tvheadend HDHomeRun emulation - howto

Zenon Skuza

Hi there, I've enabled the HDHomeRun emulation option in tvheadend but not sure what other configuration is required in order for Plex to see the emulated HDHomeRun. Can anyone provide a step-by-step tutorial for this?

waltonbruce01

I couldn't figure out how to get that working either.
But, I was able to get Plex to recognize it using this middleware.
Maybe it will work for you.

jfarseneau/antennas

Zenon Skuza

Thanks, I'm currently using tvheadend via the linuxserver.io docker container, and their docker also allows some custom startup logic. I find this a convenient all-in-one approach.
It requires passing the a few env variables to the container:
TVH_URL - set to http://plex:plex@192.168.20.45:9981 for me (plex user with plex as password is set up separately in tvheadend, also need to enable plain authentication in Configuration->General)
TVH_PROXY_URL - set to http://192.168.20.45:5004
Exposing port 5004 to the container and mapping a host directory to this container path /custom-cont-init.d

In the host directory I've got a script with the commands below, and it all works a nicely.
But I was just hoping the HDHomeRun Emulation directly in tvheadend would be even simpler.

cd /
apk add git py3-pip
git clone https://github.com/jkaberg/tvhProxy
cd tvhProxy
pip install -r requirements.txt --break-system-packages
python tvhProxy.py &

waltonbruce01

Zenon Skuza

Hey. Thanks for sharing your solution, nice to learn.

I'm using docker images for everything as well... so much easier. The antennas app has one on dockerhub, so I just run that with "host" networking to bypass port forwarding issues. It does require a passwordless account access so maybe not for everyone concerned about security in their setup.

For the most part I've been using the built-in DVR locally on tvheadend and kick the resulting recordings over to plex afterwards.

BartAfterDark

waltonbruce01

You need to build TvHeadend with --hdhomerun_server

Then you'll get an extra option in settings:

Zenon Skuza

BartAfterDark
I'm using linuxserver.io's tvheadend docker which has this option present, and I have enabled the option, but my Plex docker wasn't able to "see" this HDHomeRun Server as emulated by tvheadend, hence why I am also installing tvhProxy within the tvheadend docker and getting Plex to connect via tvhProxy.
Are there any other steps needed for Plex to see the emulated HDHomeRun Server or are you just enabling that option and then your Plex install finds it?

capindc

I got this to work by doing the following
installed on a Raspberry PI fellow this
[https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-tvheadend/]
bypass the first start wizard press cancel
Go to Config==>General==>View level Expert
Go to Config==>General==>HDHomeRun==>press Enable HDHomeRun Server Emulation:
I then started the Start Wizard under access control
allowed network (this is your local network) 192.168.1.0/24 .0/24 is important
aslo I add user login plex plex
go to plex type in the ip address and port

adenip

Hello I don't get it, I followed this installation process on my raspberry :

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install tvheadend

I cancelled the wizard and put the expert level but I don't see the HDHomeRun Server Emulation in the options.

Does it need another version of Tvheadend ? Do I have to compile it myself ? Thanks

chkuendig

Hi all,

I'm the dev working on HDHomerun emulation (I also am maintaining the current tvhProxy fork).

I've enabled the HDHomeRun emulation option in tvheadend but not sure what other configuration is required in order for Plex to see the emulated HDHomeRun. Can anyone provide a step-by-step tutorial for this?

All you should need is an anonymous user setup, I posted a quick overview at https://christian.kuendig.info/posts/2023-11-tvheadend-hdhomerun/

Are there any other steps needed for Plex to see the emulated HDHomeRun Server or are you just enabling that option and then your Plex install finds it?
You have to manually add it by providing the IP/Host and port to Plex during the setup. I'm working on making this easier and hopefully soon can merge this (I initially added this discovery to tvhProxy but thought it isn't needed anymore)

Zenon Skuza

chkuendig Thanks Christian, I really appreciate your help!

Pko

chkuendig Hello

I'm a tvheadend newbie, I got tvh configured for plex with tvhproxy a couple years ago but this summer in some upgrade it stopped working and I can't configure it again, your indications appear to be simple but I don't know how to apply them. I'm more or less proficient in plex but a complete dummy in tvh, just installed it years ago, followed the wizard, it worked. Then I read some recipe to get tvh working with plex, I followed it also (not understanding a thing I was doing), but it again worked.

I configured anonymous access as you say, but then change to plex config and what do I do there? I can only configure the hdhomerun address but I put the IP address of the server there and doesn't work.

Is there some more detailed instructions for total dummies like me?

Thank you very much

iond

I activated the HDHomeRun emulation, configured the permissions according to instructions, but Plex does not detect anything, although I manually specified the IP address of TVH server.
Also I checked and the port 5004 is not up, I guess this port should be up when this emulation is activated. I see ports 9981 and 9982 up. I checked both udp and tcp.

apbarratt

Hi everyone,

I'm having issues with this too, I just don't see any evidence that HDHomeRun simulation is actually running at all.

My docker compose looks like this:

volumes:
  tvheadend:

services:
  tvheadend:
    image: ghcr.io/tvheadend/tvheadend:master-debian
    cap_drop:
      - all
    container_name: tvheadend
    devices:
      - /dev/dvb/
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - RUN_OPTS=
    volumes:
      - tvheadend:/var/lib/tvheadend:rw
      - /export/recordings:/var/lib/tvheadend/recordings:rw
    network_mode: host
    command: --config '/var/lib/tvheadend'
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: wget -O - -q 'http://localhost:9981/ping' | grep -q 'PONG'

But I don't see any evidence of anything but ports 9981 and 9982 being opened.

apbarratt@tv:~ $ sudo netstat -tulpn | grep LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:9982            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      415777/tvheadend    
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:9981            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      415777/tvheadend    
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      581/sshd: /usr/sbin 
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:46655         0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      411099/code-d78a74b 
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      581/sshd: /usr/sbin 
apbarratt@tv:~ $

@chkuendig, thanks so much for your contributions on this. Can you advise on if there is anything I'm missing?

Zenon Skuza

In plex Live TV setup, enter your "HD Homerun" address manually, eg: http://192.168.1.1:9981

apbarratt

Zenon Skuza Thank you so much for this. I don't know why but I'd utterly convinced myself that the HDRomeRun must have been on a different port and therefore wouldn't show up in this way 😅

I also discovered a few issues with my docker compose. It didn't help that I was using options specifically designed for the LinuxServer Image with the official but less preconfigured GHCR version!

Now I just need to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the picons 🙂