Tvheadend

Frank Zappa wrote:

Hello Everybody,

I'm very new to TVHeadend, so sorry for maybe newbie questions.

In the next few months DVB-T will be turned off in Germany and I need a new DVB-T2 receiver. So I will give TVH a chance, but I'am a little confused to find the right USB-stick, to do that. There are so spare information about hardware and the German DVB-T2, because it has to support HEVC/H.265.

So, do I need a real DVB-T2 stick with HEVC support, or is a DVB-T(2) stick enought and TVH do the decodings?
Have you some suggestions about the stick for me, as I said, for me it's hard to find the right hardware at all?! There is no need for encrypted channels, it's enough for me to get the free channels.

Any DVB-T2 stick (supported on Linux) will work. All a tuner does is receive a signal, it's up to the software to do the rest, so it does not matter what codecs are sent as long as the software (receiving the signal) understands it. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T2 & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_transport_stream.

Tvheadend does not do any playback, that is up to the client. This is where you may run into issues, the Pi isn't powerful enough to decode H265 without hardware assisted decoding & unfortunately the GPU isn't capable of that (yet?).

Here is my setup:
Tvheadend will run on Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (Atom S1260 @2.00GHz)
Perhaps only client will be Kodi 16.1 via LibreElec 7.0.2 (Raspberry PI V2)

Thanks for help,
greetings,
WebEye

Thanks for help...

even if it's not very good news! I googled a little and guess you are right, the pi isn't powerfull eough...
I don't feel to buy another client to play H265 contents, so, it looks like, I will buy a hardware DVB-T2 receiver plugged directly to the television...

Or have anybody another idea?

Thanks,
WebEye

Hi,

here is my summarized Hardware which i am using together with tvbheadend to receive DVB-T and DVB-T2 HD (only unencrypted channels) in Germany:

Server-Side

Raspberry PI 2
2xAugust DVB-T210 (currently not available on Amazon)
Tvheadend 4.1-2236

Client-Side:

ODroid C2
http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/ODA1OTgxOTk-/Bauelemente_Bauteile/Entwicklerboards/Odroid/ODROID_C2_Einplatinen_Computer_1_5_GHz_QuadCore_2_GB_RAM_4x_USB.html
Libreelec 7.0.2 with Kodi 16.1

The Odroid C2 has an integrated H.265/HEVC hardware encoder, which makes viewing DVB-T2 HD fluent!

The big advantage of splitting the receiver into server and client is, that you can watch TV from any PC/Laptop/Mobile/Tablet in your house or flat, which is sometimes really nice :-).
---

Right now i'm trying to find out how to view the encrypted channels (RTL, Pro7 etc) together with tvheadend and a CAM. There is an encryption module from Freenet on Amazon which enables a DVB-T2 capable TV to decrypt the private channels (https://www.amazon.de/freenet-TV-DVB-T2-Monate-Guthaben/dp/B01FK7WWSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483796174&sr=8-1&keywords=freenet+tv+ci+modul).

Regards,

Michael

Michael Freudenberg wrote:

Client-Side:

ODroid C2
http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/ODA1OTgxOTk-/Bauelemente_Bauteile/Entwicklerboards/Odroid/ODROID_C2_Einplatinen_Computer_1_5_GHz_QuadCore_2_GB_RAM_4x_USB.html
Libreelec 7.0.2 with Kodi 16.1

The Odroid C2 has an integrated H.265/HEVC hardware encoder, which makes viewing DVB-T2 HD fluent!

Thanks for your setup, this ODroid looks nice, didn't know it, till today! But it seems to be a real alternative to the pi, althought it will be hard to spend another 50+ EUR plus usb-stick plus whatever to a new system, which is maybe not working in future...

The big advantage of splitting the receiver into server and client is, that you can watch TV from any PC/Laptop/Mobile/Tablet in your house or flat, which is sometimes really nice :-).

Yes, this is exact the reason, I wanted to realize it with TVH, but I think, I will only watch at the televisoion seriously...

Right now i'm trying to find out how to view the encrypted channels (RTL, Pro7 etc) together with tvheadend and a CAM. There is an encryption module from Freenet on Amazon which enables a DVB-T2 capable TV to decrypt the private channels (https://www.amazon.de/freenet-TV-DVB-T2-Monate-Guthaben/dp/B01FK7WWSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483796174&sr=8-1&keywords=freenet+tv+ci+modul).

I'm not interested, in the encrypted channels like Pro7 and Co., I don't want to spend money in commercials...

Meanwhile I tested some x265 stuff with the pi and your right 720p seems to be no problem, but 1080p stucks... I think, at the moment the channels broadcast in 720p, but in future they will use 1080p, so I've got no luck with the pi....

Thanks anyway,
WebEye

50+ EUR plus usb-stick plus whatever to a new system, which is maybe not working in future...

if you consider one USB receiver it's about 90€-100€ of hardware costs (50€ for the odroid + USB receiver + cables and power supplies). Thats comparable to a set top box. Yes there are cheaper, but non of them is "kodi-capable". And if you already have a NAS or fritzbox you can record to a network share (which i think is a really cool feature).

I think if you consider only watching the unencrypted channels (ARD, ZDF etc.), then this setup should be future proof.

But, we'll see it when the official broadcasting phase starts end of march.

Michael

Hey,

meanwhile I've bought an August T230 DVB-T2 Stick, and set up TVH.
But I've got the problem that Kodi won't play the dvb-t2 streams, dvb-t(1) will play. I've started the same thread in "xmbc as frontend" forum, but here are some guys with german DVB-T2 experience, I think.... So, sorry for that!

So, I've tested it with Kodi 16.1 on a Win7 computer to avoid hardware issues. If I want to play a DVB-T2 Stream, the buffering window appears but stucks on 0%

The DBV-T2 streams are playable, for example VLC is playing very well....
Kodi gave back following log:

13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: Thread DVDPlayer start, auto delete: false
13:06:23 T:14988  NOTICE: Creating InputStream
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: PVRManager - PVR::CPVRManager::OpenLiveStream - opening live stream on channel 'Das Erste HD'
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: opening live stream for channel 'Das Erste HD'
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: AddOnLog: Tvheadend HTSP Client: pvr.hts - demux open
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: AddOnLog: Tvheadend HTSP Client: pvr.hts - demux subscribe to 252861906
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: AddOnLog: Tvheadend HTSP Client: pvr.hts - demux successfully subscribed to channel id 252861906, subscription id 3
13:06:23 T:12660   DEBUG: AddOnLog: Tvheadend HTSP Client: pvr.hts - demux unhandled subscription message [subscriptionGrace]
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: PVRFile - XFILE::CPVRFile::Open - playback has started on filename pvr://channels/tv/Alle Kanäle/pvr.hts_252861906.pvr
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: CDVDInputStreamPVRManager::Open - stream opened: pvr://channels/tv/Alle Kanäle/pvr.hts_252861906.pvr
13:06:23 T:14988  NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
13:06:23 T:14988   ERROR: CSelectionStreams::Get - failed to get stream
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: CDVDPlayer::SetCaching - caching state 2
13:06:23 T:14988 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(audio)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
13:06:23 T:14988 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(video)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
13:06:23 T:14988   DEBUG: CApplication::OnPlayBackStarted: play state was 1, starting 1
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: CApplication::PlayFile: OpenFile succeed, play state 2
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: CApplication::OnPlayBackStarted: play state was 2, starting 0
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (DialogSeekBar.xml) ------
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: CGUIInfoManager::SetCurrentMovie(pvr://channels/tv/Alle Kanäle/pvr.hts_252861906.pvr)
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: CAnnouncementManager - Announcement: OnPlay from xbmc
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: GOT ANNOUNCEMENT, type: 1, from xbmc, message OnPlay
13:06:23 T:12528   DEBUG: AddOnLog: Tvheadend HTSP Client: pvr.hts - Announce(flag=Player, sender=xbmc, message=OnPlay)

All hints are welcome, hope you can help me....
Thanks,
WebEye

Frank Zappa wrote:

Hey,

meanwhile I've bought an August T230 DVB-T2 Stick, and set up TVH.
But I've got the problem that Kodi won't play the dvb-t2 streams, dvb-t(1) will play. I've started the same thread in "xmbc as frontend" forum, but here are some guys with german DVB-T2 experience, I think.... So, sorry for that!

So, I've tested it with Kodi 16.1 on a Win7 computer to avoid hardware issues. If I want to play a DVB-T2 Stream, the buffering window appears but stucks on 0%

The DBV-T2 streams are playable, for example VLC is playing very well....
Kodi gave back following log:

[...]

All hints are welcome, hope you can help me....
Thanks,
WebEye

Germany uses HEVC on DVB-T2 I believe. If you're using hardware decoding in Kodi try turning it off & see if that helps.

I've tried out these options, no success..
Meanwhile I tested some other clients, all without success:

Kodi 17 (Windows)
Kodi 16.1 (ODroid C2) which can decode HEVC native
Kodi 16.1 (Raspberry PI2)

Maybe it's a Kodi issue, but I know there are several people, who stream german DVB-T2 via TVH to Kodi....

Frank Zappa wrote:

I've tried out these options, no success..
Meanwhile I tested some other clients, all without success:

Kodi 17 (Windows)
Kodi 16.1 (ODroid C2) which can decode HEVC native
Kodi 16.1 (Raspberry PI2)

Maybe it's a Kodi issue, but I know there are several people, who stream german DVB-T2 via TVH to Kodi....

Hi, yes that's me :-).

1. You need TVHeadend with HEVC support - Starting from TVHeadend 4.1 upwards. If you don't use x86 compatible hardware for your TVHeadend server you will have to compile your own TVHeadend. I did that on a raspberry pi and wouldn't recommend it to do it. You may want to use a repository containing precompiled packaged for the raspberry PI (armhf architecture). I have used this one for the unstable builds (deb https://dl.bintray.com/djbenson/deb wheezy unstable)
2. You need Kodi Version 14+ (since this Version Kodi supports HEVC) and in best case a client with HEVC hardware support - otherwise you need a good CPU with a good cooler!
3. Your DVB-T receiver should be fine this [[site https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Geniatech_T230]] might be interesting for you - if you haven't already seen it.

I have used my setup for a few weeks with the current situation in Germany (combined broadcast of DVB-T and DVB-T2 channels). So far DVB-T was working brilliant, i had a couple of recording scheduled and all of them were working fine. I also managed to view some shows on ARD HD which is DVB-T2 with HEVC on my Odroid-C2 and LibreElec. The stream was fine except for a microscopic time delay in audio, which was only visible occasionally (when hardly watching the lips of the 'tagesschau speaker').

Furthermore, I had the feeling that, each time i watched DVB-T2, the whole system got instable and crashed after a while (not during the stream, but after half a day or so). The crash was so critical, that i couldn't even connect to the Raspberry PI via SSH. I had to unplug the PI from the power supply and reboot it manually. Due to the fact, that this happened a few times a week, i was annoyed after a while and shut the whole thing down!

I think i will give it another chance an install again an unstable version of TVHeadend. So far, it seems there is no stable release of 4.1 or 4.2 in sight?
I have not much options SAT is not possible, no cable in the house and i don't want to think about IPTV - neither legal (Telekom) nor 'grey-legal' Kodi-IPTV plugin.
I guess i will have to buy a damn receiver at the end of march.

We'll see.

Greetings

Michael Freudenberg wrote:

Frank Zappa wrote:

I've tried out these options, no success..
Meanwhile I tested some other clients, all without success:

Kodi 17 (Windows)
Kodi 16.1 (ODroid C2) which can decode HEVC native
Kodi 16.1 (Raspberry PI2)

Maybe it's a Kodi issue, but I know there are several people, who stream german DVB-T2 via TVH to Kodi....

Hi, yes that's me :-).

1. You need TVHeadend with HEVC support - Starting from TVHeadend 4.1 upwards. If you don't use x86 compatible hardware for your TVHeadend server you will have to compile your own TVHeadend. I did that on a raspberry pi and wouldn't recommend it to do it. You may want to use a repository containing precompiled packaged for the raspberry PI (armhf architecture). I have used this one for the unstable builds (deb https://dl.bintray.com/djbenson/deb wheezy unstable)
2. You need Kodi Version 14+ (since this Version Kodi supports HEVC) and in best case a client with HEVC hardware support - otherwise you need a good CPU with a good cooler!
3. Your DVB-T receiver should be fine this [[site https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Geniatech_T230]] might be interesting for you - if you haven't already seen it.

I have used my setup for a few weeks with the current situation in Germany (combined broadcast of DVB-T and DVB-T2 channels). So far DVB-T was working brilliant, i had a couple of recording scheduled and all of them were working fine. I also managed to view some shows on ARD HD which is DVB-T2 with HEVC on my Odroid-C2 and LibreElec. The stream was fine except for a microscopic time delay in audio, which was only visible occasionally (when hardly watching the lips of the 'tagesschau speaker').

Furthermore, I had the feeling that, each time i watched DVB-T2, the whole system got instable and crashed after a while (not during the stream, but after half a day or so). The crash was so critical, that i couldn't even connect to the Raspberry PI via SSH. I had to unplug the PI from the power supply and reboot it manually. Due to the fact, that this happened a few times a week, i was annoyed after a while and shut the whole thing down!

I think i will give it another chance an install again an unstable version of TVHeadend. So far, it seems there is no stable release of 4.1 or 4.2 in sight?

This is because there is only one main developer at the moment, unfortunately he's been extremely busy lately.

I have not much options SAT is not possible, no cable in the house and i don't want to think about IPTV - neither legal (Telekom) nor 'grey-legal' Kodi-IPTV plugin.
I guess i will have to buy a damn receiver at the end of march.

We'll see.

Greetings

Most of what you're describing is playback issues which isn't the fault of Tvheadend but whatever you're using to play the stream, but I think you already know that. :p

For what it's worth Tvheadend 4.1.xxxx has no issues with HEVC here, at least not with the Astra Ultra HD demo on satellite. I can record & play it back fine, this is with Tvheadend on a HP Microserver using VLC as frontend.

I'm a bit surprised that the German govt went with HEVC rather than sticking with x264. I was sure our govt (the UK) would follow suit & go with HEVC too, but judging from the issues (this thread being one example) I think I now understand why they went with x264.

I love HEVC, it's great, but sometimes newer isn't always better.

I'm a bit surprised that the German govt went with HEVC rather than sticking with x264. I was sure our govt (the UK) would follow suit & go with HEVC too, but judging from the issues (this thread being one example) I think I now understand why they went with x264.

We did however launch DVB-T2 before any STB or PC based receivers were ready, while half way through analogue switch off... Adding HEVC (which wasn't finalised four another four years) would have been pushing it! IIRC the launch of On Digital was delayed back in the 1990s as there weren't any STB available for DVB-T back then either.

RE the German switch - is that terrestrial only or will DVB-S MPEG2 be effected too (i.e. will RTL continue to be available via FTA Satellite?)

Hey Everybody!

Michael Freudenberg wrote:

1. You need TVHeadend with HEVC support - Starting from TVHeadend 4.1 upwards. If you don't use x86 compatible hardware for your TVHeadend server you will have to compile your own TVHeadend. I did that on a raspberry pi and wouldn't recommend it to do it. You may want to use a repository containing precompiled packaged for the raspberry PI (armhf architecture). I have used this one for the unstable builds (deb https://dl.bintray.com/djbenson/deb wheezy unstable)
2. You need Kodi Version 14+ (since this Version Kodi supports HEVC) and in best case a client with HEVC hardware support - otherwise you need a good CPU with a good cooler!

I will give it a try, but I'm wondering, why DVB-T2 is working with VLC as frontend, when TVH 4.0 can not handle HEVC! But you are right, I saw it in TVH changelog HEVC support since version 4.1/2

3. Your DVB-T receiver should be fine this [[site https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Geniatech_T230]] might be interesting for you - if you haven't already seen it.

Yeah, I know this page, it costs me a couple of hours to integrate this device in Linux 3.13....

Furthermore, I had the feeling that, each time i watched DVB-T2, the whole system got instable and crashed after a while (not during the stream, but after half a day or so). The crash was so critical, that i couldn't even connect to the Raspberry PI via SSH. I had to unplug the PI from the power supply and reboot it manually. Due to the fact, that this happened a few times a week, i was annoyed after a while and shut the whole thing down!
...
I guess i will have to buy a damn receiver at the end of march.

You're the same Michael, who adjure me, to buy a ODroid and won't have any problems with it in this very same thread, right?! ;)
Never mind.... maybe it will work some day without crash...

I think the problem isn't THV, but ODRoid. I think ODRoid is a very nice piece of hardware, but not fully supported, yet. I noticed this at a few points in LibreElec, but we should gave the developers some time.... I bet there is no problem with VLC under a windows system....
And maybe, you're right and we will sit all on our hardware receivers in April. I have no chance to watch tv, except dvb-t2 too!

Kev S wrote:

RE the German switch - is that terrestrial only or will DVB-S MPEG2 be effected too (i.e. will RTL continue to be available via FTA Satellite?)

As far as I know, it's only terrestrial, but who knows, what future delivered... And further more the private channels are not only HEVC, they are encrypted too!

So one last question:
To update TVH, is it neccessary to uninstall it, and reinstall it with the unstable branch, or is it enough to change to the unstable branch and get a update?

Thanks again,
WebEye

You're the same Michael, who adjure me, to buy a ODroid and won't have any problems with it in this very same thread, right?! ;)
Never mind.... maybe it will work some day without crash...

Hold on a sec. The ODroid-C2 as the frontend is working perfectly fine (No one shall smudge my precious odroid)! I also use it to playback videos stored on my NAS.

It's the backend that regulary crashes and drives me crazy. But the reason is very simple - I'm running an 'unstable' build of TVHeadend. Therefore i must not complain !

Yet, sometimes I need to get things of my chest, because that topic is really getting more and more frustrating. DVB-T was and still is running so good and i am tending to say "why do we need to change it?". But that leads me to becoming a person i don't want to be.. ok let's stop that.

To update TVH, is it neccessary to uninstall it, and reinstall it with the unstable branch, or is it enough to change to the unstable branch and get a update?

Backup your /home/hts (especially the hidden folder /home/hts/.hts), remove TVH and reinstall from the unstable branch. I can't remember having any issues after starting the new TVH. As far as i remember all configurations (Channels, EPG) remained the same and i needn't configure anything. Except if you need to add the new DVB-T2 channels.

Regards,

Michael

Hey Michael,
sorry for late answer, but in week I'm very busy!

Michael Freudenberg wrote:

You're the same Michael, who adjure me, to buy a ODroid and won't have any problems with it in this very same thread, right?! ;)
Never mind.... maybe it will work some day without crash...

Hold on a sec. The ODroid-C2 as the frontend is working perfectly fine (No one shall smudge my precious odroid)! I also use it to playback videos stored on my NAS.

Hey, never mind, just kidding and I really missunderstood you, I thought your frontend crashed...

So here is my story, I reinstalled TVH like you told me, and now I'm able to watch HD channel via Kodi (only tested on a win-machine). So far it works well, sometimes, when I switched a channel, the picture was broken (massive fragments), but if I reswitched this channel it works proper. I will test it a few days...

Whats about the private channel, are they encrypted for you too? I bet, I've read, they wanted to stream them decrypted for a few month and encrypt them then...
So, I think my DVB-T2 project is finished now, time to start the ODroid handycraft work and set it up...

Thanks again and all you guys for support,
WeEye