Configuration transfer?

Neil Carter

Greetings:

I've been using Tvheadend (version 4.2.4, I think) for several years now, just as an OTA DVR, with two USB tuners, on a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian (Stretch, I think). About a week ago I rebooted the Pi, as it had been a while, and for whatever reason, it no longer boots. I used a tool called Ext2Explorer to copy the contents of the SDCard to my local NAS, so everything should be saved off I think.

I have two questions to start with, we'll go from there -
1. Is there a Raspberry Pi guru on here who might be able to assist with bringing this little box back from the dead? If not, I'll have to rebuild. Which leads to the next question...

2. Is there a way to copy and then import the current configuration to a new build, so as not to have to go through sorting out the digital channels, frequencies, etc, again?

Thank you, all, in advance!!

Neil

Flole

Just copy the config directory to the new installation, and then it should just work.

Neil Carter

Thank you for the response!

However, I have to ask for clarification as there are several config directories under /var/lib/hts/.hts/tvheadend. Am I looking in the right place?

Neil

Flole

Sounds correct, the entire tvheadend directory should be copied.

Neil Carter

Sorry for the delay, death in the family...

I wound up having to rebuild from scratch and the tvheadend backup I had created turned out to not include the /var/lib/hts/.hts/tvheadend directory I need! Not sure what happened there.

So, I am having to configure from scratch. It's been a while since I last did this, and it's not very straight-forward to those who don't play with this frequently. The issue I'm facing now is there do not appear to be any channels showing up in the UI. Both adapters appear correctly, as adapter0 and adapter1. They are Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 950Q Hybrid TV sticks. They are properly recognized, I think, in the dmesg output, attached here as dmesg.txt.

I was able to copy the old firmware files from the backup, at /lib/firmware, to the same location on the new build:

dvb-fe-xc4000-1.4.1.fw
dvb-fe-xc5000-1.6.114.fw
dvb-fe-xc5000c-4.1.30.7.fw
dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw
dvb-usb-it9135-01.fw
dvb-usb-it9135-02.fw

dvb-usb-terratec-h5-drxk.fw

Thoughts? As always, any assistance is GREATLY appreciated!!

Thank you!

Neil

PS -- Found a tool called w_scan, installed it, and ran it like w_scan -c US > w_scan.out, which I've also attached. This appears to me as though the tuners are working, as they find a bunch of my normal channels. Again, why are they not showing up in the tvheadend UI? I'm missing something...

Flole

I suggest checking the "old" location: /home/hts/.hts

Neil Carter

That directory does not exist in my backup. In fact, the only directory in /home is 'pi'. (And yes, I performed the backup as root)

btw, the new build is 4.3-2155~gfe4df311d

Please check the PS added to the previous post

Jonas Lang

I suggest reading this. It’s extensive but informative and is Hauppauge Dual HD related and covers most of the bases
https://tvheadend.org/d/8359-having-great-difficulty-getting-linux-to-install-and-see-win-tv-dualhd

Neil Carter

I've gotten things working, fairly well, but have a few lingering questions:

1. File sizes are roughly one third what similar programs recorded on the same channel used to be, on the old system. I'm assuming this is a reduction in resolution somehow. Are there any settings for this? I have found none. Or, could this be a driver issue? I'm recording using the default pass format (.ts)
2. Is there any way to get the UI to work with different date string formats? It currently requires DD.MM.YYYY and being in the US, the local normal is MM.DD.YYYY. I personally use YYYY.MM.DD

3. Is there a setting to save the selected columns being displayed in a particular window? It keeps adding removed columns back in when logging in the next time

Thank you!

Jonas Lang

Assuming you’re not using a transcoding profile the .ts files will only be as big as they are recorded, HD being larger than SD, raw transport streams.

Just make sure your locales are set correctly for your region.

https://tvheadend.org/issues/5081

I’ve never needed to manipulate columns in the TVH UI but try reading this

https://tvheadend.org/d/6056-saving-column-and-other-preferences-in-the-gui

For any other answers try searching the forum as most of your questions have probably already been addressed.

Neil Carter

Thank you, everyone! At least it's working

Neil Carter

OK, sorry, one more issue. As previously mentioned, some files are much smaller once recording has completed. It turns out that the reason they are smaller is that they are short, time-wise, not everything has been recorded. In the log, the recording session goes the full programmed length and ends OK. However, when viewing the recording, it goes roughly ten to twenty minutes into the program and stops. There is nothing in the log indicating an issue, that I have found, anyway. Has anyone got any experience with something like this, or does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you!

Neil

Jonas Lang

No I haven’t but have you got the maximum recording time set correctly in TVH. I assume disk space isn’t an issue either. Is this happening on a particular channel that may have breaks in the programme to show infomercials and TVH is interpreting that as the end of a programme.

Neil Carter

Maximum recording time? I'm not familiar with that setting, where is it?

The new system is running on a 256GB micro-SD card, with roughly 207GB free

Some programs record flawlessly, some get shorted. It does appear, at this time, that the shorted programs are only coming from one provider, on multiple digital channels (this may only be due to the fact that this is what get recorded from most often, I will watch for it on other channels). These are PBS, so no commercials, infomercials, etc, during the program

Thanks!

Jonas Lang

Try in the Digital Video Recorder tab. You’ll find most of these things in the TVH Docs or a Google search using key words.