Tvheadend

I actually have a docker container running through a VPN so I will try to do the same setup on Cabernet and I'll give you an update with my results.

G Kazaroth wrote:

TJM: It is probably normal to have that many processes. This is caused by the number of tuners set at the plugin level. Each active stream will generate a new process. This helps with running many streams at one time. The more streams, the more processes it takes and is only limited by the size of your server.

When TVH does a force scan, it goes as fast as it can and uses two critical settings. First is the Network Max # input streams. This value causes TVH to use that number times 2 for the number of streams since it does not terminate the stream until after the next stream starts. The second value is Network Maximum timeout. This is the time TVH will use for each channel scan. It is not the maximum, but rather the actual value used. So if you have the input stream set to 5 and the timeout set to 30, then it will use at least 10 tuners in Cabernet and will timeout most channels after 30 seconds. If not all the M3U URLs are not working, then Cabernet may end up going through a timeout when may take even longer. Normally we recommend using a small number for the number of inputs like 2 to do a Force Scan. The timeout should be based on how long it takes for the stream to initialize (which can be different for each provider.) Note, Cabernet uses 3 processes by default, so it looks like you have TVH set to a big number of input streams with Cabernet set to around 12.

Then going to the Cabernet side, there is a tuner count at the plugin level. After doing many tests, it looks like that number needs to be at least x*2+1 of the # of inputs in TVH for that network. This is due to the number of streams TVH will have opened at one time. You could have TVH set to 2 and Cabernet set to 10. Cabernet would still probably only use 4 or 5 max.

Yeah not sure, I mean I have my tvheadend set at max input streams 2.
Cabernet tuner count I have at about 20 or so but at the moment I've just made it a ridiculously high number only because otherwise tvheadend would suck up all the tuners.. there seems to be something not working right I think.. Any more ideas?

Since you have the streams set to 2, then we should assume the quality of the m3u file may not be great. What is the Network Maximum timeout in TVH? There is a known case where the m3u provided URL causes a timeout in Cabernet when the connection works, but no stream is provided. In this case, TVH will normally timeout and start a new connection while the old connection in Cabernet is waiting on a timeout. The timeout can be from 60-90 seconds. So, if you have the TVH timeout set to a low number, the number of connections in Cabernet could get high waiting for timeouts. Try setting the TVH timeout to 30 to see if the number of processes is reduced. I will do some testing on my side.

Once TVH has determined which channels are good, it should not hit the bad ones except on rescans.

G Kazaroth wrote:

Since you have the streams set to 2, then we should assume the quality of the m3u file may not be great. What is the Network Maximum timeout in TVH? There is a known case where the m3u provided URL causes a timeout in Cabernet when the connection works, but no stream is provided. In this case, TVH will normally timeout and start a new connection while the old connection in Cabernet is waiting on a timeout. The timeout can be from 60-90 seconds. So, if you have the TVH timeout set to a low number, the number of connections in Cabernet could get high waiting for timeouts. Try setting the TVH timeout to 30 to see if the number of processes is reduced. I will do some testing on my side.

Once TVH has determined which channels are good, it should not hit the bad ones except on rescans.

Hey matey,

Hmm so my network maximum timeout was set to 15. I've set it to 30 now to see how we go. I've attached a gif to show that even a large amount of tuners in cabernet it says they are all active but they really aren't.
I'm finding when it does a rescan after say 100 or so the channels start to be marked as failed meaning they disappear from the guide. I have to manually go in and have those certain channels scanned again as they are not scanned again.

write an issue at
https://github.com/cabernetwork/cabernet/issues
so we can work the issue.

G Kazaroth wrote:

I reviewed the logs.
- You ran startup twice, first time with USTVGO instance disabled
- PlutoTV had recently updated the channel list, so both times PlutoTV did not need to refresh the data or guide
- You are not running the app inside a VPN, so USTVGO does not recognize your NordVPN

VPNs are tunnels that use IPSec to communicate with a VPN server on the internet. The app assumes you are running the VPN at the OS layer or higher (like the router), so you do not need to enter any data in Cabernet. As an example, if you are running Cabernet on a Linux server, then download NordVPN for Linux, install it and verify that you can access the VPN channels from a browser running on the OS at ustvgo.tv (and not having the NordVPN as a plugin in the browser). Once you have setup the VPN, Cabernet should get a different status from USTVGO indicating that the channel is available. I have not tested NordVPN, but the best info I have is that should work.

I was able to install Cabernet on my server through Docker, running through NordVPN. After going to Data Management on Cabernet settings and Reset Channel Data it was able to get the channels that require VPN. Thanks so much for the help!

For those wondering how I got it done I followed most of the steps on this page except I replaces JDownloader for the Cabernet docker container https://github.com/guisua/jdownloader-vpn-docker-synology

Step 1: Install this NordLynx Docker container (I use NordVPN so it worked for me, not sure about how to do it with other VPN providers). https://github.com/bubuntux/nordlynx

Step 2: I am using Portainer to do this on a Synology DS218+ because the Synology Docker UI sucks. I made this stack so NordLynx and Cabernet run at the same time. Follow the directions on https://github.com/bubuntux/nordlynx to get it running on your machine:

---
version: "3" 
services:
  nordlynx:
    image: ghcr.io/bubuntux/nordlynx
    container_name: nordlynx
    restart: unless-stopped
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    sysctls:
      - net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1  # Recommended if using ipv4 only
    environment:
      - PRIVATE_KEY=MY_PRIVATE_KEY
      - ALLOWED_IPS=0.0.0.0/1,128.0.0.0/1
      - NET_LOCAL=10.0.0.0/8,172.16.0.0/12,192.168.0.0/16
      - "POST_UP=ip -4 route add $$(wg | awk -F'[: ]' '/endpoint/ {print $$5}') via $$(ip route | awk '/default/ {print $$3}')" 
      - "PRE_DOWN=ip -4 route del $$(route -n | awk '/255.255.255.255/ {print $$1}') via $$(ip route | awk '/default/ {print $$3}')" 
    ports:
      - 8088:8088
      - 6077:6077
      - 6881:6881
      - 6881:6881/udp
  cabernet:
    image: ghcr.io/cabernetwork/cabernet:latest
    container_name: cabernet
    network_mode: service:nordlynx
    environment:
      - WEBUI_PORT=6077
      - PUID=1026
      - PGID=101
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/cabernet:/app
    depends_on:
      - nordlynx
    restart: always

Step 3: Go into Cabernet Settings > Data MGNT
In Reset Channel Data choose USTVGO on the drop down menu to the right. Then click on Reset next to Reset Channel Data. After that it'll show the channels that require VPN.

Step 4: If you use Plex, go to Plex Settings > Live TV & DVR and Refresh the channel guide.

That's all. Enjoy.

UPDATE : I realized that not long ago the nordvpn container stopped working and they recommend using https://github.com/bubuntux/nordlynx. I updated the instructions. Now I have Cabernet working great and Plex is able to access Cabernet channels smoothly. Thanks for the help! Hope this helps others.

Early on, USTVGO provided a post-VPN interface which indicated that Cabernet was able to get the premium channels and were not DRM. Not sure what is happening in your case, but would be very interested, if you want to enter an issue with cabernet. The Cabernet log should have info that will indicate why it was unable to connect to the stream.

G Kazaroth wrote:

Early on, USTVGO provided a post-VPN interface which indicated that Cabernet was able to get the premium channels and were not DRM. Not sure what is happening in your case, but would be very interested, if you want to enter an issue with cabernet. The Cabernet log should have info that will indicate why it was unable to connect to the stream.

I realized my issue is not Cabernet, the issue I'm having is with the VPN container having connection issues. From what I read seems like the nordvpn container stopped working not long ago and they recommend using https://github.com/bubuntux/nordlynx instead. I am working on it at the moment, once I figure it out ill post an update. At least I know that Cabernet does work with a vpn and shows the channels that require VPN so once I get the VPN container running Cabernet and Plex should have no issue.

Ok I got Cabernet working with NordLynx VPN container and now Plex is able to play USTVGO channels that require VPN! I updated the instructions on my previous post.

I think much of what is available is not for the Windows exe version, which is what I am trying to run on Windows 10 64 bit

I can get to the web interface but not seeing much in the way of what I read.

I created a config.ini that is at C:\Program Files\cabernet\data\config.ini but not even sure if that is necessary on the Windows version.

My pluto TV M3u file at http://ipaddress:6077/pLuToTv/channels.m3u has only the single line header, no channels

The channel editor has no tabs.

Not sure where to go with this. I think my issues are specific to the Windows version, and its configuration

Mark

Hi Mark,
The installer for windows installs a config.ini file at the top Cabernet folder during install. If you also added a config.ini in the data folder, you would have two config files, of which, only one would be used. You can use either location, but you probably need to get rid of one of them. Cabernet looks in the install folder and the data folder for the config.ini and then uses the first one found. It would report the location found in the log at the INFO level.

Thank you

I am now getting Pluto playlist. First test with a pluto stream this way shows the same problem I have everywhere else with Pluto streams freezing and stuttering. Seems Pluto is hacking in low res commercials changing resolution mid stream and all. I guess they are rocket surgeons there.

Do I have to modify the config.ini file for Xumo?

Not sure where that file is, looking but do not see it in c:\Program Files\cabernet. I see a example config file at c:\Program Files\cabernet\lib\tvheadend\example_config.ini

Much confused about it all but if it is the same result that I have with other methods of PutoTV where all the streams freeze when they hack in a commercial , then Pluto is not useful to me and only Xumo interests me.

So what do I need for Xumo? It is activated in the tabs . I assume that http://IPADDRESS/channels.m3u would show ALL channels, including xumo if they were coming through, but no such luck.

thanks

Mark

Cabernet has the ability to cleanup streams, but you kinda need to know what the issue is. For PlutoTV, the issue is the provider does not care about the ATSC steam timestamps, so timestamps during ads are not consistent with timestamps during shows. Also, timestamps for the next show do not flow from the previous show causing more disconnects. To fix this, check "Enable PTS/DTS Resync". This causes Cabernet to rewrite the timestamps in the stream. You can also "Enable URL Filtering". This has good and bad sides. The good part is ads are removed. The bad side is when playing live and not recorded, the show will stop playing during the ads. Those that record most shows like the filter while those that like to watch live do not.

For XUMO, you would need to add the instance to the config.ini to enable the instance, just like you did with PlutoTV. Once the instance is added, the configuration can be controlled in the web page.

The example_config.ini is an example of a config.ini file.

http://IP:6077/channels.m3u will produce the m3u file for all channels Cabernet knows in m3u format.

XUMO is a pseudo on-demand stream. Some channels are live, but many are not. If you play the on demand ones, it will start playing from the start of the movie even if you are half way through the time slot. Due to this being a VOD type stream, the timestamps are not consistent between movies, so the recommendation is to set the "Enable PTS/DTS Resync" to true. You can also adjust the start time and end time in seconds (EPG section) to get the recording to start perfectly at the start of the movie and end at the end of the movie. This EPG start and stop time adjustment is available for PlutoTV as well.

I did finally find "enable PTS/DTS Resync" in the Pluto TV instance menu options in "advanced" mode. I checked it and will see what happens.

Now if you recall, I made an ini file and it was not necessary on Windows you later informed me. Additionally I can not find anywhere the referenced config.ini file for cabernet. I would need to know the default (Windows X86_64) path to that file for the exe version. I am also completely in the dark in how or what needs. I can see on the github page what it needs for Pluto TV but no example for xumo. It seems it probably needs a standard name whether Xumo or xumotv ? I do see the config_example.ini at c:\Program Files\cabernet\lib\tvheadend but there is no config.ini at the location where the example is, so I would not assume that is where it goes. There is also no xumo example in that config file. I would imagine a config.ini already exists somewhere, because PlutoTV is working.

All of this is without touching on the subject of HDHomerun integration which looks like is available. To be honest I am quite perplexed with all of this.

I have also come to find out I can not access it fro the LAN only on Localhost. Looking for settings that control access to port 6077 .

UPDATE>>>>>>>>>>>>
Just changed the Bind address from 0.0.0.0 to the actual computer IP address in the GUI near where it showed port 6077, now I can no longer even access it on localhost.

So now I have completely lost it . I know the GUI says you can edit the config files but have no idea where config files are located as mentioned earlier.

--update to the update....

Settings apparently survived an uninstall and reinstall because even removing and reinstalling does not bring it back, it's GONE.

--end update to update....

END UPDATE >>>>>>>>>

Is there really absolutely no documentation that covers these topics? It seems the Windows version is such a different beast it should have its own area of documentation.

I would prefer to run this on the Pi (raspbian stretch) but I have a seemingly insurmountable Python dependency problem (with rust 1.41.0 where I have only 1.24.1

Docker seems like its bloaty to run on my old Pi3 and has its own learning curve, let alone the curve for Cabernet.
I appreciate your replies, thanks

Mark

Yea , not so easy running it on Raspberry Pi either. I spent many hours trying to resolve issues getting docker installed.

Then , I did the

docker pull ghcr.io/cabernetwork/cabernet:latest

I can see the image using
root@raspberrypi:~# docker image ls
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
ghcr.io/cabernetwork/cabernet latest 0ccbb5a051f0 2 months ago 404MB

then I try to run it , if this is correct

root@raspberrypi:~# docker run -p 6077:6077 ghcr.io/cabernetwork/cabernet
standard_init_linux.go:219: exec user process caused: no such file or directory

Not sure what that is all about but maybe I am doing something wrong?

Mark

I just realized the config.ini for windows install is located in the data folder that is set by you during the install. This is caused by Windows Program Files area being protected. It defaults to a home folder location like most applications. If you don't remember and you used the default, you can rerun the first part of the install and it will tell you where the data folder is located.

Also, going to the website and migrating to Settings > Internal > Paths
Will show you where the config.ini is located.

I just realized the channels are all mixed up for me. The channel that plays VH1 plays another channel, History plays something else, etc. Anyone know how to fix this?

I am by no means a noob , but nor am I a dev. I hate Python it never works for me and always needs a dependency that can not be installed. To me it has always been a major waste of time. I would love to just run this on the pi from a python command line but that does not work either.

To be honest, the settings are so touchy in the Windows version changing most anything breaks it. That is no exaggeration.

Fixing the bind address from 0.0.0.0 in GUI to the real LAN fixed IP causes Cabernet to fail completely. I did find the config files (and you are correct the installer does ask where to put them) and deleted them to do a "clean" install. Before I did this I also confirmed that the bind address was correct. This all led me to the more problems below. Sometimes even reverting the settings to their original settings did not work, forcing me to remove the program then the settings folder and re-install. I think it might be best to have full explanation of what options are used or can be used.

Enabling the option you suggested does not work, the streams still stutter then freeze (burp then BARF) when I tested streams from VLC. I also tested some from NextPVR which would not play at all I would use TV headend but it has issues with probing for many of my important sources.

I also tested resync types "internal" "ffmpeg" and "default" although at default it always went back to "internal" . I did reboot after each change.

I also even tried Docker Desktop for Windows and Mac along the way. I suppose that too could have buggered the Windows machine. Unfortunately there are no real full instructions neither at docker nor on your site. There is a Docker Desktop tutorial but it does not even use the same docker command that is the single "pull" command you show on Github. I got lost in translation from what they say and what you say. I ended up with docker images that would not run so it might be nice to have more docs there.

XUmo never worked to any degree, (no channels ever in m3u files) and I have seen nowhere that says what I need to put (exactly) in the config.ini to make xumo work. I mean even if I could get xumo out of it, it would be worth the time spent.

Another issue that arose in the installation , and re-installation of Cabernet is that My windows 10 Machine has now completely lost its ability to switch windows. I can ALT Tab and see a window open, I can click an icon to open a new window but can never get to it. This is a relatively clean install of Windows 10 that I have only really used to run XAMPP web server on for a php code project of my own.

I think you also might want to to tell windows users to open ports 6077 and 5004 on their Windows Firewall.

The implication here is that this does work with TV headend but I would imagine you are not stuck with TV Headend 4.2 nor the Windows version of Cabernet. I am stuck with TVHeadend4.2 because my Pi is running Raspbian Stretch and will not install all dependencies for TVH 4.3 so I used the .deb installer for Pi. It just hammers the sources when scanning, causing all channels to fail.

Guess ill have to give up on this one as I have tried WIndows, Mac and Linux and two different ways of doing it on Windows and two on Linux. None of which seem to work for me. Even when it does run (Windows exe) the stuttering and freezing is not fixed.

Now I have the nightmare of fixing my Windows Machine as it is my only Windows Machine.

If you are talking about USTVGO, I am working on a release now.

LINK IN THE ABOVE TEXT IS SPYWARE AND HAS SENT WIFI DATA TO FOREIGN COUNTRY! DO NOT CLICK ON IT.

locast is dead...

0.9.7.4
This has a number of small updates, but has one major update to USTVGO. The channel list changed, significantly. You may need to remove the MUX and EPG list for USTVGO and then rescan/update once Cabernet updates. That is what I did. There are a few more changes to the list, but those are adds. TVH normally works fine when adding channels (modify is where the issue is).

G Kazaroth wrote:

If you are talking about USTVGO, I am working on a release now.

Not sure if this was meant for me but I was talking about USTVGO.

Ok I got this running under python (not docker) on the Raspberry Pi.

I was fortunate enough to encounter this on github , which took care of issues I was having with Rust and cryptography as I recall.

After doing as instructed on that page, damn, Python 3.8 is now good on my Pi.

So I have this script running and I will say that it is leaps and bounds ahead of the Windows.exe version that seemed so problematic.

I still have the following issues however.

Many channels still fail fail on TVHeadend by way of this script ALL of my channels from Frndly running the frndlytv for channels script. I get probably less than half of the xumo and half of the Pluto channels. I know that there is a method where supposedly one can extract a number from a single stream, but after trying it on TVH4.2 many times I have concluded it is for version 4.3, and does not apply to 4.2. Unfortunately I am stuck with 4.2 from what I can tell.

I was able to get it working once where I was not seeing commercials at all (ad block mode), that was on VLC. When I tried on on TVHeadend TVHeadend the Kodi client for TVHeadend never resumed playback it said something like "No stream" when it went to commercial and never came back. SO I need to figure out what other options work

I think also TVHeadend at least the version I run on the Pi3 (version 4.2) seems to stutter on some streams for no apparent reason, Nothing to do with ads. I did not think TVHeadend was really doing much more than a redirect in this case. Other PVR Solutions running on the same pi have not stuttered this way, and some of them were far more resource hungry..

Questions
Is it possible to use more and one m3u list?
It looks like there is HDHomerun integration but how do we make it work?
How do I make sure that I am seeing all the channels? Much Like TVHeadend channels are missing on some sources, probably due to failing at scanning???.

Feature request : Integration of https://frndlytv.com/ , especially if it can get past TVHeadend scan failures. You might be able to get some useful info from the script here https://github.com/matthuisman/frndlytv-for-channels https://www.matthuisman.nz/2021/11/frndly-tv-for-channels.html

G Kazaroth wrote:

0.9.7.4
This has a number of small updates, but has one major update to USTVGO. The channel list changed, significantly. You may need to remove the MUX and EPG list for USTVGO and then rescan/update once Cabernet updates. That is what I did. There are a few more changes to the list, but those are adds. TVH normally works fine when adding channels (modify is where the issue is).

I followed your steps and now I am on Version: 0.9.7.5 but now I am missing channels that I had access to before like VH1

For clarity on the issue, you are running with the appropriate VPN and had access to premium channel VH1 and now you do not. Are you saying that you do not have VH1 listed in the Cabernet channel list, or is the channel not streaming through TVH. Just a note, VH1 has not changed its attributes, so there should not be any issues with Cabernet. You can also check the channels with VLC using
http://ip:6077/ustvgo/channels.m3u
VLC should work.