Can't watch DVB-T with RPi5 / LibreELEC

Cutter

Hello,
I cannot get TV playback on a RPi5 + TV Hat and Libreelec. The web interface "Watch TV" button gives an "Unknown error occured" no matter the channel / stream.
TVHeadend sees the TV tuner and reports a signal strength of ~-40dB.
Kodi once very briefly started TV playback but immediately stopped.

The debug log is too huge to link, but here is an excerpt:

Thanks for any help.

Flole

Enable the relevant subsystems only, not just all of them, the log will get incredibly long with no way to find any useful info in it. For debugging this issue you probably don't need to enable any debug log at all and just check out why the playback stops (for the webbrowser it is most likely because you are using an unsupported codec, that will look like "start .... stop" in the log).

Jonas Lang

Just try a different web browser. Something like Chromium to see if the web browser is the issue here which most likely it is.

Cutter

Edge gave the same results. Kodi can't play TV either.

Jonas Lang

In the TVH web ui Play Live TV cycle through the different profiles while trying to play live tv and see what results it yields. In the majority of these cases it is usually your browser’s settings that block video and/or audio from playing. Ensure your browser is set to automatically play video and audio.

Cutter

Jonas Lang
I did, and couldn't get a result.
The problem is not the browser as Kodi can't play TV either.

Jonas Lang

Cutter try accessing the RPI from a remote machine. All you are doing is passing a transport stream to a client to play. If your transport stream is not playing on a remote client you have a problem with your RPI Hat tuner setup.

Follow one of the many RPI/Tuner Hat projects on line to rule out any hardware issues first https://www.hackster.io/news/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-tv-hat-7992512c6195.amp

It’s unlikely that this is a TVH issue. Check antenna connection to the RPI, reseat the Hat onto the RPI and ensure it’s properly connected.

DaveH

We still haven't seen any log entries from browser, Kodi or TVH to show what may be going wrong.

DeltaMikeCharlie

Just a thought: Make a small recording, and then copy that file onto a PC/Mac and try to play it via VLC, etc. If the file can be played, then it points to a streaming issue with TVH. If the file can not be played, it could be pointing to a TVH tuner or local codec issue.

Cutter

I've replaced the rpi5 as the previous one was probably damaged. I can now watch TV in MS Edge using the Matroska profile but for some reason the TV Tuner keeps disappearing (and the rpi need to be restarted). Is there a way I can troubleshoot this problem ?

TV recordings work well.

When using Kodi, I get the following message in tvheadend: No input source available for subscription "127.0.0.1 [ | Kodi Media Center ]" to channel "..."
No other subscription is active besides Kodi.

TV in VLC (using channels.m3u) doesn't work either as VLC asks for user/password but then can't get a video.

Jonas Lang

Cutter run the dmesg command to ensure you are not getting an under voltage condition on the RPI. The signal dropping behaviour can point to a power supply issue. Ensure all your connections are firmly in place and your HAT is securely connected to the RPI. Reseat it if necessary.

Cutter

I've attached the TV Hat with screws, it still disappears but less frequently.
Watching TV works for a minute or two at best, then TVheadend reports the following messages:

2024-06-02 17:16:27.406 linuxdvb: Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0 - FE_READ_STATUS error Resource temporarily unavailable
2024-06-02 17:16:32.406 linuxdvb: Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0 - FE_READ_STATUS error Resource temporarily unavailable
2024-06-02 17:16:33.471 linuxdvb: Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0 - poll TIMEOUT
2024-06-02 17:16:36.124 htsp: 127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]: Disconnected
2024-06-02 17:16:36.124 subscription: 0057: "127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]" unsubscribing from "...", hostname="127.0.0.1", username="...", client="Kodi Media Center"
2024-06-02 17:16:36.286 htsp: Got connection from 127.0.0.1
2024-06-02 17:16:36.286 htsp: 127.0.0.1: Welcomed client software: Kodi Media Center (HTSPv35)
2024-06-02 17:16:36.286 htsp: 127.0.0.1 [ Kodi Media Center ]: Identified as user '...'
2024-06-02 17:16:36.286 htsp: 127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]: Privileges updated
2024-06-02 17:16:36.291 mpegts: 586MHz in DVB-T Network - tuning on Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0
2024-06-02 17:16:36.292 subscription: 005B: "127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]" subscribing on channel "...", weight: 100, adapter: "Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0", network: "DVB-T Network", mux: "586MHz", provider: "GR1 B", service: "...", profile="htsp", hostname="127.0.0.1", username="...", client="Kodi Media Center"
2024-06-02 17:16:39.354 linuxdvb: Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0 - FE_READ_STATUS error Resource temporarily unavailable
2024-06-02 17:16:42.292 subscription: 005B: service instance is bad, reason: No input detected
2024-06-02 17:16:43.292 mpegts: 642MHz in DVB-T Network - tuning on Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0
2024-06-02 17:16:43.292 subscription: 005C: "epggrab" subscribing to mux "642MHz", weight: 4, adapter: "Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0", network: "DVB-T Network", service: "Raw PID Subscription"
2024-06-02 17:16:45.292 subscription: 005B: No input source available for subscription "127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]" to channel "..."
2024-06-02 17:16:47.292 subscription: 005B: No input source available for subscription "127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]" to channel "..."
2024-06-02 17:16:49.292 subscription: 005B: No input source available for subscription "127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]" to channel "..."
2024-06-02 17:16:51.292 subscription: 005B: No input source available for subscription "127.0.0.1 [ ... | Kodi Media Center ]" to channel "..."

dmesg:

The temperature of the rpi raises to _65°C at most. Command vcgencmd get_throttled returns 0x0 so it does not seem to be a temperature problem.

Jonas Lang

Cutter on the Status tab in TVH what Signal Quality/Strength are you reading. Ensure your antenna is correctly aligned.

Cutter

Jonas Lang
Upon cold boot, signal quality is between -50dB and -35dB. After a few seconds of TV watching with Kodi it becomes "unknown" and the log starts showing error messages.
Watching TV in the browser is more stable.

cncnerd

I'd try two things:
· check the firmware is present and is getting loaded ( I've had similar issues with missing firmware )
· Use a mire powerful power adapter, because the RPi + TV Hat needs more power than only the Rui ( obviously )

I have also a RPi TV hat, and I had problems due to a card getting corrupted. I searched for the error for a very long time, until the corruption got worse and it turned evident.

Best regards

Cutter

About firmware, dmesg gives the following info:

[    0.016808] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Attached to firmware from 2024-04-20T10:53:30, variant start_cd
[    0.020148] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Firmware hash is d1744d2100000000000000000000000000000000

vcgencmd version
2024/04/20 11:53:30
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version d1744d21 (release) (embedded)

undervoltage does not seem to occur:

vcgencmd get_throttled
throttled=0x0

Flole

Have you tried switching to the alternative way of fetching the signal strength? Looks like the driver might be broken....

boragthung

I have the TVHat with the Pi4B. I was hoping to get a Pi5 at some point as I have a spare TVHat I bought cheap some time ago. However what has stopped me from getting a Pi5 is when I search on the internet it seems that Pi5 is not compatible with the TVHat. PiHut lists the TVHat as compatible with Pi3B, Pi4B and PiZero2. If you do an internet search on Pi5 with TVHat then you will find there are issues getting it to work. There is a thread on the Raspberry Pi forums which seems to show there is a kernel panic. I think the issue is still unsolved.

DaveH

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=359876#p2175972

Cutter

A moderator there just confirmed this is a driver bug. There is currently no fix unfortunately.