Run Multiple Live TV Channels Streaming!

Milad Pazouki

Hi,
I just need to know is it possible to run Multiple Live TV Streaming with only one DVB Tuner ?
If yes which type of hardwares I need ?
and also, we have a plan to stream channels over internet! and because of that we cannot install sattelite hardware on datacenter!
we have a Server locally to get channels and stream them to our server in datacenter and that server restream them over internet!
on datacenter side we only want to pass videos through! so we need more bandwith instead of hardware! but in local side we want to transcode them! so I will buy a powerfull Server!

we have a license for about 100 Channels, about 30 channels are HD and another channels are not!

so pelase tell me is it possible at all with my plan ?
thanks a lot :)

Anders Gustafsson

In theory if they happen to be on the same "mux". Ie in DVB, several channels, usually four are squeezed into one carrier frequency, using Quadrature Amplitude modulation. A tuner can only tune to one frequency.

In reality, you will need more than one tuner for this to work in real life (I have four USB sticks). Are we talking DVB-T or DVB-C here?

Milad Pazouki

Thanks a lot,
we talking about DVB-S and DVB-S2!

and two different servers!

1 - local server to stream to the remote server

2 - remote server to restream channels to end users!

Also, can I have authentication on Stream links with TvHeadEnd ? like fos-streaming panel ?

Thanks a lot

Jonathan Thomson

Whether or not this is possible foryou depends upon which provider you are using and how they arrange their channels on their satellite transponders (which is why I suspect Anders used 'in theory' and 'in reality' in his response).

TVHeadend can stream/record every single channel carried on an individual multiplex/transponder so one tuner can stream as many channels as that multiplex/transponder carries. For your specific situation, it depends entirely which channels you are expecting to stream and whether or not they sit alongside other channels you want to stream.

As an example, in the UK, we have a national DVB-T network, one of the multiplexes carries the five national broadcasters HD services (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel Four and five) all alongside each other. This means that it's possible to stream/record all five of those channels at the same time whilst utilising only one physical tuner.

To get a better understanding how how many channels you can likely squeeze out of a single tuner, refer to http://www.lyngsat.com and look up your provider, this will give you a multiplex/transponder list for your provider and show you which channels are carried by each - you can then work out how many channels you'll be able to get from a single tuner.

BUT Anders is absolutely spot on that you can only tune into a single frequency (multiplex/transponder) so all the above is only true if all your clients are requesting channels from the same frequency - if one requests a channel that's carried on another frequency, TVHeadend will return a 'no free tuners' error.

Working example:

Multiplex one carries: Channel A, Channel B, Channel C

Multiplex two carries: Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 3

Client 1 requests Channel A: The stream begins
Client 2 requests Channel B: The stream begins

Client 3 requests Channel 1: TVHeadend returns 'no free tuners' error

Only when all clients have stopped streaming will TVHeadend allow another client to tune to a different frequency, at that point all clients will be limited to channels from that frequency.

Hope this makes sense.

Anders Gustafsson

Thanks for that explanation. I am not familiar with DVB-S, but from your explanation it seems as though it is similar to T/C.

I have four tuners, but sometimes run out anyway. Reason is that I put stuff on autorec and sometimes stuff gets aired several times as reruns, so even if you check the guide beforehand, you get those "surprise" recordings. I just delete them afterwards.

Jonathan Thomson

There is very little difference between DVB-S/T/C in relation to this discussion :)

FYI if you set the 'Duplicate handling' setting of your autorec entries to 'All: Record if different description' then you will eliminate 99% of your duplicate recordings :)

Anders Gustafsson

Thanks! I was not aware of that setting. That should take care of most yes, but probably not Finnis TV, you see Finland has two official languages and right now it will record autorecs from Finnish TV, twice as it thinks that the finnish and swedish versions are different :)

I can live with that, however.

Jonathan Thomson

Ah, good point. There are other options in that list which might "fit" better, it depends on how good your TV provider is at tagging episode/season numbers in programs.