Unable to grab EPG from DVB-T2 channels in UK

Frances Cook

I just upgraded Tvheadend from 4.2.6 to 4.3-2040~g604d81a29, and its EIT Freeview EPG grabber failed to grab data from Freeview’s HD channels, which was transmitted in DVB-T2 - it always says timeout.

The grabber works in 4.2.6 but after upgrading to 4.3 it’s gone.

2022-10-21 22:23:01.189 epggrab: UK: Freeview - data completion timeout for BBC Three in dvbt

Also I tried to get back to 4.2.6 but when I was building it said ‘Unmet build dependencies: python’. I guess it was because the lack of python 2.7?

mpmc

I'm seeing EPG here on mine. In Configuration -> DVB Inputs -> Muxes do you have the "EPG module id" set to "UK: Freeview"?

!mux.png!

Frances Cook

Yes but it automatically went to EIT: EPG Grabber when I tuned in. If I chose Force (auto), it got nothing.

2022-10-21 00:11:27.641 epggrab: UK: Freeview - data completion timeout for BBC ONE HD in dvbt

Jonas Lang

What OS/hardware are you running TVH on. Assuming you have the priority list set correctly in the EPG Grabber configuration section. I’ve no doubt that you mapped all services correctly after you completed the initial scan.

Frances Cook

Jonas Lang wrote:

> What OS/hardware are you running TVH on. Assuming you have the priority list set correctly in the EPG Grabber configuration section. I’ve no doubt that you mapped all services correctly after you completed the initial scan.

Ubuntu 22.04.1 but the Freeview feed is come from another LAN computer, which received DVB-T2 via the old version of Tvheadend.

(UPDATE) Tried in another device using 4.3-1964, it works.

Jonas Lang

Ok but just a little confused. I understand you’re using TVH on some platform (hardware) which you haven’t mentioned what hardware, feeding another piece of hardware which again you haven’t mentioned. So what exactly does your backend/frontend consist of. All we actually know is you have Ubuntu 22.04 running and using a DVB-T tuner to get signal

Frances Cook

Jonas Lang wrote:

> Ok but just a little confused. I understand you’re using TVH on some platform (hardware) which you haven’t mentioned what hardware, feeding another piece of hardware which again you haven’t mentioned. So what exactly does your backend/frontend consist of. All we actually know is you have Ubuntu 22.04 running and using a DVB-T tuner to get signal

Sorry for my poor linux knowledge as I didn’t get what hardware meant… It’s amd64.

Jonas Lang

Ok. You have an AMD64 PC acting as a server. Is the DVB-T tuner connected to this. What have you got being fed from this (client). Are you using TVH on both units. Are you using TVH as a frontend as well as a backend or are you using something like KODI as a frontend.

Frances Cook

Jonas Lang wrote:

> Ok. You have an AMD64 PC acting as a server. Is the DVB-T tuner connected to this. What have you got being fed from this (client). Are you using TVH on both units. Are you using TVH as a frontend as well as a backend or are you using something like KODI as a frontend.

Yes the tuner is connected to an AMD64 PC running Tvheadend 4.2.8 and it works well. Then I’m using another AMD64 PC with TVH 4.3-2040~g604d81a29 to receive from the first one - via IPTV output - and I can’t see EPG from DVB-T2 channels on the TVH web interface running on this PC. I don’t use KODI so I think both frontend and backend are TVH.

Jonas Lang

What do you use to view a channel on the client. I assume you created an m3u playlist on the server for viewing on the client. What little I know about your setup it seems like overkill to have two AMD64 PCs just to watch DVB-T channels. You could do all that on one single AMD64 PC. Anyway it is possible to grab the EPG from the server to use in the client. There’s a couple of TVH API commands you can use to achieve that..

Frances Cook

Jonas Lang wrote:

> What do you use to view a channel on the client. I assume you created an m3u playlist on the server for viewing on the client. What little I know about your setup it seems like overkill to have two AMD64 PCs just to watch DVB-T channels. You could do all that on one single AMD64 PC. Anyway it is possible to grab the EPG from the server to use in the client. There’s a couple of TVH API commands you can use to achieve that..

Yes I use m3u playlists. I set two AMD64 PCs because sometimes I cannot check whether all computer’s hard disks have enough spaces to save recording files - so I set another PC with TVH as a backup recorder. So if the EPG cannot be grabbed it will be so inconvenient to record programmes.

Jonas Lang

I mentioned above about the TVH API commands. If you’re having difficulties populating EPG just use this command from a browser bar and save it as an XML file

curl http://192.168.0.1:9981/xmltv/channels

Remember to replace the IP address with the address your TVH is located at.

Frances Cook

Jonas Lang wrote:
> I mentioned above about the TVH API commands. If you’re having difficulties populating EPG just use this command from a browser bar and save it as an XML file
>
> curl http://192.168.0.1:9981/xmltv/channels >

> Remember to replace the IP address with the address your TVH is located at.

I rolled it back to 4.2.6 and the EPG went normal… But there’s another bug now - some episodes of the same series cannot be auto recorded via series link…

Jonas Lang

Best if you report this issue to the developers on the TVH GitHub https://github.com/tvheadend/tvheadend

Flole

Jonas Lang wrote:

> Best if you report this issue to the developers on the TVH GitHub https://github.com/tvheadend/tvheadend

On GitHub issue reports aren't accepted.

Jonas Lang

That’s strange. I thought it was normal to report issues on a project directly to the developer on GitHub. Is there a particular reason why it can’t be done in this case.

Flole

Because we are using this Redmine bugtracker for Tvheadend. The issue section on GitHub has been disabled because of that. I don't know who made that decision but migrating all bugs to GitHub seems like a waste of time and actually Redmine seems to be superior to GitHub anyways.

Jonas Lang

Got it. So effectively GitHub is just being used as a code repository.

Flole

Exactly, and soon(-ish) for building the packages for various platforms aswell. Tvheadend is still from a time where something like GitHub actions was unthinkable that's why doozer was used, and as TV usage is getting replaced more and more by streaming Tvheadend isn't getting the attention it got before, so there are no developers left and something like migrating all the services to another place is taking a long time or just not worth the effort.

Jonas Lang

My interest in TVH is from the DVBS and DVBT side of things. I don’t need a paid Internet connection to view fta TV. I hope others realise this now that we are living in very different times. I hope any current and future TVH developers bear this in mind. Have the original crop of developers moved aside.