Tvheadend

Hi all,

I've been a happy TVheadend user for quite a while. Thanks for the wonderful piece of software! In the past I've been using TVheadend with an IPTV provider. However we recently moved to a new place, and decided the switch the setup to DVB-S configuration (also no IPTV services available at our new location).

The configuration consists of a dish satellite with 3 quad LNB's, connected to 4 DiseqC switches, which are then connected to the card. At the moment 2 cables are connected (adapter21 and adapter22). Also our building supplies a single dvb-s feed (1 cable) as an central service of the building and is connected to adapter24 (just to clarify the logs).

The dish is setup/aligned by a friend, which installs them on a daily job and tested it with an professional measuring device, so I think this should be fine.

The tvheadend server is running Ubuntu 12.04 x64, with the latest TBS drivers available at the moment.
In the TVheadend web interface I've configured the diseqc switches for each adapter, then added the services and mapped them to channels. All working fine.

However, sometimes, like this morning when I try to open an radio stream using VLC, the chosen adapter won't be able to get a lock on the transponder (or so it seems to me). After a few retries from VLC, it finally starts streaming and will stay streaming without interruptions for the whole day (which indicated to me the signal is fine). Currently I'm running tvheadend compiled from the git repo at version: 3.3.225~gb42cbe5.

The log shows:

Jan  4 08:17:08 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter24_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_4" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 24 (GSO)/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a24 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:08 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter22_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_2" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:08 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter21_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_1" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 21/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a21 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:08 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Probing adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter22_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_2" without stealing for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:09 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: dvb: "/dev/dvb/adapter22" tuning via s2api to "CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)" (1743500, 27500000 Baud, 3/4, SYS_DVBS, QPSK) for Transport start

Jan  4 08:17:09 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: viasat_baltic: install table handlers
Jan  4 08:17:09 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: uk_freesat: install table handlers
Jan  4 08:17:09 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: eit: install table handlers
Jan  4 08:17:09 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM using CWC 172.30.50.8:15050
Jan  4 08:17:09 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: subscription: "HTTP" subscribing on "NL-3FM", weight: 100, adapter: "TurboSight TBS 6984 22", network: "CANALDIGITAAL", mux: "CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)", provider: "CANALDIGITAAL", service: "NL-3FM", quality: 100
Jan  4 08:17:14 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: dvb: "CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB" on adapter "TurboSight TBS 6984 22", status changed to Faint signal
Jan  4 08:17:19 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM: Status changed to [Graceperiod expired] 

Jan  4 08:17:20 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter24_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_4" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 24 (GSO)/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a24 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:20 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter22_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_2" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:20 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter21_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_1" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 21/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a21 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:17:20 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: webui: Couldn't start streaming /stream/channelid/455?ticket=3CC2310D5A379C5D5F5FF1E269BE127FB40DA5E3, No input detected
Jan  4 08:17:20 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: subscription: "HTTP" unsubscribing from "NL-3FM" 

The message "status changed to Faint signal" indicates a bad signal, but I find this hard to believe. A few moments later it is streaming really well from the same adapter:

Jan  4 08:22:21 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter24_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_4" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 24 (GSO)/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a24 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:22:21 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter22_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_2" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:22:21 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Adding adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter21_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_1" for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 21/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a21 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:22:21 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: Subscription "HTTP": Probing adapter "_dev_dvb_adapter22_TurboSight_TBS_6984_DVBS_S2_frontend12343500_H_satconf_2" without stealing for service "TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM" 
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: dvb: "/dev/dvb/adapter22" tuning via s2api to "CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)" (1743500, 27500000 Baud, 3/4, SYS_DVBS, QPSK) for Transport start
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: viasat_baltic: install table handlers
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: uk_freesat: install table handlers
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: eit: install table handlers
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM using CWC 172.30.50.8:15050
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: subscription: "HTTP" subscribing on "NL-3FM", weight: 100, adapter: "TurboSight TBS 6984 22", network: "CANALDIGITAAL", mux: "CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)", provider: "CANALDIGITAAL", service: "NL-3FM", quality: 100
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM: Status changed to [Hardware input] 
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM: Status changed to [Hardware input] [Input on service] 
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: eit: begin processing
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: Service: TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/NL-3FM: Status changed to [Hardware input] [Input on service] [Demuxed packets] 
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: Insert only one new ECM channel 1862 for service id 2057
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: PSI: Service "TurboSight TBS 6984 22/CANALDIGITAAL: 12,343,500 kHz Horizontal (a22 LNB1)/Animal Planet/TLC" PMT (version 9) updated, New CA stream, New CAID
Jan  4 08:22:22 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: Sending ECM (channel 1862) section=0/0, for service NL-3FM (seqno: 7487) PID 1862
Jan  4 08:22:23 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: es->es_nok 0      t->tht_prefcapid 1862
Jan  4 08:22:23 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: Received ECM reply (channel 1862) for service "NL-3FM" even: e9.81.53.bd.52.c4.91.a7 odd: 37.b3.bb.a5.95.d4.3a.a3 (seqno: 7487 Req delay: 324 ms)
Jan  4 08:22:23 lbk-utr-rt01 tvheadend[17568]: cwc: Obtained key for service "NL-3FM" in 324 ms, from 172.30.50.8:15050

What could be causing this? Should I really recheck my hardware/cables? Could there something be wrong with my diseqc config?
Does someone has a hint on how to debug further?

Also the log shows quite a number of "status changed to Bad/Faint signal" messages. Is this normal behaviour? (ie the adapter changed to different diseqc input or transponder?). Or should this not be happening?

I also have another system with an TBS6981 card, connected to the same dish (the other 2 cables) which has exactly the same issues.

femon shows the following info:
A high snr ratio is a good thing?

femon -a 22 -H
FE: TurboSight TBS 6984 DVBS/S2 frontend (DVBS)
status SCVYL | signal  74% | snr  84% | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status SCVYL | signal  74% | snr  84% | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status SCVYL | signal  74% | snr  84% | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status SCVYL | signal  74% | snr  83% | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status SCVYL | signal  74% | snr  85% | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK

If you're still reading, thanks!
Hopefully someone can push me in the right direction to get this sorted out! If more information is needed, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks in advance.

Hugo