TVHeadend build/install on Lubuntu 20.04-64bit with iGPU 8+ transcoding

Alin Gherghescu · 2022-12-03T02:38:34+00:00

This tutorial is intended for beginners interested in compiling tvheadend with HW GPU transcoding (using iGPU form Intel gen 8+). It is a little messy how I...

apollo

Hi,
I used vlc to make 2 tv recordings of a T2 channel, one with pass profile and the other with h264_vaapi profile then I inspected them with mediainfo.
I attached a folder with the recordings and the txt files of mediainfo... In my opinion the problem could be with the metadata "service name" and "menu id", as you can see from the image in the transcoding the value "service name" is 01 and the value "menu id" is 1537, this happens on all transcoded channels, the value never changes.
Is it possible to make these 2 metadata populate with the channel number (LCN)?
I hope I explained myself...🙂🙂
Thanks

[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11HmKL2YPtc-WDwLvQEIRElnV7C6LV08z?usp=drive_link]

ukn_unknown

apollo please confirm if vaapi acquisition was performed with the branch I made for you? In my branch I hardcoded some info: -mpegts_transport_stream_id 0x0006 -mpegts_service_id 0x0601 --> this information was added for all channels (is identical for al channels), but this was intended for test purpose only. I see is decode as Menu ID 1537 (0x601). After you confirm it works I will dig in the source code to see how can we extract the real numbers from Demux.
Looking at the picture I see that information from pass is filled in with some information (bogus info) also on the vaapi.
Can you confirm if you can add (one channel) WMC will accept the vaapi profile? If it doesn't work with Service01 ... will not work with Rai 1 HD either.

apollo

Hi,
your branch works, in the image you can see the values you set, they are 3 tv channels recorded with vaapi transcoding.
Vaapi in hdhomerun/wmc does not work.
You can do it...😉
Thanks

ukn_unknown

apollo very small improvements ... unfortunately I got stuck to Service01 and Ffmpeg 🙁 .
I updated the branch with everything I knew .. if you want to test on your side.

ukn_unknown

apollo actually I think I fix the Service01 and Ffmpeg. We still have the mpegts_service_id ... but I doubt that mpegts_service_id will make a difference.

apollo

Congratulations,
you managed to fix service name and service provider. 👏
However wmc still doesn't want to work.
Please, if possible, could you insert the LCN channel number in the ID value?
Thanks

ukn_unknown

apollo LNC channel number I am not sure if is available. I changed the branch to print 4 things:
2025-04-07 11:38:21.465 [ ERROR] libav: si_adapter = TSFile 2025-04-07 11:38:21.465 [ ERROR] libav: si_network = TSfile Network 2025-04-07 11:38:21.465 [ ERROR] libav: si_satpos = (null) 2025-04-07 11:38:21.465 [ ERROR] libav: si_mux = Multiplex [onid:0001 tsid:0001]
Data s striped down in the TS files you uploaded. You have to check with your setup (that will print those for lines in your system).
If you see any info that can be used for ID value ... sure.
But I want to highlight that we are diverging from the intent: ideally we want to transfer the MPEGTS parameters from provider to MPEGTS container after we transcode. If you try to alter ... is not really what all users are interested on 🙁 .

However wmc still doesn't want to work.

Can you clarify what have you used:

internal HDHomeRun emulated by the TVH (Configuration / General / Base / HDHomeRun)
Or
HDHRProxyIPTV dsaupf/HDHRProxyIPTV

apollo

Hi unknown,
I don't want to put you in trouble and I don't want to create any kind of problem for you, if it's not possible to go ahead we can stop here...
That said I'm using hdhomerun app + hdhrproxyiptv + wmc.
Thanks

ukn_unknown

apollo I don't want to put you in trouble and I don't want to create any kind of problem for you, if it's not possible to go ahead we can stop here...

Is not about put me in trouble ... but we need to come up with a story that make sense for the product. If this parameter (ID) has to be faked ... we need to use a checkbox that by default is OFF ("WMC workaround") that you can check to perform the change.
Will become a little harder to implement ... but don't worry about this part. For now let's understand what we need to add to make it work. After that we will discuss how we integrate that into TVH in a harmonious way.
If I understand right you are using the setup from: https://kevinchalet.com/2023/07/05/connecting-windows-media-center-to-tvheadend-with-hdhrproxyiptv-an-alternative-to-dvblink/
Tvheadend + HDHomeRun BDA + HDHRProxyIPTV
Please confirm.
What I am worried is that MediaInfo is only showing some information ... not all the containers information - so the comparison pass<-->vaapi will require a software that will show all fields. Let me know if you can find that software 🙁 .

ukn_unknown

apollo
I fixed also mpegts_service_id --> please pull again and recompile. Please check with MediaInfo ... should have all the information exposed by MediaInfo.

apollo

Yes, I am trying to use the configuration you linked. Try this program... Thank
TSAnalyser

ukn_unknown

apollo this looks very professional ... I will try to use it 🙂. Thank you for info ... is really helpful for debugging.

ukn_unknown

apollo First sample you provided was from a DVB-T --> and video was H264; so I think it should work with pass profile (same setup like in the link above). You can use that to ensure the chain of tools is working before transitioning to DVB-S + vaapi profile.

apollo

Hi,
sorry, maybe I'm confusing you or I can't follow you with google translation...🙂
If you're talking about recorded files I took as an example the rai 501 channel that broadcasts in dvb-t2 hevc.
In Kevin's configuration the profile pass with dvb-t h264 channels works very well.
I'm not using dvb-s...
Thanks

ukn_unknown

apollo I understand .. was my misunderstanding. Now is clear. Is actually DVB-T2, not DVB-S.
When you say "rai 501 channel is not working with vaapi" ... can you try to understand where does it break? meaning the software HDHRProxyIPTV that is connecting to tvheadend is able to connect? I see it has some logging for errors in some error conditions. Or the issue is from WPC when is connecting to HDHRProxyIPTV? The error is during channel scan? or is when you try to play a particular channel? I know that is sounds like 'shooting in the dark' ... but frankly I don't know how to debug this without having access to a system with WPC. I will try to use tsanalyser to make transcoding_mpegts container as close as possible to pass_mpegts.

Can you post a print screen on the settings used in profile 'pass' that works with WPC?
Please confirm by using command ffmpeg -i - -f mpegts -mpegts_transport_stream_id 0x0006 -mpegts_service_id 0x0601 -metadata service_provider="SMR6" -metadata service_name="TF1" -c:a copy -c:v [codec video preferito] -hide_banner -loglevel panic pipe:1 you can add one channel (because settings are hard coded).

apollo

Hi,
from what I understand hdhomerun behaves like a real dvb-t tuner and in transcoding the metadata that complete the mpegts flow are lost...
In my opinion if you can make the transcoding_mpegts container as similar as possible to pass_mpegts you are on the right track.
Thanks

apollo

In the configuration of the link above, an application is used that creates a profile in tvh for each tv channel called wmc:pass, injects the channels into the wmc database and creates a mappinglist for hdhrproxy.
When everything is configured, you can edit the list, as shown in the image, and change the profile.

ukn_unknown

apollo frankly I don't understand why the software is creating so many identical pass-s. I wander if the channel added at the end of the profile name is not an important info.
Can you rename the wmc-pass:501 (made by the application) into wmc-pass:501_2 ; and rename h264_vaapi into wmc-pass:501 . Also change the INI file to what application has initially made ( ... 501?profile=wmc-pass:501).
I want to ensure that name of the profile is not something that needs to remain the same (even if you change the pass with transcoding in tvheadend).
It is really strange ... because with the settings above pass (from your picture) will override service ID to 1 ... so all programs will have ID = 1 🙁 . How is working !?
Please answer my question # 2 above.

apollo

Hi,
I haven't tried ffmpeg...
We're figuring out how it all works together.
Below I'll paste the text copied from the site...
Thanks

By default, when Tvheadend extracts the elementary streams associated to a single channel – called Single Program Transport Stream (or SPTS) – from the Multiple Program Transport Stream (or MPTS) returned by the physical tuner, it doesn't preserve the MPEG network ID/transport stream ID/service ID of the original stream and arbitrarily sets all these values to 1.

Unfortunately, when multiple channels share the same exact DVB information, Windows Media Center ends up merging them automatically at some point (a process typically performed by the mcGlidHost executable). While it is possible to disable this mechanism, using the same DVB information has other side-effects like forcing a bogus channel change when recording a program on another channel while already watching live TV.

To prevent that, the tool automatically asks Tvheadend to create stream profiles that enforce a unique service ID per channel and uses this identifier when injecting the channel into the WMC database to produce a unique DvbTuningInfo instance that won't be shared by multiple channels.

ukn_unknown

apollo DMC posted a very detailed way to dump a mux (mux is the entity that keep one MPTS). https://docs.tvheadend.org/documentation/creating-a-mux-dump ; If you could dump the mux DVB-T2 with channel 501 for about 1-2 minutes ... would help me to investigate all fields (with TSAnalyser) present in your stream ... and try to preserve as many I can. Take note that the file will be around 250M / min. Thank you.

it doesn't preserve the MPEG network ID/transport stream ID/service ID of the original stream and arbitrarily sets all these values to 1.

This is true only if you keep the default settings ... if you want to preserve thins info you have to use the following settings:

You can see on the tooltip --> Zero means no rewrite. I think will preserve also the rest of the settings listed (beside Service ID).
You can do a VLC record for profile pass with above settings and you will see the difference (relative to the original pass profiles with Rewrite Service ID = 1).

Kévin Chalet

ukn_unknown This is true only if you keep the default settings ... if you want to preserve thins info you have to use the following settings:

You can see on the tooltip --> Zero means no rewrite. I think will preserve also the rest of the settings listed (beside Service ID).

Hey,

@apollo emailed me the link to this topic so I thought I could shed some light on why I opted for this - rather unusual - approach in that linked blog post 😁

Preserving the original MPEG service ID by using a single pass-through profile with the magic 0 value would certainly work for basic scenarios, but it would also break Windows Media Center when implementing more advanced setups: let's say you have a Tvheadend channel mapped to 2 services belonging to 2 muxes coming from 2 different networks ; for instance a DVB-T network (with a real MPEG-TS source and a "real" service ID) and an IPTV network fallback (for which a fake MPEG-TS has to be created with a fake service ID).

In that case, the MPEG-TS service, network and transport identifiers will differ between the two sources and a pass-through profile with the magic 0 value will reflect that: if you used the IDs of the DVB-T network when injecting the channels in WMC's database, it will only work when the Tvheadend stream comes from the DVB-T source: as soon as Tvheadend will try to use the IPTV source, the returned stream will have different MPEG-TS identifiers and WMC will just complain it can't find the requested service (which isn't unreasonable behavior, to be honest 😁).

Using MPEG-TS identifiers that are completely disconnected from the actual stream sources completely avoids this issue. But of course, it requires doing some gnarly things Tvheadend-side 😁

A clever way to solve that would be to have more elaborate MPEG-TS pass-through and spawn profiles that allow specifying dynamic identifiers directly in the query string. Something like http://tvheadend:9981/stream/channelnumber/2?profile=dynamic_pass&mpeg_network_id=8442&mpeg_original_network_id=8442&mpeg_transport_stream_id=1&mpeg_service_id=2. Not sure how complicated it would be to implement that, tho'.

(I'm an absolute Tvheadend lover, which is really a fantastic piece of software! ❤️)

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