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Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS

Added by Martin Walter about 7 years ago

Tvheadend 4.2.8

For those interested in native (non-docker) Tvheadend packages for their Synology NAS systems, you will find recent release packages published here:

https://synocommunity.com/

Please report any Synology package-specific issues with the Synocommunity, i.e. here:

https://github.com/SynoCommunity/spksrc/issues

Test packages

Unpublished test packages are sometimes available in this thread, but currently not available.

Some important remarks for test packages (when available):
  • All packages provided here are beta packages. Use at your own risk.
  • Always back up your Tvheadend configuration before you upgrade!
  • You cannot upgrade from a Tvheadend-Testing to a Tvheadend release package or vice versa. These packages have separate configurations. NEVER run a testing and a release package in parallel.
  • The upgrade process may take several minutes as recordings might have to be moved. Please be patient if the upgraded package does not start right away.
  • The release packages are very recent and up-to-date. I highly recommend staying away from testing packages at the moment, unless you cannot run the release packages for whatever reason and you know what you are doing.
  • If you are already running a package, which you have downloaded from here, upgrading should be safe (backup anyway!)
  • Otherwise, I recommend clean installations, especially if you have already installed packages from different sources and you have had trouble with user permissions in the past. There is some likelihood they are messed up. Also:
    - If you are currently running a Tvheadend-Testing package and you want to install a release package, you will have to start configuring it from scratch anyways.
    - If you are running an old release package on DSM5.2 and you want to upgrade your DSM and Tvheadend, upgrade your DSM first, only then upgrade TVH with a new release package. However, depending on how old your old release package is, you might still run into hicups. If that happens, you are most likely better off starting a clean configuration from scratch, too.

Updates / Edits:

- 26.02.2019: TVH 4.2.8 republished on SynoCommunity (fixes CA module regressions and upgrades of legacy packages)
- 09.02.2019: TVH 4.2.8 published on SynoCommunity (HW transcoding support via spawn profile TBC)
- 15.10.2018: TVH 4.2.7 test packages for DSM6.1+ available. Link added.
- 08.05.2018: TVH 4.2.6 packages have been published on the Synocommunity repository. Link added.
- 14.04.2018: Update to TVH 4.2.6 (latest maintenance release) and fixes for installations on non-standard volumes
- 24.03.2018: Update fixing recordings being stored in the wrong place
- 26.01.2018: Added upgrading instructions
- 16.01.2018: Update to TVH 4.2.5 (latest maintenance release)
- 21.10.2017: Update to TVH 4.2.4 (latest maintenance release)


Replies (327)

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Thanks for testing and reporting. I cannot judge whether this is Synology-specific. Could you please open a ticket for this and see what the "general" experts say? If it is just "lack of horsepower", there is probably nothing we can do, but it might be something fixable as well...

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Juan Manuel Juan over 5 years ago

Martin Walter wrote:

Thanks for testing and reporting. I cannot judge whether this is Synology-specific. Could you please open a ticket for this and see what the "general" experts say? If it is just "lack of horsepower", there is probably nothing we can do, but it might be something fixable as well...

Thanks for your reply, I trust that the synology has sufficient power since I can transcode HD by software in tvheadend without problem. Use transcoding with vaapi in plex and tvmosaic without problems.
I will Open a ticket to see if it can be solved.
The error it gives when I use transcoding vaapi is:

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27,459 libav: forced frame type (5) at 1 was changed to frame type (3)

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27,515 libav: forced frame type (5) at 2 was changed to frame type (3)

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27.555 libav: forced frame type (5) at 3 was changed to frame type (3)

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27.613 libav: forced frame type (5) at 4 was changed to frame type (3)

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27.690 libav: forced frame type (5) at 5 was changed to frame type (3)

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27,740 libav: forced frame type (5) at 6 was changed to frame type (3)

2019-02-12 12: 00: 27.792 libav: forced frame type (5) at 7 was changed to frame type (3)
The same error is repeated 8 times in a second.

Thank you very much for answering

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Thanks, Christian! You have found a regression. Will address it with the SynoCommunity.

Thanks, Juan. Let me know if there is something Synology-specific and I'll try to help...

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Stefan S. over 5 years ago

Hi there,

I've a DS216+ II (with an Intel Celeron N3060 dual-core 1.6GHz, burst up to 2.48GHz CPU, Braswell x64 Arch).
Regardless what I configure, I reach a 98% CPU usage on my NAS when it comes to transcoding in TVH 4.2.8 and this results in extreme judder.
Moreover I cannot use the VAAPI codecs (throw an error in TVH log).

Of course I have installed the ffmpeg package which comes along with TVH 4.2.8.

Am I doing something wrong? Because in the datasheet from Synology it says: "Single H.264/H.265 4K or triple Full
HD video transcoding on the fly"

Thanks and BR
Stefan

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Stefan A S. Hmh, sotware decoding should work. Has it worked before or have you just tried it the first time? VAAPI (HW) transcoding has just been introduced, so there could be problems. Could you please post the errors you saw in the TVH log?

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Stefan S. over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

this is the log message, regardless which HW decoder I choose:

Loglevel debug: enabled
2019-02-13 19:06:51.620 mpegts: 330MHz in DVB-C Unitymedia HE - tuning on SAT>IP DVB-C Tuner #1 (192.168.1.1)
2019-02-13 19:06:51.620 subscription: 0590: "192.168.1.31 [ WebTV | Kodi Media Center ]" subscribing on channel "Das Erste HD", weight: 100, adapter: "SAT>IP DVB-C Tuner #1 (192.168.1.1)", network: "DVB-C Unitymedia HE", mux: "330MHz", provider: "ARD", service: "Das Erste HD", profile="WebTV", hostname="192.168.1.31", username="WebTV", client="Kodi Media Center" 
2019-02-13 19:06:52.324 transcode: 0067: 1:H264 1280x720 ==> H264 1280x720 (h264_vaapi)
2019-02-13 19:06:52.324 transcode: 0067: 2:MPEG2AUDIO ==> AAC (aac)
2019-02-13 19:06:52.491 transcode: 0067: Using preset veryfast
2019-02-13 19:06:52.491 libav: Specified pixel format yuv420p is invalid or not supported
2019-02-13 19:06:52.491 transcode: 0067: Unable to open h264_vaapi encoder
2019-02-13 19:07:01.591 subscription: 0590: "192.168.1.31 [ WebTV | Kodi Media Center ]" unsubscribing from "Das Erste HD", hostname="192.168.1.31", username="WebTV", client="Kodi Media Center" 
2019-02-13 19:07:01.591 libav: Qavg: 202.985
2019-02-13 19:07:01.591 libav: 2 frames left in the queue on closing

When I choose the libx264: libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 decoder or any other libx, I have 98% CPU usage while transcoding and hence it's unusable.

EDIT: ffmpeg Package (4.1-11) is installed accordingly.

Thanks and regards,
Stefan

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Guys, somewhat bad news. I've tried to look into the errors and found the following thread on this very forum:
https://tvheadend.org/issues/5403

As you'll see, just having linked to an ffmpeg version that should support VAAPI HW transcoding, isn't sufficient. The stable 4.2.x builds just don't support internal HW transcoding yet. No idea when 4.4 is going to be released but release cycles with Tvheadend have been notoriously slow. As such, it seems this is still an unstable feature.

Again, I'm no transcoding expert and am lacking a platform to test things, but there might still be hope. 4.2.8 should allow usage of spawn profiles. To transcode, you'd have to install the latest SynoCommunity ffmpeg package (4.1) in addition to TVH. In the spawn profile you'd have to introduce a command line pipe utilizing /usr/local/ffmpeg/bin/ffmpeg (including the path information) with appropriate transcoding parameters (see other threads in this forum). Would someone here with the right setup and the necessary skills test whether that works and report back, please?

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Stefan S. over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the info. I need to check when I have time to investigate further and to gather the required info. But I'll try to check it within the next days.

BR
Stefan

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by dan m over 5 years ago

Im having an issue where I cant log in to the web gui. I continually get 403 forbidden. I have uninstalled the package multiple times with no success.
How can I remove all users and start fresh?

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Mark Clarkstone over 5 years ago

dan m wrote:

Im having an issue where I cant log in to the web gui. I continually get 403 forbidden. I have uninstalled the package multiple times with no success.
How can I remove all users and start fresh?

Clear the cookies for your browser or use an incognito window :)

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by dan m over 5 years ago

Mark Clarkstone wrote:

dan m wrote:

Im having an issue where I cant log in to the web gui. I continually get 403 forbidden. I have uninstalled the package multiple times with no success.
How can I remove all users and start fresh?

Clear the cookies for your browser or use an incognito window :)

Bugger me why didnt i think of that.. Cheers

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by dan m over 5 years ago

I am now getting name-not-set in just about every channel. Ive tried all combinations the merge options. In the services tab all channels and numbers are named correctly. Any suggestions?

EDIT: After about the 20th attempt it just came good. Weird

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Russel Crowe over 5 years ago

Martin Walter wrote:

OK. Here you go:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1spbigjho6zu38/tvheadend_x64-6.1_4.2.8-15.spk?dl=0
Please install manually and let me know whether it works now...

Hi Martin, can I use this version also for my RS815+ (Avoton Chip)? If not could you please compile me a version for my NAS?
I have bought a technotrend 3650 CI as well and I want to use it with my tvheadend.

Best regards,

RusselC

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

@RusselC
Yes, you can use the x64 builds for your system,too. Please just download it from here:
https://github.com/m4tt075/spksrc/releases/tag/tvh-4.2.8-fixes-3
This should contain all the latest fixes...
Please report back whether it works for you.

EDIT: Everything compiled fine, except the x64 package. Need to recompile it and upload. It will be there eventually, but will still take some time. Sorry. Please hang in...
EDIT2: OK, x64 has been uploaded and should work now as well...

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Thanks for reporting and testing. TVH 4.2.8 has been republished on the SynoCommunity platform. It should fix the CA module regression as well as regressions with upgrades of legacy TVH packages, which have been reported elsewhere. The first post has been updated accordingly.

Still curious about the HW transcoding on x64 platforms using spawn profiles. Stefan A S.: Any news on this in the meantime?

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Stefan S. over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

no, I am sorry. I did not yet have the time and most probably I won't be able to do it in the near future because I am not used to that thing and need to dig into it.

Do you have any plans to build some Synology package based on TVH 4.3.x where the HW transcoding issue shall be working/fixed?

This would be awesome!

Many thanks and BR
Stefan

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Hi Stefan,

I understand. No rush...

No, I won't build 4.3.x, as maintaining the stable builds is already eating up enough time and they work really well. J. Dierkse is still publishing experimental 4.3.x builds on syno.dierkse.nl from time to time (look at his 4.4 versions). You can try them. However, if things screw up, you are on your own. To the best of my knowledge he does not support those versions anymore. See post #1 and the first 4-5 pages of this thread for some of the history with mixing different versions...

Cheers,

Martin

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

I've been playing around with an implementation of WebGrab++ which (optionally) integrates with Tvheadend on Synology platforms. Just uploaded a test package (for all architectures) here: https://github.com/m4tt075/spksrc/releases/tag/webgrab-2.1-1
If there is interest, I'd appreciate testing and feedback. Please let me know...

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Stefan S. over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

Whats the advantage of WebGrab+ compared to other EPG Grabbers?

Thanks.
Stefan

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Russel Crowe over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

I already use WebGrab++ along with my tvheadend on my NAS.
I would totally appreciate it if it would be implemented in Synology for tvheadend and maybe I can help with my experience.

I think I don't need mono for this version? I have to check how I can save my current configuration and will than test your package.

Thanks for your work.

BR

Russel

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Stefan A S., breadth of configuration options, I guess. It comes with loads and loads of pre-configured xmltv sources and as such broad applicability. But honestly, it was the one I stumbled upon when looking for xmltv grabbers. There might be better options I'm simply not aware of. I've used EIT grabbers for years. Only recently entered the xmltv "world"...

@Russel Crowe: Much appreciated! Thanks.

As to your questions: You still need mono, but it is managed as a standard package depdency, i.e.: If you wanted to install the WebGrab++ package without Mono installed, DSM would complain that you'd have to install Mono first. Bu you can just intall the SynoCommunity Mono version and be done with it. The WebGrab++ package will integrate Mono automatically. No need to interfere with this aspect via ssh and command line anymore.

The only thing still requiring manual intervention, should(!) be to amend the WebGrab++.config.xml file and insert "your" channel lines from the siteini.pack directory files, which are located in the /usr/local/webgrabplus/var as well. At least this is how I used it so far. Not sure there are "fancier" use cases that are not covered yet. But if so, please let me know...

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Russel Crowe over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

Thank you for your answer. The installation worked well without any issue.
It seems that the sideinit packages are not the latest one.

For the configuration I've used my old config lines for your package.
My former installation was stored in a shared folder and I linked the grab file into usr/bin.
So I had access to the config directly over the share. But it is no problem to get access to the target directory as well.

Should I share some files to you to compare?

BR,

Russel

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Martin Walter over 5 years ago

Hi Russel,

Thanks. That's great. I assume you ticked the configuration box for donloading and installing the latest siteini pacakges during installation, righ?
If so, yes, it would be great if you could share the files that differ.

Again, thanks for testing!

Martin

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by Russel Crowe over 5 years ago

Hi Martin,

sry for the late reply.

I found a version 2.1.1 on the webgrab++ side and a side package with the recommend version 2.1.1
I don't know if this source code is available to.

I tried to reinstall your package several times and discover that the system integration get lost if you not tick the responsable configuration box. It will remove the current integration.
My aim was to reinstall only your linked side package and so I only ticked this box. With reinstalling the package the script deleted than the cron tab entry and the tv_grab file.
My suggetion is that with a second or third installation the integration should not be deleted.
Only with a deinstallation the integration should be deleted as well.

BR,

Russel

RE: Tvheadend packages for Synology NAS - Added by D R over 5 years ago

Hi all,
How can I intergrate comskip?
Can anyone provide all the steps necessary to achieve that?

I am using 4.3 now and comskip is intergated in that build but it has some issues and want to switch to stable.
Thanks

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