Tvheadend

Apologies - I had tried to include a couple of screencast URLs with the images I spoke of, but they don't seem to have translated through to the post itself.

Web interface showing no adapters at all:

https://www.screencast.com/t/vb6zegaYWZw

Web interface showing USB adapter present, once connected:

https://www.screencast.com/t/JnVHEWbXdHaT

Error message in VLC when trying to stream content once the USB tuner has been connected and is recognised:-

https://www.screencast.com/t/tjYisFFxVoi

Try removing the HAT from the RPI and remove the antenna too. Then reconnect the antenna and HAT again. Check that your antenna signal is strong and you’re not getting a short at the HAT from the antenna connection.

It may be that you have a short or an overheating issue. If all that shows no results you could start the hardware/software install process again to rule out any possible OS corruption.

Thank you - I will give that a try.

I can vouch for the signal as I tested it in a TV before connecting the Pi and it was nice and solid. I did notice the antenna connection was a little loose (the TVHat has an adapter that plugs into the board so that you can connect the antenna), but if that were at fault I would have expected a "No signal" rather than "No adapter" error from TVH.

I shut down the Pi and left it off for 1.5hrs, which should have given components enough time to cool and then powered back up again. TVH still doesn't see the TVHat adapter.

The secondary issue I have is that while it is able to see the USB DVB-T adapter that I've connected as a temporary measure and I've added and plugged the antenna into this device instead while this device is being detected by TVH when I try to view any content it still fails (Kodi continues to report "No adapter found" and the VLC error is the same as previously posted.

The problem with your other DVBT adapter is probably down to firmware not loading properly. If you run the dmesg from the command line with the adapter plugged in you’ll probably see that.

Well, your suggestion appears to have worked

Took the lid off the case removed the TVHat from the GPIO connectors, re-seated everything and screwed the lid back on.

Powered the Pi on again and when I looked at the output of "sudo systemctl status tvheadened" I could see in the output indications that the TVHat was being detected again.

May 28 17:24:56 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁸⁵: START: HTS Tvheadend version 4.2.8-34~g24a2f59e9 started, running as PID:485 UID:109 GID:44, CWD:/ CNF:/home/hts/.hts/tvheadend
May 28 17:24:57 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁸⁵: avahi: Service 'Tvheadend' successfully established.
May 28 17:25:09 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁸⁵: mpegts: 482MHz in DVB-T Network - tuning on Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0
May 28 17:25:09 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁸⁵: subscription: 0001: "epggrab" subscribing to mux "482MHz", weight: 4, adapter: "Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0", network: "DVB-T Network", service: "Raw PID Subscription"

When I checked the TVHeadend web interface in Configuration -> DVB Inputs -> TV Adapters I could see the adapter was present. Connected the antenna again (I wanted to see if the adapter would be recognised without an antenna connected - in case there was some kind of short as you suggested) and, once again, I have a working TVHeadend system

In investigating this further I also worked out why TVH would recognise the USB DVB-T adapter but I couldn't get it to work was because (i) it wasn't enabled in TVH and (ii) I had to select DVB-T Network in the adapter preferences.

So, I've gone from having no working tuners to 2 (and I've tested two simultaneous streams with Status -> Subscriptions showing one using the Sony (TVHat) adapter and the other using the USB adapter).

Knowing the TVHat tuner is better quality than the USB one, am I correct in setting the Priority & Streaming Priority to 1 on this adapter, leaving the settings on the USB adapter at 0 to ensure it will have priority when used.

Many thanks for your help.
-Phil.

After 3 days of normal function again, it would appear I have a variation of the same problem, but with some subtle differences.

The Pi was not responsive on my network this morning and the Kodi client on my Android tablet could not connect, so I had no choice but to power off the Pi and turn it back on again. When I did, it appeared that all was well and when I checked the TVH web interface, the only oddity was that while TVH was still recognising the TVHat device and the USB DBV-T device I have since connected, both were reported as disabled. I also noticed that the priority setting I had changed on the USB adapter to ensure the TVHat had top priority (being a better quality tuner) had reverted back to default.

So I enabled both adapters in the Parameters screen (at which point both showed a green dot next to them instead of a red one) and set the priority for the USB adapter back to 1.

However, when I try to access any TV channels Kodi is still reporting "No free adapter available".

I have restarted the service using "sudo systemctl restart tvheadend" which has made no difference and neither has a full reboot.

ls -l /dev/dvb/adapter0
and
ls -l /dev/dvb/adapter1

both show results (this was something I discussed with another person when I had the original issue where the TVHat adapter was not being recognised by TVH at all and it turned out the ls -l /dev/dvb/adapter0 command did not work.

pi@pi-tv:~ $ ls l /dev/dvb/adapter0
total 0
crw-rw--- 1 root video 212, 0 May 31 08:28 demux0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 1 May 31 08:28 dvr0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 3 May 31 08:28 frontend0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 2 May 31 08:28 net0
pi@pi-tv:~ $ ls l /dev/dvb/adapter1
total 0
crw-rw--- 1 root video 212, 5 May 31 08:28 demux0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 6 May 31 08:28 dvr0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 212, 4 May 31 08:28 frontend0

sudo systemctl status tvheadend reports:-

pi@pi-tv:~ $ sudo systemctl status tvheadend
● tvheadend.service
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/tvheadend; generated)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-05-31 08:28:32 BST; 7min ago
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 362 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/tvheadend start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Tasks: 28 (limit: 2088)
CGroup: /system.slice/tvheadend.service
└─478 /usr/bin/tvheadend -f -u hts -g video

May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: gzip format detected, inflating (ratio 21.6% deflated size 1873659)
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: parsing 8672311 bytes
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: loaded v2
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: config 1
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: brands 0
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: seasons 3726
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: episodes 8491
May 31 08:28:42 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: epgdb: broadcasts 13414
May 31 08:28:43 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: START: HTS Tvheadend version 4.2.8-34~g24a2f59e9 started, running as PID:478 UID:109 GID:44, CWD:/ CNF:/home/hts/.hts/tvheadend
May 31 08:28:44 pi-tv.home.internal tvheadend⁴⁷⁸: avahi: Service 'Tvheadend' successfully established.

The TVH web interface appears to show both tuners alive and well-

https://www.screencast.com/t/rAHpR7kztkz

EDIT

Fixed again. Though unsure why this happened.

Where earlier I reported that the reboot appeared to result in the adapters still being present in TVH, but not enabled, and the amended priority for the USB tuner had gone back to 0, I've since discovered even after re-enabling each adapters neither had a Network assigned and I had to re-assign "DVB-T Network" to each and now have a functioning system again.

Your system is showing classic signs of overheating. Intermittent problem causing it to shutdown and restart but on restart the HAT is not available to TVH.

This doesn’t look like it’s a TVH problem but try removing the case and let your system run without the case and monitor its progress. Also check the CPU temperature. It will become obvious if that indeed is your problem.

Do a little more searching on the subject of RPI overheating for further suggestions and possible solutions.

Thanks for your feedback, Jonas.

It is a 3B+ which I know isn't immune to the heat, but isn't as prone to overheating as the Pi4 (all of my 4s have fans and I wouldn't run them without), but it does have a heatsink and the lid of the case is vented. The fact there is a TVHat connected to the GPIO pins does mean that cooling options are limited (as are case options with this being the only one which I know to exist that accommodates the TVHat - https://thepihut.com/products/tv-hat-case-for-raspberry-pi-4 - though it is described as being for a Pi4 mine is the previous version of the same for the Pi3 with different cut-outs for the ports on the side).

Curiously I have recently moved the unit from my loft (which would admittedly get very warm, especially in summer) to another room. That's not to say that it isn't overheating, but it is odd that it would do so after being moved to a location which is probably 10c cooler than where it was 5 days ago. I also appreciate that this is a TVH forum and not one for discussing RPi hardware.

However, are there known reasons why after this reboot, TVH itself would disable settings which have been stable for as long as the system has been running (about 2 years)?

I've rebooted the unit any number of times and never suffered any ill effects, but for this morning's reboot to result in both adapters needing to be manually re-enabled in the TVH web interface and for it to be necessary to re-assign the DVB-T Network to them as well is odd. That certainly hasn't happened before.

As I mentioned it doesn’t appear to be a TVH issue. All I can suggest is checking the CPU temperature at shutdown/restart. If you find that when this happens, you leave the RPI/HAT unplugged for an hour then power it up again and all is well every time it’s safe to assume that’s your problem is heat related. Again checking with other forums might yield more answers.