Tvheadend

Thanks so much for the effort here you are doing

Havent tested the package so far, but wanted to pint out some thing missing from the packages I tested from various sources in the past, maybe you will be able to consider them in your packages if not already.

- The tvheadend service should run in a synology user context, so we can assign access rights to the existing shares (e.g. create synouser tvheadend)
- Folders for timeshifting and recordings should be asked by the installation wizard and if the previous point is there, shares with default names could be created
- opening tvheadend from the Synology Desktop never worked from the Icon, the cgi script always had an error.
- An option to consider sundtek dvb adapters, they have a package (see http://sundtek.de/synology) and they are modifying existing tvheadend-testing packages to make it work. (it is basically one line in the start script of tvheadend which needs to be added)
- tvheadend should have access to the video hardware in case hardware acceleration is used for transcoding
- The icons the tvheadend package are using always had the wrong size. I can provide icons in correct size, so the Synology Desktop Startmenu doesnt get dissorted.

Hope you find my comments helpfull and of course inspireing so they will be considered

Thanks again for all the effort here and hope to get some feedback from your side regarding the points.

Regards
Vlaves

Thanks, Vlaves. All kind of input and ideas are appreciated. So let's see...

javier segura: The tvheadend service should run in a synology user context, so we can assign access rights to the existing shares (e.g. create synouser tvheadend)

I agree with you. Unfortunately the options for implementing this are limited by the way how Synology handles 3rd-party-packages since DSM6.1. The packages I linked create a user "sc-tvheadend" in a group "sc-media" on newer DSM versions on new installations. While sc-tvheadend remains an internal system user, you can and should in fact now use the group "sc-media" to manage permissions and privileges. This can be done through your DSM. This is pretty new, so please give it a try and see if it does what you are looking for. I think it might...

@2: Folders for timeshifting and recordings should be asked by the installation wizard and if the previous point is there, shares with default names could be created

There are two wizards now. The first one is specific to the Synology packages. Currently, it just asks for a username and password. Secondly, a wizard that is automatically executed once tvheadend is started for the first time. Based on the second wizard, all the base configuration files are created, including the ones containing timeshift and recording folders. Right now I don't see a way to "infuse" this information through the DSM wizard, but including it in the tvheadend-internal wizard should be straight forward. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to request this feature via creating a ticket here on tvheadend.org and seeing whether perexg is willing to take it up.

@3: Opening tvheadend from the Synology Desktop never worked from the Icon, the cgi script always had an error.

Correct. This has been a long-standing bug. It should be fixed with the latest builds I have uploaded. Please give it a try and report back if the issue persists.

@4: An option to consider sundtek dvb adapters, they have a package (see http://sundtek.de/synology) and they are modifying existing tvheadend-testing packages to make it work. (it is basically one line in the start script of tvheadend which needs to be added)

Interesting. I don't use Sundteks, but can look into this.

@5: tvheadend should have access to the video hardware in case hardware acceleration is used for transcoding

Yes, but nothing I can solve through cross-compiling and packaging. There are at least two major issues with this: Firstly, TVH itself has to support it, which is currently not the case (see e.g. here: http://tvheadend.org/issues/4443). Secondly, Synology has to disclose the drivers. I own an evansport device which is supposed to hw transcode. Figured out Synology patched ffmpeg to accomplish that with their video station, but did not bother to publish their patches. To my knowledge, they never upstreamed them. Then, different boxes have different decoders. I seriously doubt there will ever be an out-of-box solution for this, even in the mid-term.

@6: The icons the tvheadend package are using always had the wrong size. I can provide icons in correct size, so the Synology Desktop Startmenu doesnt get dissorted.

Great. Please provide them and I will be happy to include them.

Thanks for the fast reply, really appreciate such open communication And thanks again for all your effort

javier segura: is this sc-media group created by your packages on a 5.2 installation as well, like in the same way as on 6.1 systems?

@2: okay, thanks a lot for the input, will for sure have a look. Mean it wasn't never a too heavy task to set those to folders, just thought it would be nice if it would have worked out from the package installation itself

@3 great to hear that

@4: That would be really great if you could have a look at their package, as far as I know they are modifying the allready installed tvheadend-testing package so when tvheadend starts it loads their driver before that. And I thought they create a synology user and let tvheadend run then as that user (not 100% sure bout this point though), that's why I came up with point number 1

@5: For that topic as far as I understood, tvheadend is using static compiled ffmpeg inside with support for va-api. On synology the user starting the ffmpeg process needs to have access to some /dri device. Only then hardware acceleration is working and it is even working on the 214play models, which is your synology I believe (you can have a look here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/36814-ds916-emby-transcoding-performance/?p=379641) Hope thats inspiring you as its your own synology to have a more deep look in how their package is doing it

@6: Glad I can help out at least in something I've attached the updated icons in all needed sizes.

Hi Martin;

TNX again, BIG KUDOS !!!

I will try to simply update my 4.08 to 4.2.3 on Synology 5.2

I will post my findings (if any) here for the benfit of the bigger number

Vlad Obrad:

javier segura: No, you are right: On DSM5.2 the user "tvheadend" is created with group "users". When DSM6 arrived and everybody was confused, there were some attempts to "solve" them by running tvheadend with root/admin privileges, which was not a good idea. The packages I linked do not do that. The implementation should be ok. This is one of the reasons why I recommend clean installations. Anyways, if you should find any quirks testing, please let me know...

@4: Did some reading: I think there are two different things Sundtek tried to achieve:
- Firstly, it seems that you have to preload certain drivers from the tvheadend start-stop-script in order to make the Sundtek adapters appear in TVH. If that is all, this is easy. Just let me know which architecture and DSM version you are running and I can compile a test package for you to try.
- Secondly, they realized that during the DSM5 -> 6 transition period the permissions in some packages were screwed up. They have simply overwritten the owners and user permissions to fix them. With the packages I linked this should no longer be necessary on 5.2 systems, as user permissions are correct again. On 6.1+ systems though, it would actually mess up user permissions. I hope they are aware.
Let's see how it goes. If you give me your system information as requested above, I will send you that test build to try and play around with. And if everything works as it should, it might make sense to approach the Sundtek support to make them aware as well.

@5: Intersting link, I wasn't aware, but the situation is what I described. See the following link on the emby forum for some more details:
https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/43282-hw-transcoding-on-evansport-ds415playds214play-machines/
They "solve" the issue by linking ffmpeg dynamically, rather than statically, and replacing the "standard" emby ffmpeg version with the latest version with evansport patch provided by Synology within DSM. The "price" is that you run an outdated ffmpeg version and lose DTS support (see the emby thread above). I'm pretty sure you are also missing some recent security patches. Too many people lost too much time to recover functionality that Synology promised and should have made publically available in the first place, rather than trying to lock everybody into their proprietary solution. I might look into this again, once TVH adds the missing pieces (see the link in my first response) AND Synology publishes more recent ffmpeg versions containing the patches. But again, please don't count on this. Looooong shot! :-)

@6: Perfect. Thanks. Will include them.

Frank:

Great! Any feedback appreciated.

Martin Walter wrote:

@4: Did some reading: I think there are two different things Sundtek tried to achieve:
- Firstly, it seems that you have to preload certain drivers from the tvheadend start-stop-script in order to make the Sundtek adapters appear in TVH. If that is all, this is easy. Just let me know which architecture and DSM version you are running and I can compile a test package for you to try.

That would be great, my Synology is a DS3615, so not sure exactly what architecture (package wise, obviously its a x64 system, just don't know for packages). But wouldn't it be a simpler to add to all start script for all architectures a simple check, if their package is installed, then preload their driver and if not then simply continue with the normal script. Then you don't have to maintain different behaviour.

Martin Walter wrote:

- Secondly, they realized that during the DSM5 -> 6 transition period the permissions in some packages were screwed up. They have simply overwritten the owners and user permissions to fix them. With the packages I linked this should no longer be necessary on 5.2 systems, as user permissions are correct again. On 6.1+ systems though, it would actually mess up user permissions. I hope they are aware.

Does that mean if I will install their package on DSM 6.1 that they will screw up permissions on your package?

Martin Walter wrote:

Let's see how it goes. If you give me your system information as requested above, I will send you that test build to try and play around with. And if everything works as it should, it might make sense to approach the Sundtek support to make them aware as well.

Yeah would love to test your package

Martin Walter wrote:

@5: Intersting link, I wasn't aware, but the situation is what I described. ...But again, please don't count on this. Looooong shot! :-)

I see Too bad tvheadend can't utilize external ffmpeg...

Martin Walter wrote:

@6: Perfect. Thanks. Will include them.

Glad I could at least help out with that

@Valves

OK, here you go:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uhsqcmppoq5p9og/AAApS-QGRHgzmEoheYTmh3vka?dl=0

If you could please test the following:
- Does the DSM Web link work?
- Does the logo have the right format and size in the DSM Web-interface now?
- Does the TVH package recognize your Sundtek tuner driver without applying any other Sundtek patches?
- Please also report which DSM version you are running

To your remaining questions:
- Just wanted to know your arch for the test builds. IF it works it will be implemented for all platforms, but I need proof of principle first.
- If Sundtek were changing file ownerships and permissions on the DSM6.1+ tvheadend installations I have been linking, as they did with the old pre-DSM6 packages, they would screw things up. But I don't know what they do in detail, so cannot judge really. Don't know enough about this right now.

Martin Walter wrote:

- Does the DSM Web link work?

The Weblink works fine now

Martin Walter wrote:

- Does the logo have the right format and size in the DSM Web-interface now?

Logo is perfect too

Martin Walter wrote:

- Does the TVH package recognize your Sundtek tuner driver without applying any other Sundtek patches?

Sadly not recognizing the adapter. Installed their package first (to get the driver), then your tvheadend package, so that their package is not touching your package while installing the sundtek driver

Update: This is the error from the start-stop-status script:**
Synology> ./start-stop-status start
Starting Tvheadend ...
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/local/sundtek/opt/lib/libmediaclient.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.

Martin Walter wrote:

- Please also report which DSM version you are running

DSM 5.2-5967 Update 4

Hope you can get the sundtek driver somehow integrated. But I guess, their driver needs some time to load and normally their package would then restart tvheadend, but it is not seeing your package. So I guess the start script of tvheadend should wait till driver is loaded. But that just from what I have been reading, not 100% sure bout those details.

In ubuntu you need to modify the /etc/sundtek.com and to ad "attach='restart tvheadend service command'". So when the attach event comes they are restarting tvheadend, so assuming they are doing something similar on Synology. Hope that info helps to make it run with your package

OK. Thanks for testing, Vlad. I have installed the Sundtek driver package on my NAS now and seen what is going on: Upon installation of the Sundtek driver package they modify the tvheadend and/or tvheadend-testing installations they find.

Their script does three things:
1) It modifies the TVH start command, prefixing the LD_PRELOAD command required to preload the tuner drivers before starting TVH
2) It modifies the TVH start command again to deactivate or reactivate user authentification if that is requested via the Sundtek WebUI.
3) If they find a "tvheadend-*" user in the start-stop-script they create a "tvheadend" user with an expired account (group = 1) and change the ownerships and permissions of the existing TVH installations

1) makes sense. 2) and 3) are hacks to workaround issues with corrupted tvheadend packages, which stem from the DSM5 -> DSM6 transition period.

Now the problem: Yes, I could implement 1) in TVH directly, but I doubt Sundtek could undo 1)-3) as they would get user complaints from people running old packages. They need broad compatibility.

On the upside, from reviewing their script, 1)-3) should still work with the TVH installations I have been linking originally, i.e. if you install TVH first and the Sundtek driver later, TVH should identify the Sundtek tuners. Also, the user permissions on tvheadend release installations with DSM6.1 should NOT be messed up. It would be great if you could confirm this on your system though i.e.
- Deinstall the package I have built for you yesterday
- Deinstall the Sundtek driver package
- Install the right package from the dropbox link in post #1 first
- Install the Sundtek driver pakage second
This should give you the Sundtek tuner back

Martin Walter wrote:
It would be great if you could confirm this on your system though i.e.

- Deinstall the package I have built for you yesterday
- Deinstall the Sundtek driver package
- Install the right package from the dropbox link in post #1 first
- Install the Sundtek driver pakage second

All done and its working, only the corrected Icons are missing

Just wanted to say, thanks so much for your great support

One question though left Would it be possible to also provide a tvheadend-testing version for DSM 5.2?

Your packages hosted on tvheadend-servers as an community Synology repository would be really great
Do you think it would be possible for the tvheadend-team to host such an community repository on their servers, of course if that would be ok for you too?

Thanks, Vlad. I will include the corrected icon with some other updates in the upcoming days and update the packages on the dropbox link when this is done.

W.r.t. the publication of the packages:
- Source-wise, I'm using the Synocommunity cross-compilation framework so it would be natural to publish with them. The only issue is that they have not been able to get their publishing platform DSM6.1 ready so far. Unfortunately, this has been delaying publication for several months. On the other hand, some new people at the Synocommunity have stepped up to continue the work recently. I'm hopeful we will get there eventually. I have only decided to "publish" the packages here to bridge the gap until that happens and get some beta testing done, which (as you have proven) is very helpful!
- Package-wise, my objective has been to finally create some up-to-date stable release packages for Synology systems. This is what I have been looking for myself for almost three years, since I started the TVH adventure. Achieving that stage has been very difficult, partly because TVH development itself has been so volatile and time-consuming (one developer, albeit one in "god-mode", lots and lots of changes and new features, there simply was no release for a long time); partly, because of the DSM5 -> 6 trasition which Synology really screwed up horribly for 3rd pary developers. I'm very grateful to J. Dierkse for keeping the boat afloat for such a long time with his testing packages. I believe he will continue building testing packages, which you can continue to use (again, testing is a separate package). However, with all the features the TVH releases posses now thanks to perexg, I want to only focus on the release branch for the time being, but rather get those right. Hope that makes sense...

New packages have just been uploaded. Minor updates (including the new icon with corrected aspect ratio), but no functional changes. Therefore, no need to upgrade if you are already running a package from here.

Hi and thank you for making these packages!

However I wonder if there is a bug in the EPG-section?
No matter what I try, I cannot get good season/episode data in TVHeadend...

Please read my forumpost here to see my problem, and tested solutions:
https://tvheadend.org/boards/12/topics/27940?r=27966

Looks like this has to do with how the xmltv information is parsed. I have no experience with this, as I don't even get season and episode data from my EPG sources. However, I don't see a specific connection to the packaging of TVH for Synology platforms specifically, so opening a new thread (as you did) was the right thing to do. If you think this is a bug (cannot judge), it might be worthwhile to open a ticket for perexg to look at it.

Hi, and thanks for the response!
It looks like it is a TVHeadend bug. I've tested different packages, but the same happens on all of them.

But you keep up the good work!

For everybody interested in HW transcoding on Synology devices, I'd recommend you follow the following thread:
https://tvheadend.org/issues/4443#change-23031

The loooooong shot I was talking about above is very much in reach now, because the way @perexg has tackled it will allow you to use Synology's patched ffmpeg version with HW transcoding via the spawn profile.

Martin -

My name is Joseph, and I'm a bit of a newbie to all this Synology / TvHeadend stuff. I'm reasonably computer literate, but the detailed stuff really bogs me down a bit, so I apologise in advance if this sounds like a newbie question.

Firstly, thanks for these packages. I've been trying to get TvHeadend running on my DS214play for a while now, and all previous attempts have failed at one hurdle or another. Yours have just worked. This is very, very nice.

I have one small (or it could be quite large) hurdle to cle ar before I can crack on with using TvHeadend, and that problem is that the software is not detecting the correct hardware.

I have a Homerun Connect HDHR4-2DT, which is the dual-tuner Euro / AU DVB-T tuner model. When TvHeadend is running, it describes it as a DVB-C model, which is incorrect. From what I have read, TvHeadend defaults to the DVB-C, but I don't want it to.

What would be helpful is to be able to change / add drivers somewhere, but after a couple of hours of messing about, I can't seem to find a way to do that.

It might me a bit outside of your expertise, but do you have any ideas as to how you'd get TVHeadend to reassess what hardware it is trying to connect to? I suspect this may involve command-line voodoo, which is not my strong point, but I thought I'd at least ask and see if someone knew alternatives.

If you have any information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Joseph

Joseph Karl wrote:

Martin -

My name is Joseph, and I'm a bit of a newbie to all this Synology / TvHeadend stuff. I'm reasonably computer literate, but the detailed stuff really bogs me down a bit, so I apologise in advance if this sounds like a newbie question.

Firstly, thanks for these packages. I've been trying to get TvHeadend running on my DS214play for a while now, and all previous attempts have failed at one hurdle or another. Yours have just worked. This is very, very nice.

I have one small (or it could be quite large) hurdle to cle ar before I can crack on with using TvHeadend, and that problem is that the software is not detecting the correct hardware.

I have a Homerun Connect HDHR4-2DT, which is the dual-tuner Euro / AU DVB-T tuner model. When TvHeadend is running, it describes it as a DVB-C model, which is incorrect. From what I have read, TvHeadend defaults to the DVB-C, but I don't want it to.

What would be helpful is to be able to change / add drivers somewhere, but after a couple of hours of messing about, I can't seem to find a way to do that.

It might me a bit outside of your expertise, but do you have any ideas as to how you'd get TVHeadend to reassess what hardware it is trying to connect to? I suspect this may involve command-line voodoo, which is not my strong point, but I thought I'd at least ask and see if someone knew alternatives.

If you have any information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Joseph

In the Configuration > DVB Inputs > TV Adapters tab, there should be a listing of your HDHR devices. Select the device itself (not an individual tuner under the device) and change its "Network type". Set it to DVB-T, and then for each tuner under the device assign it to a DVB-T network that you've created. After you've done that you can begin scanning for muxes.

(As a note, I'm not sure how up-to-date the Synology packages are. From reading posts of other users, it appears he maintainer is far behind, as the Syno packages are 4.1, which is the old development branch, as 4.2.3 is current stable.)

Packages on dropbox have been updated to 4.2.4 (latest maintenance release). New architectures (apollolake, denverton) have been added for DSM6.1. See post #1 for instructions. Please continue to report problems you run into.

hello

thx for the packages. i install tvheadend_x64-6.1_4.2.4-11.spk on my DS218+, works
good. but i miss under CA "cccam", how can i add this.

on my second tvh is this available

cccam is only available since 4.3

possible to update tvheadend to 4.3? thx

regard

Hello,

Thanks for the package. I install tvheadend 4.2.4 on my DS218+. My TERRATEC DVB-T usb tuner is recognized and everything is ok... But I failed to configure an internal grabber. Nothing appears in this section. I have copy a tv_grab_file in usr/bin and give the good permissions

@-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1000 Nov 28 21:47 tv_grab_file

But after restarting TVheadEnd and the NAS, nothing appear in the internal grabber section.

Could you please help me and tell me where i'm wrong.

Laurent

Dear,

After the DSM 6.1.4-15217 Update 4 update , the tvheadend installation broke.
Website isn't available anymore.
Downgrading is not possible. Although app says: running

Let me know if yo want me to check things.
I'm very new to the dsm os, so i'm still noob when it comes to how the DSM OS is setup internally.

A small question: would a docker install not overcome these update issues?
What is the drawback of such a setup. Use of hardware en-decoding on those specific devices?

Either wise a big thanks for the time you put in this!
Don't know if you're affiliated with tvheadend, but donated.

Kheno

Lau rent Sorry, but I don't use those grabbers. Pretty sure this is not a Synology-specific issue though. If you have not yet done that anyways in the meantime, please just open another forum issue / thread and I'm sure you will get responses and support.

nico delcrois Hmh, ran the same update without issues, but that does not mean anything. You have probably tried (some of) the following suggestions already, but if not, give them a go:
- Stopping the TVH package and restarting it
- Ensuring you are connecting to the right IP and ports. If you can enter into the Web-UI of your NAS, you can be sure you have got the right IP. Default port is 9981 for the http connection (web interface)
- Activating "ssh" on your NAS, sshing into the box and running "top" to verify that the package is actually running
- Manually upgrading the TVH package with the same package

I'm not affiliated with TVH but like it a lot. It's great that you donated and support the open source community, so Thank You!

Tried all of them

Then I setup the development environment, since I have the apollolake (new ds918+ and first synology), I could give it a try:
-I was able to compile nano, duplicity, ...
-With tvheadend the openssl error was easily fixable, but the tribidi thing was a step to far for me. (changed from download to github and prob other verions)

So I tried the docker way,
which worked!... for a while...

Suddenly website was not reachable anymore, same problem as before.
The docker was running fine, could see the process, open ports. Docker itself forwarded its port perfectly.
Looks like non standard DSM port get blocked.
I decided to leave it as is and get some sleep

In the meanwhile, I saw that overnight the update 5 was installed, and yes my tvheadend website is reachable again!
I suppose there is a protection kicking in or rules are getting erased for whatever reason.
If it happens again, I think I should look into the qnap iptable rules.

Thank you!