HDHomeRun DVR Recommendation

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › HDHomeRun DVR Recommendation

Aaron2222

216 posts

Master Geek

#302607 6-Dec-2022 08:47

My HDHomeRun arrived a few days ago, and I'm now trying to figure out what DVR setup to go with. I'm planning on running it on a Raspberry Pi 4, with it mainly being used from a Chromecast with Google TV, so will need a Android TV frontend. I'd prefer to have the option of using OTA EPG data, as well as being able to record multiple channels from the same mux with just one tuner (TVHeadend and MythTV seem to be the only ones to support this?). Any suggestions?

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3006177 6-Dec-2022 10:08

Not a suggestion so much as an observation: be warned - 99% of your strife will be with the EPG.

You think you have it all set up, and after a time something fails to record. You go into the EPG and find a bunch of channels missing because they've changed frequencies or something. So you set it up again.. repeat the cycle.

And each cycle is just long enough for you to forget how you did it last time!

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3006184 6-Dec-2022 10:29

I always recommend tvheadend as I have a rock solid setup running, but I now need to give a major caveat - my EPG only works on the stable version, and is broken on the unstable version. The problem is that the stable version hasn't been updated in literally years and is miles behind unstable. More details at this long-running forum post (I'm the most recent poster).

PANiCnz

990 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3006260 6-Dec-2022 13:54

Another vote for TVH. Easiest option is probably the Linux server.io container.

davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3006321 6-Dec-2022 14:20

Nextpvr - Wellington developed. Used to be Exclusively windows, but is now windows, linux and/or docker.

I put it down again after a few years away and it's still really good. Yes EPG might be the hardest, but it should be accessible off EIT now (off HDHomeRun signal - no download needed)

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

fe31nz

1228 posts

Uber Geek

#3006608 7-Dec-2022 01:20

davidcole:

Nextpvr - Wellington developed. Used to be Exclusively windows, but is now windows, linux and/or docker.

I put it down again after a few years away and it's still really good. Yes EPG might be the hardest, but it should be accessible off EIT now (off HDHomeRun signal - no download needed)

Unfortunately, EIT EPG is not officially supported. It tends to come and go and last I heard was not available for all channels. The official EPG is MHEG5, which always works. My recollection of TVHeadEnd is that it does not support MHEG5, but that may have changed. To get MHEG5 EPG from HDHomeRun tuners, you can use EPGCollector on Windows, or a workaround using mhegepgsnoop where you collect a .ts file of all the data from a multiplex for a minute or so and then get mhegepgsnoop to read the file using its dvbsnoop mode. This works, and there is a script available to do it, but it is a pain. Mhegpegsnoop is a Python 3 program, so will run fine on an RPi, but to collect the .ts file you have to schedule running the script when the DVR software is not using the HDHomeRun tuner. Which is possible for MythTV as I have written a script that finds the gaps in your recording schedule, or you can just do it at say 05:30 each morning when there is only crap being broadcast on most channels, so you will not be recording anything.

I am the current maintainer of the Python 3 version of mhegepgsnoop which is available from here:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/mhegepgsnoop-0.7.3.py

and my gaps program for MythTV is available from here:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/gaps

I am working on a new version of mhegepgsnoop that should be able to directly collect the MHEG5 EPG data from HDHomeRun DVB-T(2) tuners, but progress is very slow due to a lack of spare time to work on it.

For myself, I use MythTV on a dedicated Ubuntu PC and I have an 8-tuner DVB-T2 PCIe x1 card in it, so I can dedicate 5 tuners to recording from the 5 muxes available in NZ and have 2 tuners available to my network via SAT>IP software (minisatip) and still have one tuner dedicated to collecting EPG data so it is always available when I need it. Mhegepgsnoop will directly collect MHEG5 EPG from a PCI(e) or USB tuner.

The EPG data works better if you post process it so that things like the season and episode number data (which is often in the "description" field of the EPG data) is extracted into the correct xmltv fields. The software used to do that and other useful things is xmltv-proc-nz. The Python 3 version of xmltv-proc-nz is here:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/xmltv-proc-nz

and the associated json data files for configuring xmltv-proc-nz are here:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/xmltv-proc-nz-json.tgz

Discussion of mhegepgsnoop and xmltv-proc-nz and the scripts to use them with MythTV are available on the MythTVNZ mailing list:

http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz

and the searchable archives of the mailing list are here:

https://lists.archive.carbon60.com/mythtv/mythtvnz

If you search for things like "mhegepgsnoop", "xmltv-proc-nz" and "HDHomeRun" you should find the relevant threads.

The script used to collect MHEG5 EPG from an HDHomeRun tuner (hdhr_epg_update.sh) is attached to this mailing list post:

https://lists.archive.carbon60.com/mythtv/mythtvnz/640411#640411

The example script for running mhegepgsnoop and xmltv-proc-nz with MythTV is here:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/do_mhegepgsnoop3.sh

It is not configured for using an HDHomeRun - use the code from the hdhr_epg_update.sh script for that.

There is also downloadable EPG available here:

https://nzxmltv.com/xmltv/guide.xml

This EPG data appears to be created by using a webscraper on the freeviewnz.tv site EPG pages. It seems to be pretty good quality, but is not made from the official MHEG5 EPG data. I have never actually used it myself.

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3006684 7-Dec-2022 09:36

davidcole:

Nextpvr - Wellington developed. Used to be Exclusively windows, but is now windows, linux and/or docker.

I put it down again after a few years away and it's still really good. Yes EPG might be the hardest, but it should be accessible off EIT now (off HDHomeRun signal - no download needed)

^^^ this. sub is great (dev of it). wellington based, so should work perfectly in new zealand. It was my goto when I watched "tv". but who in their right mind watches tv these days ??? :P

davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3006714 7-Dec-2022 10:37

reven:

davidcole:

Nextpvr - Wellington developed. Used to be Exclusively windows, but is now windows, linux and/or docker.

I put it down again after a few years away and it's still really good. Yes EPG might be the hardest, but it should be accessible off EIT now (off HDHomeRun signal - no download needed)

^^^ this. sub is great (dev of it). wellington based, so should work perfectly in new zealand. It was my goto when I watched "tv". but who in their right mind watches tv these days ??? :P

Iptv....a whole new world......

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3006716 7-Dec-2022 10:40

fe31nz:

Enormous amount of info

Thanks for this. It certainly makes me despair at the effort involved to pull off something that should be so simple, but I'm glad that people like you are working on making it possible.

I think I'm just going to stick with my creaky old TVH install forever...

Aaron2222

216 posts

Master Geek

#3007000 7-Dec-2022 17:25

fe31nz:

Unfortunately, EIT EPG is not officially supported. It tends to come and go and last I heard was not available for all channels. The official EPG is MHEG5, which always works. My recollection of TVHeadEnd is that it does not support MHEG5, but that may have changed. To get MHEG5 EPG from HDHomeRun tuners, you can use EPGCollector on Windows, or a workaround using mhegepgsnoop where you collect a .ts file of all the data from a multiplex for a minute or so and then get mhegepgsnoop to read the file using its dvbsnoop mode. This works, and there is a script available to do it, but it is a pain. Mhegpegsnoop is a Python 3 program, so will run fine on an RPi, but to collect the .ts file you have to schedule running the script when the DVR software is not using the HDHomeRun tuner. Which is possible for MythTV as I have written a script that finds the gaps in your recording schedule, or you can just do it at say 05:30 each morning when there is only crap being broadcast on most channels, so you will not be recording anything.

According to the Freeview Specification, EIT is available on DTT (and required instead of MHEG). But is uses the BBC's proprietary Huffman compression tables (which have been reverse engineered), and you're expected to just know that when they broadcast EIT data for the TVNZ and Discovery Auckland muxes, that you're meant to apply them to the regional muxes as well.

Aaron2222

216 posts

Master Geek

#3007001 7-Dec-2022 17:29

davidcole:

Nextpvr - Wellington developed. Used to be Exclusively windows, but is now windows, linux and/or docker.

I put it down again after a few years away and it's still really good. Yes EPG might be the hardest, but it should be accessible off EIT now (off HDHomeRun signal - no download needed)

That's what I'm leaning towards at the moment. Pulls in the EPG data alright and has an Android TV app (though it's $10, so I haven't tried it yet). Just wish it could record multiple channels from the same mux with just one tuner.

davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3007004 7-Dec-2022 17:49

Should be able to. That was a feature from about 5 years ago. I doubt that’s gone.

Aaron2222

216 posts

Master Geek

#3007015 7-Dec-2022 18:35

davidcole: Should be able to. That was a feature from about 5 years ago. I doubt that’s gone.

Was that on Windows or Linux? According to this NextPVR supports that with the Windows drivers.

davidcole

6034 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3007017 7-Dec-2022 18:40

Aaron2222:
davidcole: Should be able to. That was a feature from about 5 years ago. I doubt that’s gone.

Was that on Windows or Linux? According to this NextPVR supports that with the Windows drivers.

Hm. You could be right. I just tried it and it wouldn’t let me record seven sharp and shortland street of a HDHomeRun.

Which it should have because it a dual tuner and 2nd, same transponder

Jaggy

32 posts

Geek

#3007161 8-Dec-2022 08:03

Aaron2222:

davidcole:

Nextpvr - Wellington developed. Used to be Exclusively windows, but is now windows, linux and/or docker.

I put it down again after a few years away and it's still really good. Yes EPG might be the hardest, but it should be accessible off EIT now (off HDHomeRun signal - no download needed)

That's what I'm leaning towards at the moment. Pulls in the EPG data alright and has an Android TV app (though it's $10, so I haven't tried it yet). Just wish it could record multiple channels from the same mux with just one tuner.

There is also the UiDroid client that is free (& better in my opinion) you can find it in the "NextPVR Other Clients - Android" on the forum

fe31nz

1228 posts

Uber Geek

#3007518 8-Dec-2022 22:31

Aaron2222:

According to the Freeview Specification, EIT is available on DTT (and required instead of MHEG). But is uses the BBC's proprietary Huffman compression tables (which have been reverse engineered), and you're expected to just know that when they broadcast EIT data for the TVNZ and Discovery Auckland muxes, that you're meant to apply them to the regional muxes as well.

Thanks for the link to those specifications. When I last went looking for anything official, years ago, there was nothing available publicly. It seems that Freeview have changed their minds about that and now publish the specifications (at least partially), and in the latest update from that link, there is a significant change. They now say that the MHEG5 EPG is "legacy" and for the future, the EIT EPG should be used. Which means that they need to fix the problems that happened with the EIT EPG after the last channel changes - when I checked a few weeks after the changes, some channels had no EIT EPG. Maybe that has been fixed by now - I would certainly hope so now that they say that EIT is the official EPG.