Tvheadend

I wouldn't have done the make install bit. That doesn't necessarily run all of the required steps and thus doesn't necessarily create the hts user (I don't know that, I just suspect strongly that that's the case).

Use Autobuild.sh, build a .deb file and then install with dpkg.

If you want to test your current install further, try sudo-ing the tvheadend -f - I doubt an ordinary user can daemonise a process. You'll still have to create the user you want to daemonise it to, though (e.g. tvheadend -f -u hts -g video) and make sure group membership is sufficient to access the tuners (/dev/dvb/....).

Thanks Prof,
I deleted it all and tried to start again but unsuccessfully. I finally managed to download v4.0.4 of tvheadend and after much messing about managed to package it into a deb and get it installed and it now seems to run quite reliably. I also had significant trouble with kodi loading the tvheadend frontend but solved this by removing and then reloading both kodi and the frontend package. My current problem is that it only intermittently plays the tv programs.
Tvheadend seems to have found multiple entries for all the tv channels that are broadcast here, but I can only play some of the channels on the TV or PC and its inconsistent as to which ones play. I also find that when connected to the tvheadend server from my windows pc I can sometimes play channels and sometimes not. EG I played a channel a few minutes ago, but now it wont play anymore.
My configuration is:
R-Pi2 with Raspbian connected to the TV via HDMI, Pinnacle 330e USB TV receiver with xc3028-v27 firmware.
Tvheadend and kodi installed on the Pi

Windows PC to manage things remotely via internet explorer (Chrome doesnt seem to want to talk to tvheadend anymore ?) and Putty.

If I select the "play" option from the tvheadend "configuration/services" web page, sometimes it plays (through VLC) and sometimes it doesnt. eg this morning I went through each of the SBS channels (Eastcoast of Australia) and everyone played fine, I then looked around the interface trying to find out how to disable the annoying log-in request from VLC each time I opened a stream. When I then went back to trying to play the channels nothing would work :(.

Any suggestions?

I can only guess that not all of the underlying services are valid - I know that, for example, here in the UK I have multiple entries for some channels but not all work. I've simply worked out which ones do work and disabled the others and unmapped them from the 'aggregate' channel. If you explore, you might find those SBS channels thus have several services, so you'll need to watch to see which ones (which muxes, probably) work and which ones are decorative.

VLC and access rights is another are to check - if you're embedding credentials in VLC's request, that's one thing, but if you're using */* as the user credentials then make sure that default user has all the required rights. You can also right-click and save the playlist file to open it locally, and you can change the playlist format (XSPF vs M3U) with a command-line option when you start tvheadend - you can then fix that in /etc/default/tvheadend.

Kodi and tvheadend are in a bit of a state of flux as addons and APIs catch up. I believe the Kodi 15 nightlies have the right addon version to play with all tvh versions, although I'm still on Helix and haven't tried (mysql/version issues mean I stick to stable until I can upgrade everything in one go).

Chrome should work fine, btw, so that's a cookie/cache/routing issue more than likely.

There are also Pi debs pre-built around here somewhere, I'll see if I can find the link... one of the other folks on the forum is building them regularly.

Yes, here:

https://nihil.selfhost.eu/tvheadend/

from this thread:

https://tvheadend.org/boards/5/topics/14829

... although they look like master (4.1.x) and not testing (4.0.x), so you pays your money and takes your choice...