Tvheadend

Related post: [[https://tvheadend.org/boards/5/topics/36347]]

Hi guys.
I tried to buy the Sundtek USB stick but I ran into customs issues and the order was withdrawn.
After that I tried my luck with a cheap USB stick from DealExtreme. ([[https://www.dx.com/p/2037700]])
There were comments with people saying it was working for them on Linux. For some unknown reason, most comments have been erased from their site and references to Linux are now gone. I guess they erase comments with bad reviews...
Anyway, got the product after 4 painful months just to learn that it does indeed work with Linux but only with DVB-T.

I tried to ask for help on the V4L2 mailing list but no one replied. Tried their IRC channel and got no replies either.
So I thought I'd try to ask here. Maybe someone has gone through the same problem and can help me.

I am currently running the tests with a laptop running Manjaro Linux with a 4.19 LTS kernel.
w_scan utility was compiled from the AUR repository. TVHeadend has been installed from it's SNAP package. This is just for testing. When I have this working I will move to an SBC server most probably running Archlinux and TVHeadend will then be installed from the repo and not from the SNAP.

Here is a copy of a dmesg after inserting the cheap stick:

[   95.028044] usb 2-9: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[   95.178020] usb 2-9: New USB device found, idVendor=15f4, idProduct=0131, bcdDevice= 1.00
[   95.178026] usb 2-9: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   95.178030] usb 2-9: Product: dvbt2
[   95.178033] usb 2-9: Manufacturer: astrometadvbt2
[   95.259098] usb 2-9: dvb_usb_v2: found a 'Astrometa DVB-T2' in warm state
[   95.330543] usb 2-9: dvb_usb_v2: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer
[   95.330554] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (Astrometa DVB-T2)
[   95.341759] i2c i2c-11: Added multiplexed i2c bus 12
[   95.341762] rtl2832 11-0010: Realtek RTL2832 successfully attached
[   95.341779] usb 2-9: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Realtek RTL2832 (DVB-T))...
[   95.357986] r820t 12-003a: creating new instance
[   95.364903] r820t 12-003a: Rafael Micro r820t successfully identified
[   95.375021] rtl2832_sdr rtl2832_sdr.1.auto: Registered as swradio0
[   95.375024] rtl2832_sdr rtl2832_sdr.1.auto: Realtek RTL2832 SDR attached
[   95.375027] rtl2832_sdr rtl2832_sdr.1.auto: SDR API is still slightly experimental and functionality changes may follow
[   95.385275] Registered IR keymap rc-empty
[   95.385326] rc rc0: Astrometa DVB-T2 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-9/rc/rc0
[   95.385417] input: Astrometa DVB-T2 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-9/rc/rc0/input28
[   95.385650] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver dvb_usb_rtl28xxu registered at minor = 0, raw IR receiver, no transmitter
[   95.385761] usb 2-9: dvb_usb_v2: schedule remote query interval to 200 msecs
[   95.394033] usb 2-9: dvb_usb_v2: 'Astrometa DVB-T2' successfully initialized and connected
[   95.394219] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
[   99.927255] usb 2-9: DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (174000000..862000000)
[  141.605922] fuse init (API version 7.27)

And here is the output of w_scan trying to use the stick with DVB-C:

[rcorreia@po1603 ~]$ w_scan -fc -c PT -L     
w_scan -fc -c PT -L 
w_scan version 20170107 (compiled for DVB API 5.11)
using settings for PORTUGAL
Country identifier PT not defined. Using defaults.
scan type CABLE, channellist 4
output format vlc xspf playlist
output charset 'ISO-8859-1'
Info: using DVB adapter auto detection.
        /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 -> "Realtek RTL2832 (DVB-T)" doesnt support CABLE -> SEARCH NEXT ONE.
main:4007: FATAL: ***** NO USEABLE CABLE CARD FOUND. *****
Please check wether dvb driver is loaded and
verify that no dvb application (i.e. vdr) is running.

As you can see, it finds the stick as a DVB-T only stick. I tried the stick with DVB-T aerial reception and it worked fine.
Either I'm missing something silly or the DVB-C tuner is still not recognized under a 4.19.* kernel. Can someone please help me understand this?
Also, if no one can help me with this stick, then maybe someone can recommend me a DVB-T/T2/C stick that I can buy online from Amazon which will surely work on Linux.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers