EPG issue

Pete Hodd

I've just set up tvheadend for the first time, summary below:
On Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB with Raspberry OS Bullseye.
Using Hauppage dual tuner

Accessing New Zealand terrestrial Freeview

The issue I have is that the EPG is not fully populated, in fact is very sparse (many programmes are displayed but most without any descriptive info at all). All channels show something some time, but programmes appear at times then disappear. Playback of all channels works perfectly.

Could anyone please provide pointers on how to debug? I see nothing of relevance in the log. Also, when the tuner is plugged in to my windows pc the EPG is fine.

Marc Ominus

Hi Pete,

Do you have enabled EPG modules?

Configuration - Channel / EPG / EPG Grabber Modules:
Over-the-air: New Zealand: Freeview Base
Over-the-air: New Zealand: Freeview Local

Pete Hodd

Hello Marc, thanks for your response. Yes both modules are enabled.

davep

The Wikipedia page on "Freeview New Zealand" is quite old and might not be up-to-date, but it seems that the service uses a proprietary MHEG5 application for its EPG instead of the standard EIT. If so then I don't believe Tvheadend can handle MHEG5.

New Zealand satellite TV seems to use a standard EPG format.

Pete Hodd

Thank you for pointing me in Wikipedia's direction. It is a great source of info, which I neglected to use in this case.

So it looks like Freeview NZ, by not embracing widely used standards, makes it difficult for non-commercial organisations like tvheadend to use the EPG, given NZ market size and whether their effort is justified.

I see there is also a feature request which first was logged 5+ years ago which addresses NZ EPG issues which still appears to be open.

I M

See https://tvheadend.org/d/8424-solution-7-day-ota-epg-via-mheg-5-for-dvb-t-outside-of-auckland-nz if you're still looking for a solution...