FM Radio using RTL2832U + R820T USB

Zap 737

Hi,

First up, I am new to Linux, TVheadend, Raspberry Pi and OSMC. I also have a tenuous grasp of radio frequencies, muxes etc. Please be gentle.

I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with the RTL2832U + R820T USB as a receiver which is connected to my TV aerial on my roof. Reception is excellent.

The information on the box for the RTL2832U + R820T USB says "Support DAB/DAB+/FM", so I assume this means analog (??) FM - not DAB.

I am running the latest OSMC version 2016.09-1 (kernel 4.4.16-6-osmc) fully updated.

I have HTS Tvheadend 4.0.9 installed and configured. This is the version that comes with the latest version of OSMC.

It picks up the TV stations in my area as well as 5 radio stations which are DAB I think.

However, it has not picked up many FM stations in my area.

I have tried guessing at setting up muxes manually but each results in a fail.

I have attached a screen shot below.

For example, if I manually set up 104.5 MHZ (a local FM radio frequency) with a 7 MHz bandwidth, it fails. I have also tried using the settings of the other muxes that have successfully been set up.

dmesg | grep -i usb via ssh and it came up with:

[ 4.150745] usb 1-1.4: dvb_usb_v2: found a 'Realtek RTL2832U reference design' in warm state
[ 4.194923] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[ 4.205238] usb 1-1.4: dvb_usb_v2: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer
[ 4.248796] usb 1-1.4: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Realtek RTL2832 (DVB-T))...
[ 4.250180] usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
[ 4.329576] input: Realtek RTL2832U reference design as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/rc/rc0/input2
[ 4.329736] rc0: Realtek RTL2832U reference design as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/rc/rc0
[ 4.343456] usb 1-1.4: dvb_usb_v2: schedule remote query interval to 200 msecs
[ 4.354115] usb 1-1.4: dvb_usb_v2: 'Realtek RTL2832U reference design' successfully initialized and connected
[ 4.354290] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
[ 4.357602] input: MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (dvb_usb_rtl28xxu) as /devices/virtual/input/input3
[ 4.359847] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (dvb_usb_rtl28xxu) registered at minor = 0
[ 24.466263] usb 1-1.4: DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (174000000..862000000)

[ 3249.626777] usb 1-1.4: DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 frequency 104500000 out of range (174000000..862000000)

Note the last line says out of range in relation to the frequency of 104.5 Mhz.

(I don't know why it says [ 24.466263] usb 1-1.4: DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (174000000..862000000) as I did not set up a mux with frequency = 0 Hz)

So, does anyone know if this dongle with TVheadend can receive "normal" (analog??) FM radio stations (not DAB) ?

Are their different drivers I need to install? If so, how do I do this?

How do I correctly set up a mux manually ?

I live in Australia in Brisbane and here is a list of radio stations it has not picked up:

FM radio stations

87.6 Mhz/87.8 Mhz/88.0 Mhz
88.0 Mhz
93.3 Mhz
94.9 Mhz River 94.9
96.5 Mhz
97.3 Mhz 97.3 FM MIX
98.1 Mhz 4EB
98.9 Mhz 98.9 FM
100.3 Mhz Bay FM
101.1 Mhz 101.1 FM
102.1 Mhz 4ZZZ
103.7 Mhz 4MBS
104.5 Mhz Triple M
105.3 Mhz B105 FM
106.1 Mhz ABC Classic FM
106.9 Mhz Nova 106.9
107.7 Mhz Triple J

Pat McElligott

Hey Zap 737,

I going to have a go at a very similar project just as soon as "RTL2832U + R820T USB Tuner" arrives.

Like you I've limited experience with Linux, TVHeadend, Raspberry PI but I guess there is only 1 way to learn.

Unfortunately I can't offer any help at this stage but I've love to hear if you made any progress since your last post?

- Patcheen

Zap 737

Hi Patcheen,

No, I have had no luck in picking up normal FM radio stations although it has picked up DAB radio stations.

If you come up with a solution could you please post it here.

thanks.

Kev S

Alas TVHeadend doesn't receive any FM or DAB/DAB+ channels - the radio services you're seeing will be broadcast on the DVB-T/T2 multiplexes.

Not found any sensible way to be able to use SDR FM or DAB inside TVHeadend.

Zap 737

OK, thanks.

Now I can stop wasting my time trying to get it working

Jonathan Thomson

Is it not possible to pipe the output from the USB device to ffmpeg and then pipe that to TVHeadend? I use ffpmeg pipes to display live feeds from my IP cameras as channels in TVHeadend and it works really welll - if the audio format is something that ffmpeg can understand (e.g. I'd expect the DAB services to bang out MP2 or AAC audio) which you can then pipe (via ffmpeg) into TVHeadend as channels.

clint jones

Any body looking to pipe an Fm Radio station into Tvheadend try this

Install RTL_FM_Streamer and run (blacklist the DVB driver)

when your dongle is working putting http://192.168.1.110:2346/93300000/1 into vlc player should play the station directly (93.3Mhz here) substitute your frequency

open Tvheadend and create an IPTV mux enter the pipe into the URL field

pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -i http://192.168.1.110:2346/93300000/1 -c:a ac3 -f mpegts -mpegts_service_type digital_radio pipe:1

I use Kodi and using the service type "digital_radio" creates a new menu option as "radio" instead of listing it with the tv channels

substitute your ip

worked here in the US, spent 10 days searching if it works for you or if you improve post back mine has a shudder once in a while? working on slowing down FFMpeg

this person has the RTL_Streamer. https://github.com/AlbrechtL/rtl_fm_streamer and it works great.

thanks

Saen Acro

Add meta data to ffmpeg pipe to make it more interactive