A lot of continuity errors on some muxes

pavelpl · 2024-08-19T23:07:06+00:00

Hi! I have been using TVH with a tuner (https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Technisat_SkyStar_USB_HD) to receive satellite TV for several years. Recently...

Jonas Lang

pavelpl I’ve seen similar issues to the one you are experiencing and it usually comes down to kernel/firmware/driver issues. The I2C error raises concerns too.

Have you tried swapping around the tuner on different USB ports on your computer or removing other USB devices in case they are causing conflicts.

Don’t waste money buying another tuner unless you are sure it will work in Linux. Some retailers do have older revisions of USB tuners in stock but you need to confirm the vendor id

From your original post could you confirm if you are having the difficulties with channels that are DVBS or DVBS2

Jonas Lang

Again another post reporting continuity errors on certain muxes and only being reported quite recently. Are you using Astra 19.2 to tune muxes too.

You can see there’s so many variables involved in trying isolate your issue. That particular tuner you use is quite sensitive so any minor changes to infrastructure may well be causing your issue

https://tvheadend.org/d/8276-continuity-errors-on-tbs6904-on-dvb-s2

pavelpl

Jonas Lang I've done some reboots, changing ports etc. and now there is no i2c errors in logs, but issue is still here 🙂 I'm using Hotbird 13. I read that few monts ago they migrate to some new sattelites Hot Bird 13F i Hot Bird 13G, maybe it's related. Problem I have refers to DVB-S2.

Jonas Lang

pavelpl could I suggest trying your tuner on a Windows machine if you haven’t already done so. I’m curious to see what signal strength and signal quality it reports.

It may well be that the firmware in Linux is no longer functioning correctly with your tuner in a particular kernel. A Windows session may well prove this.

Do bear in mind your tuner is quite old and there will be no further development work done on it in Linux for obvious reasons. You may need to purchase a more suitable tuner.

pavelpl

Jonas Lang Could you recomend some app for widnows?

pavelpl

Jonas Lang It was good idea to check it on Windows. It seems to work ...

Jonas Lang

pavelpl as I suspected. Your tuner is working and It’s definitely a Linux issue. You’ve now proven that by testing and working in Windows.

I’ve a feeling I saw a Linux patch created to resolve that issue somewhere. Keep searching the web and you may come across it. I’ll search a bit more when I have the time.

Jonas Lang

Jonas Lang just one more question. In Linux are you using a USB hub powered or passive to connect your USB devices

pavelpl

Jonas Lang Passive

Jonas Lang

pavelpl I reckon that’s your problem so. Try removing the passive hub and plugging the tuner directly into the PC USB port. Let me know what happened.

pavelpl

Jonas Lang I've switched tuner from hub directly into USB on the machine and it's the same. I even changed usb cable to another one to eliminate this factor.

Jonas Lang

pavelpl I’ve come across this. Again change of kernel causing issue with this tuner raspberrypi/linux2886

Jonas Lang

A final note on this tuner. This is the patch I remember seeing. Again you’ll need a good working knowledge of Linux to apply this patch but it does look like it will resolve the issue of not being able to tune DVBS2 channels.
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Technisat_SkyStar_USB_2_HD_CI

pavelpl

Kinda big rabbit hole we are going 🙂 It's weird that few monts ago everything was ok, on kernel 6.x.

Jonas Lang

pavelpl if you knew the last known working kernel it would be quite easy to revert to it. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find that out.

Ubuntu allows for this by supplying an automatic media tree kernel builder when upgrading the kernel which is easily installed. Not sure if your setup could use this.

b-rad-NDi/Ubuntu-media-tree-kernel-builder

I imagine my previous suggestions may well be above your skill set so you could continue the search to see if anyone has found a simpler solution.

In the meantime do some in-depth research before purchasing an alternative DVBS USB tuner.

pavelpl

Jonas Lang Thank you for your help. In my situation, the tuner is actually using the kernel of my server host (which is how LXC containers work). Therefore, I don't want to lock the hypervisor's kernel to an older version. Especially since it's a Proxmox custom kernel (Debian-based), so I don't want to mess with it. I will look for some workarounds. Maybe it will ends with replacing the tuner with some more modern and reliable solution.

Jonas Lang

pavelpl at least you know your tuner is working now so it looks like the problem lies with how your Linux current OS kernel and your current drivers and firmware interact with it. If you search a little more you may find a more recent version of your tuners firmware that includes the required patch.

Jonas Lang

pavelpl this is also an interesting post and explains in a little more detail what’s happening to the tuner.

It appears the patch addresses your issue but to be honest the performance of your tuner appears to be a bit flaky under Linux and it may well be that a more suitable replacement tuner would be your best route.

Of course you could set up your tuner as a server in something like Windows or OSMC on a Raspberry Pi or any other OS known to work with your tuner and just serve your Dell machine. Just an idea
https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/kernel-dvb-s2-tuner-driver-patch-help-request-technisat-skystar-usb-2-hd-ci/38459

Jonas Lang

For anyone who has this tuner and is experiencing a similar issue, here’s a more in-depth explanation of the issue which also refers to the i2c error the OP experienced. It also includes the patch which can be applied to resolve the issue. https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/project/linux-media/patch/1391679907-17876-1-git-send-email-david.jedelsky@gmail.com/

« Previous Page