Raspberry Pi / TVHeadend

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tarlen

47 posts

Geek

#151286 20-Aug-2014 12:06

In the past couple of days I've set up a Raspberry Pi with a DVB-T USB stick running TVHeadend.

The purpose of all this was to get Freeview to a couple of TVs in my house that either a) don't have built-in Freeview decoders or b) aren't near an aerial plug. As a bonus, by using Pis as the clients as well, I get full access to my media library. :-)

Well I'm happy to report it's working beautifully, once I figured out a minor issue with the Freeview Shop website having the wrong frequency information for the Waiatarua broadcasting tower (it says 666MHz for the Sky band, but it's actually 602MHz).

However, I do need to buy a powered USB hub, and am completely unable to find one that I KNOW will work.

So if anyone can suggest a good hub, I would really appreciate it. I need it to power 4 devices, including a couple of the DVB-T sticks, and a 2.5" HDD, so a good amount of power on each port would be ideal.

Most of the ones I see come with 1A power adapters, and that just seems far too low for this.

Thanks in advance!

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214 posts

Master Geek

#1112005 20-Aug-2014 12:54

The PiHUB is probably the best hub for this situation, at least that I know of. Designed to work specifically with the Raspberry Pi and can supply 3000mA over all it's ports.
Only problem with it would be the power supply. You could either order it with the UK power supply and use a simple travel adapter, or find a local power supply. This one from Jaycar may suit it, however I am unsure if the plug size would fit the PiHUB. The PiHUB requires 2.5mm/5mm and the power supply offers 2.1mm/5.0mm and 2.5mm/5.5MM.

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#1112012 20-Aug-2014 12:59

Dick Smith sell a good one:

http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/accessories/dick-smith-13-port-usb-hub-dsnz-xh1237

It is rated for 4A and I have previously used one for USB Bitcoin miners, and it worked really well. Its $50 though.

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#1112030 20-Aug-2014 13:02

A question on your set up - do you run TVHeadend as a client on the Pi? And if so I assume you have DVB-S or DVB-T tuners elsewhere on the network? So this would be similar to a HDHomeRun setup?

I am interested in clients that can do this kind of stuff for me own setup.

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1112034 20-Aug-2014 13:02

Another option may be to check out http://plugable.com/. Similar issues as littlehead mentions with regards to AC Adapter plugs, plus you would need to use YouShop or such to get it here. I purchased the USB2-HUB4BC as I was after a hub that would have enough power to charge iphones. I'd check out the one timbosan mentions, if it is suitable it would be so much easier buying it locally, and probably similar pricing once you lump in freight etc.

xontech

268 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1112037 20-Aug-2014 13:05

timbosan: A question on your set up - do you run TVHeadend as a client on the Pi? And if so I assume you have DVB-S or DVB-T tuners elsewhere on the network? So this would be similar to a HDHomeRun setup?

I am interested in clients that can do this kind of stuff for me own setup.

I'm using Pi's as both clients and servers. Both running XBMC (openelec) and just installed appropriate TVHeadend add ons. As mentioned above, there is a bit fiddling getting all the channels and an epg, but once it was set up it has been pretty stable.

tarlen

47 posts

Geek

#1112067 20-Aug-2014 13:22

xontech:
timbosan: A question on your set up - do you run TVHeadend as a client on the Pi? And if so I assume you have DVB-S or DVB-T tuners elsewhere on the network? So this would be similar to a HDHomeRun setup?

I am interested in clients that can do this kind of stuff for me own setup.

I'm using Pi's as both clients and servers. Both running XBMC (openelec) and just installed appropriate TVHeadend add ons. As mentioned above, there is a bit fiddling getting all the channels and an epg, but once it was set up it has been pretty stable.

That's mostly what I'm doing too.

The "server" is a Raspberry Pi Model B+ running Raspbian with TVHeadend. I have connected one USB DVB-T tuner I got from Trade Me ($16 + postage), and plan to add two more for multiple channel support. I already had a 2.5" 500GB USB drive sitting around unused, and that is connected for PVR capabilities.

I have one client set up that is a Raspberry Pi Model B running Openelec with the TVHeadend client add-on. Works wonderfully, and the CEC support from the TV means I don't need to bother with a separate remote for it. The few times I do need more from the remote, I use the XBMC iOS remote control app. My current intention is to get another Pi to set up with the last non-Freeview capable TV we have.

I've also installed XBMC on my laptop, and that can also connect to the server without problems.

tarlen

47 posts

Geek

#1112205 20-Aug-2014 16:28

timbosan: Dick Smith sell a good one:

http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/accessories/dick-smith-13-port-usb-hub-dsnz-xh1237

It is rated for 4A and I have previously used one for USB Bitcoin miners, and it worked really well. Its $50 though.

Yeah, I saw that one. $50? I would spend that much if it was the only option, but I think I'd rather see if there is anything cheaper around.

I also have a mild bias against Dick Smith, as I think they've gone horribly downhill over the past decade, and I try to avoid spending money there if I can avoid it. :)

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timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#1112212 20-Aug-2014 16:36

I also have a mild bias against Dick Smith, as I think they've gone horribly downhill over the past decade, and I try to avoid spending money there if I can avoid it. :)

I hear you! I bought it on sale a while back, $30 from memory. I had a look around and it was the best available at the time that I could buy then and there. The other option are power packs from Jaycar:

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=MP3480&CATID=83&form=CAT2&SUBCATID=1000#12

5V 3A $27

Or is you want to get massive, 5V at 6A:

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=MP3180&w=switchmode+5v&form=KEYWORD

But it's $120.

The option I ended up using was to take the 5V rail from a spare computer PSU and soldering on a plug, and that worked well. FAR more capable than any powerplug, just a bit bigger and louder!

tarlen

47 posts

Geek

#1112246 20-Aug-2014 17:07

I've ended up buying a mBeat 13 port hub. They sound pretty good, and I've found a few positive reviews of other Pi users online. I also managed to find a page listing hubs verified as working with the Pi, so that helped.

13 ports, rated for 3A with the included adapter (that should be enough for what I need), and $37 (plus shipping, but I ordered some other stuff too). I also like the idea of being able to shut off individual ports, though I can't really think of a particular use for that in my case.

Now I just hope I can get everything into my distribution cupboard. :-)

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1112295 20-Aug-2014 18:26

tarlen: I've ended up buying a mBeat 13 port hub. They sound pretty good, and I've found a few positive reviews of other Pi users online. I also managed to find a page listing hubs verified as working with the Pi, so that helped.

13 ports, rated for 3A with the included adapter (that should be enough for what I need), and $37 (plus shipping, but I ordered some other stuff too). I also like the idea of being able to shut off individual ports, though I can't really think of a particular use for that in my case.

Now I just hope I can get everything into my distribution cupboard. :-)

I bought one of those too. Not cheap. But, its really nice having each port switched!

JoshWright

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

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Trusted

#1112300 20-Aug-2014 18:44

I've done the same with Tvheadend on a Model B. I eventually gave up, because I could only watch non HD channels. HD channels like TV One just glitch out and look horrible. This is on RaspBMC, but the same thing has happened on Raspbian. How do you guys avoid issues like this?

tarlen

47 posts

Geek

#1112353 20-Aug-2014 19:43

JoshWright: I've done the same with Tvheadend on a Model B. I eventually gave up, because I could only watch non HD channels. HD channels like TV One just glitch out and look horrible. This is on RaspBMC, but the same thing has happened on Raspbian. How do you guys avoid issues like this?

I must say I never had any issues. Did you have the client and server on the same Pi? I haven't tried that myself, but it would obviously use a lot more load. As a test, I recorded some TV3 last night, and it recorded it in HD, and played it back today without any issues.

More tuners are now on their way to me, so it will be interesting to see how that goes, but I've read of people using three with no issues.

I did try to use RaspBMC at one point, but it was painfully slow compared to Openelec. Just using the menus annoyed me no end.

The only things I can think is if you were using separate server/client the networking could be causing problems. Or, if you were running the OS from a slow SD card, that may also cause issues, if TVHeadend was trying to write anything without the external hard disk (eg - for timeshift).

richms

28172 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1112360 20-Aug-2014 20:04

im interested in how you get on with multiple tuners on the pi on a hub.

Richard rich.ms

groynk

234 posts

Master Geek

#1112948 21-Aug-2014 16:31

Interested too

I struggled and ultimately failed to set up my tuner on my pi due to firmware issues.
I tried openelec and raspbmc which are both good just never got the tuner stick to work with tvheadend
Will give it another go soon though

I'm after recording functionality rather than live viewing mainly
What tuners are people using? I struggled to find a compatible one that was local and cheap

tarlen

47 posts

Geek

#1112996 21-Aug-2014 17:39

groynk: Interested too

I struggled and ultimately failed to set up my tuner on my pi due to firmware issues.
I tried openelec and raspbmc which are both good just never got the tuner stick to work with tvheadend
Will give it another go soon though

I'm after recording functionality rather than live viewing mainly
What tuners are people using? I struggled to find a compatible one that was local and cheap

It's working fine with the single tuner, which it turns out does let me watch multiple channels within the same frequency. I just had it happily playing TV1, TV2 and TV2+1 on three different devices (Pi, laptop, iPhone), all without issues.

The tuner I got (TradeMe link above) is cheap and easy to use, and they're really quick with delivery - as in next day if you order early enough. I did have to download the Linux firmware, but it took all of about 5 minutes to find and install. I'd be happy to link it if you would like.

And the Pi in my distribution cupboard has a USB hard disk attached for recording, and that works really well with the use so far. Once I get the extra tuners, it will be interesting to see exactly how many channels I can get going at once. :-)

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