cpuidle: using governor menu
[ 0.052727] Serial: AMBA PL011 UART driver
[ 0.055292] bcm2835-mbox 2000b880.mailbox: mailbox enabled
[ 0.055937] uart-pl011 20201000.serial: could not find pctldev for node /soc/gpio@7e200000/uart0_pins, deferring probe
[ 0.099867] bcm2835-dma 20007000.dma: DMA legacy API manager at 9680d000, dmachans=0x1
[ 0.102310] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 0.102771] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 0.102881] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 0.103031] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 0.104522] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2017-05-15 17:01
[ 0.106133] clocksource: Switched to clocksource timer
[ 0.124301] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 0.125340] TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.125425] TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.125519] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)
[ 0.125603] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.125627] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.125892] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 0.126571] RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module.
[ 0.126580] RPC: Registered udp transport module.
[ 0.126584] RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
[ 0.126588] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
[ 0.347654] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=17 bucket_order=3
[ 0.364226] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[ 0.367073] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
[ 0.367117] Key type id_resolver registered
[ 0.367123] Key type id_legacy registered
[ 0.367146] nfs4filelayout_init: NFSv4 File Layout Driver Registering...
[ 0.373431] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 251)
[ 0.373447] io scheduler noop registered (default)
[ 0.373453] io scheduler deadline registered
[ 0.373795] io scheduler cfq registered
[ 0.379910] BCM2708FB: allocated DMA memory 55500000
[ 0.379965] BCM2708FB: allocated DMA channel 0 9680d000
[ 0.422189] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 228x61
[ 0.457003] bcm2835-rng 20104000.rng: hwrng registered
[ 0.457135] vc-cma: Videocore CMA driver
[ 0.457144] vc-cma: vc_cma_base = 0x00000000
[ 0.457151] vc-cma: vc_cma_size = 0x00000000 (0 MiB)
[ 0.457156] vc-cma: vc_cma_initial = 0x00000000 (0 MiB)
[ 0.457468] vc-mem: phys_addr:0x00000000 mem_base=0x1ec00000 mem_size:0x20000000(512 MiB)
[ 0.482397] brd: module loaded
[ 0.482737] loop: module loaded
[ 0.488235] nbd: registered device at major 43
[ 0.503978] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtsx_usb
[ 0.503997] Loading iSCSI transport class v2.0-870.
[ 0.504752] iscsi: registered transport (tcp)
[ 0.505544] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[ 0.505555] tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6
[ 0.505559] tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <[email protected]>
[ 0.506255] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsc95xx
[ 0.506323] dwc_otg: version 3.00a 10-AUG-2012 (platform bus)
[ 0.732686] Core Release: 2.80a
[ 0.732715] Setting default values for core params
[ 0.732750] Finished setting default values for core params
[ 0.832800] random: fast init done
[ 0.933288] Using Buffer DMA mode
[ 0.933301] Periodic Transfer Interrupt Enhancement - disabled
[ 0.933305] Multiprocessor Interrupt Enhancement - disabled
[ 0.933314] OTG VER PARAM: 0, OTG VER FLAG: 0
[ 0.933397] Dedicated Tx FIFOs mode
[ 0.933991] WARN::dwc_otg_hcd_init:1034: FIQ DMA bounce buffers: virt = 0x95514000 dma = 0x55514000 len=9024
[ 0.934021] FIQ FSM acceleration enabled for :
[ 0.934021] Non-periodic Split Transactions
[ 0.934021] Periodic Split Transactions
[ 0.934021] High-Speed Isochronous Endpoints
[ 0.934021] Interrupt/Control Split Transaction hack enabled
[ 0.934031] dwc_otg: Microframe scheduler enabled
[ 0.934116] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:459: FIQ on core 0 at 0x803efccc
[ 0.934132] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:460: FIQ ASM at 0x803effa8 length 36
[ 0.934160] WARN::hcd_init_fiq:486: MPHI regs_base at 0x968c1000
[ 0.934230] dwc_otg 20980000.usb: DWC OTG Controller
[ 0.934296] dwc_otg 20980000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[ 0.934369] dwc_otg 20980000.usb: irq 56, io mem 0x00000000
[ 0.934428] Init: Port Power? op_state=1
[ 0.934432] Init: Power Port (0)
[ 0.934775] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[ 0.934795] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[ 0.934806] usb usb1: Product: DWC OTG Controller
[ 0.934819] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.9.29 dwc_otg_hcd
[ 0.934827] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 20980000.usb
[ 0.935970] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 0.936045] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[ 0.937045] dwc_otg: FIQ enabled
[ 0.937053] dwc_otg: NAK holdoff enabled
[ 0.937057] dwc_otg: FIQ split-transaction FSM enabled
[ 0.937080] Module dwc_common_port init
[ 0.937568] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 0.938038] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[ 0.938321] i2c /dev entries driver
[ 0.940582] bcm2835-wdt 20100000.watchdog: Broadcom BCM2835 watchdog timer
[ 0.941006] bcm2835-cpufreq: min=700000 max=1000000
[ 0.941637] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[ 0.941644] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[ 0.942097] sdhost-bcm2835 20202000.sdhost: could not get clk, deferring probe
[ 0.944619] mmc-bcm2835 20300000.mmc: could not get clk, deferring probe
[ 0.944806] sdhci-pltfm: SDHCI platform and OF driver helper
[ 0.945334] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs
[ 0.945490] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[ 0.948371] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 0.948382] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 0.949413] vchiq: vchiq_init_state: slot_zero = 0x95580000, is_master = 0
[ 0.952544] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 0.954876] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 0.955026] Key type dns_resolver registered
[ 0.956938] vc-sm: Videocore shared memory driver
[ 0.956955] [vc_sm_connected_init]: start
[ 0.960295] [vc_sm_connected_init]: end - returning 0
[ 0.967465] 20201000.serial: ttyAMA0 at MMIO 0x20201000 (irq = 81, base_baud = 0) is a PL011 rev2
[ 0.969293] sdhost: log_buf 95513000 (55513000)
[ 1.022844] mmc0: sdhost-bcm2835 loaded - DMA enabled (>1)
[ 1.025189] mmc-bcm2835 20300000.mmc: mmc_debug:0 mmc_debug2:0
[ 1.025199] mmc-bcm2835 20300000.mmc: DMA channel allocated
[ 1.076281] console [netcon0] enabled
[ 1.076287] netconsole: network logging started
[ 1.076295] of_cfs_init
[ 1.076387] of_cfs_init: OK
[ 1.083600] Freeing unused kernel memory: 2264K (806c8000 - 808fe000)
[ 1.083611] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[ 1.096872] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch, assuming write-enable
[ 1.098972] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 0007
[ 1.104015] mmcblk0: mmc0:0007 SD32G 29.0 GiB
[ 1.105987] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (2 bytes)
[ 1.106502] mmcblk0: p1 p2
[ 1.108389] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes)
[ 1.110114] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (3 bytes)
[ 1.113226] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (7 bytes)
[ 1.146367] Indeed it is in host mode hprt0 = 00021501
[ 1.284658] mmc1: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001
[ 1.399546] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using dwc_otg
[ 1.399719] Indeed it is in host mode hprt0 = 00001101
[ 1.590063] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1a40, idProduct=0101
[ 1.590081] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[ 1.590088] usb 1-1: Product: USB 2.0 Hub
[ 1.590958] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.591078] hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[ 1.869528] usb 1-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 3 using dwc_otg
[ 1.976567] usb 1-1.2: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x86 has invalid maxpacket 188
[ 1.977168] usb 1-1.2: language id specifier not provided by device, defaulting to English
[ 1.979185] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0572, idProduct=c688
[ 1.979199] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2.069526] usb 1-1.4: new low-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[ 2.180674] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=192f, idProduct=0916
[ 2.180690] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 2.180697] usb 1-1.4: Product: USB Optical Mouse
[ 2.189560] input: USB Optical Mouse as /devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/0003:192F:0916.0001/input/input0
[ 2.190306] hid-generic 0003:192F:0916.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [USB Optical Mouse] on usb-20980000.usb-1.4/input0
[ 2.988048] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): couldn't mount as ext3 due to feature incompatibilities
[ 2.989178] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): couldn't mount as ext2 due to feature incompatibilities
[ 3.101389] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 3.776227] systemd¹: System time before build time, advancing clock.
[ 3.813108] systemd¹: systemd 232 running in system mode. (-PAM -AUDIT -SELINUX -IMA -APPARMOR -SMACK -SYSVINIT -UTMP -LIBCRYPTSETUP -GCRYPT -GNUTLS -ACL -XZ -LZ4 -SECCOMP +BLKID -ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN)
[ 3.813948] systemd¹: Detected architecture arm.
[ 3.814442] systemd¹: Set hostname to <LibreELEC>.
[ 4.072588] systemd¹: Listening on Journal Socket.
[ 4.073769] systemd¹: Listening on /dev/initctl Compatibility Named Pipe.
[ 4.076320] systemd¹: Created slice User and Session Slice.
[ 4.077538] systemd¹: Created slice System Slice.
[ 4.078004] systemd¹: dev-hugepages.mount: Couldn't determine result for ConditionVirtualization=!private-users, assuming failed: No such file or directory
[ 4.078256] systemd¹: Reached target Slices.
[ 4.083761] systemd¹: Starting Mounting swapfile...
[ 5.670287] systemd-journald¹⁸⁹: Received request to flush runtime journal from PID 1
[ 7.359953] random: crng init done
[ 10.202554] Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x30
[ 11.170712] gpiomem-bcm2835 20200000.gpiomem: Initialised: Registers at 0x20200000
[ 11.705659] rc_core: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 11.711477] WARNING: You are using an experimental version of the media stack.
[ 11.711477] As the driver is backported to an older kernel, it doesn't offer
[ 11.711477] enough quality for its usage in production.
[ 11.711477] Use it with care.
[ 11.711477] Latest git patches (needed if you report a bug to [email protected]):
[ 11.711477] a02ff2e02bee64e9955dbfd8811874c3f3880f58 cx231xx: Fix TBS MAC reading.
[ 11.863299] WARNING: You are using an experimental version of the media stack.
[ 11.863299] As the driver is backported to an older kernel, it doesn't offer
[ 11.863299] enough quality for its usage in production.
[ 11.863299] Use it with care.
[ 11.863299] Latest git patches (needed if you report a bug to [email protected]):
[ 11.863299] a02ff2e02bee64e9955dbfd8811874c3f3880f58 cx231xx: Fix TBS MAC reading.
[ 11.939851] usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
[ 12.095850] dvb-usb: found a 'Mygica T230 DVB-T/T2/C' in warm state.
[ 12.336682] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[ 12.336900] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (Mygica T230 DVB-T/T2/C)
[ 12.357221] brcmfmac: Firmware version = wl0: May 27 2016 00:13:38 version 7.45.41.26 (r640327) FWID 01-df77e4a7
[ 12.630995] i2c i2c-3: Added multiplexed i2c bus 4
[ 12.631020] si2168 3-0064: Silicon Labs Si2168-B40 successfully identified
[ 12.631029] si2168 3-0064: firmware version: B 4.0.2
[ 12.780235] si2157 4-0060: Silicon Labs Si2147/2148/2157/2158 successfully attached
[ 12.780307] usb 1-1.2: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Silicon Labs Si2168)...
[ 12.781212] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/input/input1
[ 12.781526] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 100 msecs.
[ 12.781657] dvb-usb: Mygica T230 DVB-T/T2/C successfully initialized and connected.
[ 12.781847] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_cxusb
[ 15.281819] IPv6: ADDRCONF: wlan0: link is not ready
[ 15.281837] brcmfmac: power management disabled
[ 16.078289] uart-pl011 20201000.serial: no DMA platform data
[ 16.600571] IPv6: ADDRCONF: wlan0: link becomes ready
[ 21.332865] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.22
[ 21.333064] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[ 21.333070] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[ 21.333097] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[ 21.333112] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 21.335260] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized
[ 21.395292] Bluetooth: HCI UART driver ver 2.3
[ 21.395310] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol H4 registered
[ 21.395314] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Three-wire (H5) registered
[ 21.395550] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol Broadcom registered
PVR:~ #

Normally Kodi tv should start within a few seconds.

The reason PVR is linked is because Kodi needs to download the channels, then download the EPG for the channels to show you things to watch. At that point you should be able to watch tv.

It then downloads the recordings and timers. Some other backends allow you to disable bits of functionality you don't need. But many people want to see the EPG and hit record on programmes.

It sounds to me like your Kodi has become confused. I've had cases where PVR doesn't start because it can't insert the channels in to the database due to constraints so at the GUI it looks like it hangs with that annoying "starting" message.

Is there anything in your Kodi log file?

If you look in the kodi wiki for where your Userdata folder is http://kodi.wiki/view/Userdata
Inside there is a Database folder. When Kodi hangs at PVR, I tend to just delete TV* and Epg* inside the Database directory since clear data doesn't always work for me. Then restart and it works.

If not, I'd take up the IRC offer.

The "no free adapter" could be the adapter being held open for a short while or maybe VLC not tidying up. I don't use VLC so can't comment. How long do you get that adapter problem? A second or for a few minutes? Are you trying to watch the same channel or a different one? If you could say the two channels and time difference then someone could confirm if they are the same mux or not.

Thanks Em.

Thanks for explaining the PVR/TV link.
FInally found the Kodi log - the Wiki and so much else is just wrong. Out od date, I suppose. The loig ias actually at /storage/.kodi/kodi.log, and it shows 30 of these:

7:06:37.283 T:1571550112 ERROR: AddOnLog: Tvheadend HTSP Client: pvr.hts - unable to connect to 127.0.0.1:9982

Some it's connecting to itself (it all runs on the RPi), I'm not sure what this means or how to fix it.

Because of the above error, your idea for deleted epg* & TV* is maybe not relevant here, but in case it is, there are no such entries in userdata. What is there is this:

PVR:~/.kodi/userdata # ls
Database addon_data library profiles.xml
RssFeeds.xml guisettings.xml peripheral_data sources.xml
Thumbnails keymaps playlists

The free adaptor issue seems to go away if I STOP the video in VLC before I exit the application.

I will. I think, re-install Kodi from scratch and see if that fixes it.

Thanks again.

The tvheadend server should be listening on ports 9981 and 9982 (so 127.0.0.1:9982 should be ok for kodi to connect). The fact that kodi can't connect to that suggests tvheadend isn't running (or not running properly).

Have you tried with a web browser to connect to your tvheadend server? So, if your pi has an address of 192.168.0.2 you would enter "http://192.168.0.2:9981" in your web browser on your network. (You can use that to watch tv too straight from the EPG tab and avoid having to use VLC). At the bottom of that browser window there would then be an up-arrow which will show you the logging and inside that there is a button to enable debug logging.

If you have a terminal open on the pi you could "ps auxww | grep tvheadend" to confirm it is running and "netstat -an | grep 998" would give us info about what is listening. (We use 998 so the listing includes 9981 and 9982).

The EPG and TV* are actually in ~/.kodi/userdata/Database.

It's often difficult to get these things working the first time. And unfortunately different distributions configure things slightly differently.

Thanks again EM and everyone who's helped me so far. The re-install fixed everything I've tested so far.
But hey - plenty of time for misery yet.

Thanks

user "*" should have full access on localhost

Another note on this. With all your help, I finally got everything I needed working and moved it through to the Big Telly. Thanks again.

But Ugh. The picture is significantly worse. Enough worse for me to put the blocks on migrating to Kodi from Sony Bravia Ergo-Hell.

I know the tuner transmits digitally, so I'm surprised to see this difference, but it is definitely there.
Nothing is reporting dropped anything, buffer overruns or anything else, and it's fed from the same aerial cable, so it's not that. Images are not as sharp, or refined and I'm seeing the jaggies on hair, for example.

So I'm about to chalk this one up to an interesting waste of time. Unless ... you know better?

Your TV is doing some trickery with the picture on its own input but not on external input.

Kodi has some picture options, give those a fiddle. You're more than likely missing deinterlace?

A couple of other things also spring to mind. Did you alter the gpu memory on your pi?

I'll add a link to the web archive of the Kodi FAQ since the wiki is currently being moved.
[[https://web.archive.org/web/20170702045348/http://kodi.wiki/view/Raspberry_Pi_FAQ#Performance:_video_buffering.2C_stuttering.2C_choppiness]]

The FAQ says you still need to buy an MPEG2 licence for the pi to adequately play SD tv. It has a link to the Pi Foundation purchase page and then enable them as per the FAQ above.

Otherwise, if you've done the above then does HD tv play ok? What about if you try to play a local video that's not from tvheadend? Do they play ok?

If all else fails, if you have an old laptop then you could try running it all on that.

Regarding picture quality and video options, I find anything but "auto" messes it up. The quality degradation is most noticeable when the picture is paused, and it does look like an interlacing issue. You can see the two fields.

In other news, it's all a bit flaky. It's crashed 3 times in a couple of hours, requiring me to pull the plug (which I imagine will cause its own problems). Recordings sometimes work and sometimes fail with "End of program: Time missed" - which I assume is not a permissions issue because it works sometimes. Some channels don't show video - just sound, and selecting any channel from the guide also gives sound but no picture.

Is there a guide as to how HDMI CEC maps my TV remote's functions to Kodi's? That's also a bit of a mystery. I can't see how to stop a recording for example. Pressing STOP gets you out of looking at it, but doesn't stop it happening.

Em, I have many old laptops but I don't really want them on all the time and whirring on the carpet, and anyway, it seems like it'd just be out of the frying pan and into the fire.

CEC is one of those technologies that should work, but doesn't. My old TV did not pass through channel up/down and instead used them to switch back to aerial requiring six (yes, six) keypresses to go back to HDMI. I miss proper old remotes that had dedicated buttons to go to an input.

CEC mapping varies with pretty much every tv (even between models) and every device connected to the tv. There is a keyboard mapper in Kodi's addons that allow you to map keys to functionality. In general, I think you're better with an "air mouse remote" off ebay, which has a remote on the front and a keyboard on the back.

The reason I suggested a laptop is that a lot of issues might just disappear. Connecting both tuners too might reduce some problems. The laptop doesn't need to be on all the time since there are packages (such as turnoff) to suspend when not recording.

As they said in Jurassic Park, the problem with running media on the Pi is that people "were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should."

CEC is hardware layer over HDMI both side need to support it.
Same as gigabit lan over HDMI and 10G over DP.