TVH continuously scans for DVB EPG data

Peter Meyer

I'm using TVH 3.4.27 on OpenELEC 3.2.4 with a Skystar HD2 DVB-S2 card.

The adapter is configured using these settings:

ter0_STB0899_Multistandard { "enabled": 1, "fe_path": "/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0", "dmx_path": "/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0", "dvr_path": "/dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0", "type": "DVB-S", "displayname": "TechniSat SkyStar HD2", "autodiscovery": 1, "idlescan": 0, "idleclose": 1, "skip_checksubscr": 0, "sidtochan": 0, "qmon": 0, "poweroff": 1, "nitoid": 0, "diseqc_version": 0, "diseqc_repeats": 0, "extrapriority": 0, "skip_initialscan": 0, "disable_pmt_monitor": 0, "full_mux_rx": -1, "grace_period": 0 }

By disabling idle scanning I presumed that the adapter won't be used until it's actually used by a viewer or recording (_after_ the initial scan completes - of course) - but that doesn't seem to be the case. TVH still tunes to muxes/transponders - apparently to update EPG data.

TVH found 1658 services on 109 muxes in total (Astra 19,2E). But I'm actually using only around 40 mapped services/channels. Because I didn't want TVH to grab useless EPG data Iunchecked the checkboxes in the "EPG" column in the services table for every service I don't use (which obviously took some time ;)).

But TVH doesn't seem to care about that in the way I expected, because it's still tuning to muxes/transponders I don't even have one mapped channel on. After that it seems to start all over again and again and again...

The only way to stop this is to disable the "EIT: DVB Grabber" entry (which is the only one I've enabled) - but then of course, there is no EPG data updating at all. What I want is to update the EPG data maybe every 24h, 3d or something like that.

My questions:

1.) Is there a way to tell TVH to update DVB EPG data only once in a given time period? Or to update only if the service is actually in use (which would produce gaps, of course)? I found a "Grab interval" setting - but as far as I understand this is only for XMLTV?

2.) Shouldn't the disabled "idle scanning" option also prevent TVH from (continuously) updating EPG data (seems a little bit illogical to me?)?

3.) What is the "EPG" checkbox in the services table actually for?

4.) The effect of the "Enabled" checkboxes for muxes and services isn't entirely clear to me. If I disable a mux or service - does this mean, that TVH will ignore this mux completely (= never tune to it again)? Could this be a away of limiting EPG data updates?

5.) Wouldn't it be a good idea to have an option to grab EPG data for actually mapped channels only?

Thank you very much for any help on this topic! :)

ProfYaffle

As I understand it...

1. Not for OTA EPG. That's continually updated. The Grab Interval is indeed XMLTV, although that's one option - disable the OTA grabber and use XMLTV instead.

2. No, the idle scanning is looking for new services (or not) - the same activity as when you initially add/find the muxes. It's unrelated to EPG.

3. It removes that channel from the EPG data. You'll have a backlog of existing entries more than likely, though, so if you want to prove this point:

a) disable EPG on a channel
b) shut down tvheadend
c) delete the EPG database file it creates

d) restart tvheadend and wait for the EPG to repopulate... it should no longer include any channels you removed from the EPG in (a)

4. This disables a mux or service completely. Disabling it means that it's effectively not there any more - not for any purpose - because it's, well, it's disabled. Yes, that would indeed stop the EPG updates for those services (and thus for any channels mapped to those services). Disabling the mux will knock out all services on that carrier frequency.

5. I'm not sure about this... I'd need to think how it handles EPG data for unmapped services. If there's no channel associated with it, then there's no way it should appear in the EPG, since that's triggered on channel name and not service. So, essentially, tvh is only presenting you with mapped channels (I think!). And tvheadend doesn't know which channels you might want to watch either, unless you define a tag group for the 40-odd channels you want and use that as a filter.

Adam Sutton

Peter,

This is a rather annoying limitation of what I've done. I know it needs fixing I just haven't had the time to look at it. Basically any mux carrying extended EIT data (i.e. not just EITpf) will be periodically scanned (I think it's meant to be hourly). There is simply no way to stop this, doesn't matter if that mux carries no services that are active. You can't independently disable the active scanning, and just leave the passive scanning in place. You have no way to limit "when" it will scan.

All rather naff I'm afraid. Clearly "could do better", but need to find some time.

Adam

Peter Meyer

Thank you both for your replies and explanations! :)

I guess I will disable the EPG grabber for now or turn it on from time to time (maybe by using a cron job...). It maybe sound stupid, but the reason I want to disable the non-stop scanning is my DVB-card, which makes really annoying noises on some frequencies. ;)

Unfortunately XMLTV isn't an option for me, because there are no (free) providers available for my region (Germany) - at least AFAIK.

@Adam: Thank you for your work!