Tvheadend

Hi.

Maybe I don't have the proper answer to your problem, but it could be an interesting thing to use a tvheadend instance (on the master) as iptv source for another tvheadend instance (as slave). I tried quickly, but didn't find the proper format for the configuration.

One of the cool things in tvheadend is merging sources to channels. So with this you could setup a channel on your htpc which consist of a local dvb service and a iptv source (which may come from the tvheadend on the NAS). So tvheadend is the software used to share dvb devices within a network.

I'll see if I find out more in the tvheadend source, if this setup would work.

Another solution for you, if you can completely separate livetv from recordings, are two independent tvheadend instances. xbmc pvr on the htpc accesses the local tvheadend for livetv and uses some nfs/smb share on the NAS there the recordings are created.

Both solutions have the disadvantage, that pressing the "record" button out of livetv need some workaround, since your livetv uses the local tvheadend, it will also record local. in this case you may need to record to a share on the NAS.

Personally, I'm also interessted running tvheadend on a NAS with USB DVB-S2. Now I have a full blown server, which is not necessary and consumes a lot of energy (3w idle would be a dream). But I'm thinking more to have all DVB devices on the NAS to profit from sharing all the devices between the clients and the recordings.

Do you have already tried to run tvheadend on your NAS accessing DVB-S via usb? How much power does your USB DVB-S device consume if not used?

Ciao,
Martin

Hm, it seems that iptv sources can only be rtp or raw mpeg over udp. tvheadend supports streaming via htsp and http. One could use vlc or ffmpeg to transcode the http based mpeg stream, but I didn't find any working solution, since you would need to have a seperate vlc/ffmpeg transcoder for each channel. Another solution would be dvbstreamer.

Further, using a master/slave concept based on iptv sources, would enable the slave to access the master resources, but nothing more. The master would not know of capabilities of his slave.

I would say, with tvheadend in a home environment, it would make sense to have all dvb sources managed by one instance.

In an enterprise environment based on tvheadend, I would still use one tvheadend instance but feeding additional sources as iptv comming from distributed systems.

Ciao,
Martin

The best way (by far) to do this is to add a HTSP client in Tvheadend itself. That would result in:

• Live streaming
• EPG transfer to slaves
• In the future, make it possible to "outsource" recordings to a remote machine and then transfer the recorded file to the Tvheadend instance that requested the recording (less sensitive to network errors)
• Access control with priorities

H Gut wrote:

Why i like to do this:

...

• I would like to reuse my old dvb-s2 PCI card in my PC as a second card

There is simple (still undocumented) way to link 2 or more TVH.

For example, we have 2 "boxes", 1 with tuners and other 2 "master" with hdd for recordings.
This is working example with or without NAT between boxes with IP authorization.

[DVB-T/C/S|BOX1TVH] - [router] - internet - [BOX2TVH] - [XBMC]

For example we want export DVB-T network (with assigned tuner DVB-T) on BOX1 to BOX2, BOX1 have all muxes created and channels tuned.

For BOX1:
1) on the router create TCP port forward 9981 to BOX1 IP (no other ports needed)
2) in TVH interface go to Configuration/General/SAT>IP Server, enter 9983 (or any other) in RTSP port, and Subscription weight 100 (or other), save config.
2.1) if Your BOX1 behind NAT, switch View level to Expert and add External IP (NAT): 5.6.7.8 where 5.6.7.8 Your BOX1 WAN IP
3) go to Configuration/DVB Inputs/Networks and change SAT>IP Source number for DVB-T network from 0 to 1, save config. (View level: Advanced)
4) go to Configuration/Users/Access Entries and create new user, with username * and Allowed Networks 1.2.3.4/32, where 1.2.3.4 Your BOX2 IP, enable Streaming for this account (web and other can be disabled)

For BOX2:
1) go to Configuration/DVB Inputs/Networks and create new network IPTV Automatic, with any name and URL http://5.6.7.8:9981/playlist/satip/channels where 5.6.7.8 Your BOX1 WAN IP
2) Scan Network, and You will see all muxes and services from BOX1 DVB-T network.

Tested on Debian boxes with HTS Tvheadend 4.1, work fine.

For debugging start from curl, on BOX2:
curl http://BOX1IP:9981/playlist/satip/channels

Should return playlist like:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 logo=http://www.satbroadcasts.com/img/dvbt/aaa1.jpg,NAME
http://BOX1WANIP:9981/stream/channelid/296752128?profile=pass
....

Enjoy!