RPi2, Openelec, TVHeadend and TBS-5980

[fred555]

Its been raining here all day so I had some time to revisit Openelec on the Pi2.
As far as I can tell, none of the DVBS tuners I have ( I have a pile) are supported under the standard
RPI2 image from Openelec: http://openelec.tv/get-openelec

I was cruising around the Openelec discussion forum and found this:
http://openelec.tv/forum/83-dvb-s-s2-support/70750-oe-5-0-6-0-images-for-additional-dvb-drivers

It seems a guy named CVH is adding drivers to Openelec on his own. You will see some download links toward the bottom of the first post, I used the OneDrive link:
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=824e2a794e35269f&id=824E2A794E35269F!1821

And Downloaded the image that supports the TBS-5980:
OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.7-ljalves-1.7.tar

You have to copy to a Linux Box (or a Pi I suppose), put an SD card in a USB to SD adapter.
Next you run
tar xvf OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.7-ljalves-1.7.tar
then cd to OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-devel-20150331214729-r20231-ga283617

Run dmesg to figure out the designation for the SD card you just inserted into the usb port.
Then simpy run the following command:
./create_sdcard /dev/sd<your letter>

If you need any other pieces, mine needed parted, the program will tell you and quit.
It also handles mounting, dismounting and sync (flushing memory to SD).
When the program is done, just yank out the usb adapter and boot the Pi2 with the newly created SD.

This is the hardest part, the instructions aren't exact
When in Openelec go to System, then enable the unofficial Openelec RPi2 Addons.
I got frustrated, rebooted, then the tvheadend addon appeared. Add the tvheadend addon.
Go to System, Live TV, General, Enable Live TV, then add on the TVHeadend HTSP PVR Client.

You may have to reboot again.

Now follow these instructions that don't really follow the version running on the Pi.
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Configuring_Tvheadend

I just went to http://<IP of Pi>:9981 and poked around, and I'm still not sure what I did or why its working.

Also you will have to enable the MPEG License, but on Openelec the boot partition is read only.
So do this:
SSH to the Pi, use root, openelec as credentials
To Enable MPEG License:
mount -o remount,rw /flash
nano /flash/config.txt
Make your changes, then ctrl+x to save.
mount -o remount,ro /flash
reload

If you dont have a license yet, you should still be able to stream from: http://<IP of Pi>:9981
or HTSP port of 9982.

Anyway after poking around, my web screen looked like this:

CHANNELS! Somewhere there is a map button, this takes all found stations and maps them to Openelec TV Channels. See the play links along the left side? You can stream channels from here too.

Now go back to your TV. There should be a Main Menu Item of TV now, along with the usual System, Music, Video, etc...

Now Click on TV. Click on one of the channels and it should give you a preview like this:

Double click and the channel will appear full screen:

Not quite full screen. On the Pi there a many options in config.txt to fiddle with including options to fill the screen properly and remove all the borders.

If there is someone here that knows what they are doing, I have some questions:

1. How do you enable a standard Ku lnbf?
2. How do you enable a C Band lnbf?
3. How do you specify 22Khz tones?
4. How do you specify Diseqc?


I just got lucky, my 97W is on the 22Khz side of a multiswitch and the universal lnbf setting just
happened to catch some of the 97W channels when the high side of universal with its 22Khz kicked in?

 

[fred555]

Under The Tv adapter Tree, select the adapter, then Satconfig setting is set to advanced.
Click on Advanced in the tree and set orbital positions to 4.
Then at each position you can set Diseqc and tone!

 

[fred555]

So far committed diseqc works as advertised. I have 101W on diseqc Port 1 22hkz off and 105W diseqc port 2 22khz off working.
Now I am trying to get 97w working which is diseqc 1 22khz on, since its on my first multiswitch. Struggling so far with 22Khz.

So far I am liking Openelec on the Pi2. Really smooth playback and I have not seen any lag or glitches.
Recording works pretty well but have not scheduled anything. Need to get NTP working.

Lots and lots off addons.
Addons can be IPTV channels, web browsers or any number of features.
Right now I'm using a wireless keyboard with built in touchpad. But remote controls can be added.
You can use a tablet as a remote too just by going to a java enabled we page on the Pi.

I'm also excited about getting surveillance cameras as TV channels.

 

[fred555]

Figured out the Channel Logos. You can copy them from Lyngsat, Sathint, or make your own.
In settings, you specify the path. Name the logos the same as channel name then copy them up to the PI.
Then in System, Live TV , General, Reset the PVR database. At this point the logos will show up.
Do this before you have set up timers and recordings!

The MeTV ALT logo I made by streaming the channel in a web browser, doing a screen capture and cropping and resizing.
The icons do not have to any specific size or resolution either,

The next thing I am going to figure out is sending recordings to Network Attached Storage.
Then recordings should be available to any network attached device, phones. tablets, laptops etc...

 

[Titanium]

Been using the Openelec on Pi2 for several months. Not the most user friendly set-up, but very cool to be able to build an open source system with very capable Kodi media center.

The crutch is having to use TVHeadend. While it opened up tuner integration, the development has been on a slow track for years.... YAWN

 

[fred555]

Been using the Openelec on Pi2 for several months. Not the most user friendly set-up, but very cool to be able to build an open source system with very capable Kodi media center.

The crutch is having to use TVHeadend. While it opened up tuner integration, the development has been on a slow track for years.... YAWN

What tuner(s) are you using?

 

[fred555]

I now have my recordings going to NAS:

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=Mounting_network_shares

Created a /storgae/pvr directory, pointed CIFS mount to that directory then changed recording path to /storage/pvr

 

[fred555]

I recorded to NAS OK. During playback I noticed something strange, NO COMMERCIALS!

How is this possible? When was this miracle of modern technology devised to remove commercials?
I did not even notice til the end of the show, it was stitched together so smoothly.

I guess the last real recording I've done was to a VCR.

 

[concord]

Sounds like you have comskip installed (http://openelec.tv/forum/unofficial-openelec-addons/70353-comskip-for-openelec-skip-tv-commercials), maybe they added it to the tvheadend install. I don't used it, 30-sec skip is good enough for me.

When they went from XBMC to Kodi, they dropped Tvheadend from the Openelec official add-ons and it became a unofficial add-on. However, the version of Tvheadend version included in the unofficial add-on with Kodi is more user-friendly to set up. Note that you can add the icons to Tvheadend directly under Channel/EPG listing (see video below, around (9:00).

Here is a retired guy that picked up on how to setup Tvheadend with OTA tuners. I gave him help with linux commands, etc.


I've not done any DVB-S tuners, so I can't help there, but youtube might help, i.e.:


The original Tvheadend developer use to spend a lot of time on the project, but I heard he got married and started a family, so less time to do updates now (got to set priorities).

 

[fred555]

Tvheadend on the Pi2 : Too squirley. You most reboot everyday for things to work correctly.

The fact that 22Khz did not work was not a show stopper since all my recording is done on Heroes Alt
which is on the 0Khz side of a multiswitch. Combat and 12 Oclock High record from 1 to 5 AM.
But when it comes to The Rebel and Branded in the mornings, they wont record.
Even if I reboot before the timer is scheduled to kick in. What happens on either one of those
programs is it records for about 10 seconds and stops.

PROJECT OVER. Next on to MicroHD recording headaches in the Receiver section.

 

[Test12345]

How difficult would you say it is to get an RPi2 fta box going? I've got one and never even knew this was a thing!

 

[KE4EST]

It can be done, but it is for sure for the hobbyist. A few of us have been experimenting off and on. Here is some good reading on the subject.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/thr...rce-satellite-receiver-raspberry-pi-2.346824/