Mux contains services but will not map to channels

Jeff

I recently reinstalled my operating system (Linux Mint 22 “Wilma” based on Ubuntu 24.04 “Noble Numbat”) and have gone through the tvheadend set-up process using the wizard. I have successfully scanned all of my previous ATSC-T muxes and mapped to channels with the exception of one which worked in the past but now does not: mux 593.028.

Tab “Configuration” → Tab “DVB Inputs” → Tab “Muxes” → row for mux “593.028” shows column “Services” 6 and column “Mapped” 0.
Tab “Services” does not contain this mux at all. When I click “Map Services” → “Map selected services”, check the six boxes beside each, and click “Map Services”, all 6 show as “Ignored”. syslog does not show any additional messages as a result of this mapping/ignoring process.
Strangely, when I go to tab “Configuration” → Tab “DVB Inputs” → Tab “Muxes” and click the play button in the first column, one of the six services (random?) plays perfectly fine in Celluloid.
Additionally, when I unhook my antenna cable from my computer and hook it directly to my television, the 6 channels in the mux are shown perfectly – so no issues with signal strength etc.

Let me know if I can provide any additional information. Thank you very much for your assistance!

DeltaMikeCharlie

Jeff syslog does not show any additional messages as a result of this mapping/ignoring process.

Please state which version of TVH you are using and where you installed it from.

Try going into the debugging window and enabling tracing/debugging for MPEGTS and ATSC modules and see if you get additional information.

Does the mux in question have all of the right settings? Perhaps if it has changed to ATSC3, the setting may need to change.

Jeff

DeltaMikeCharlie Please state which version of TVH you are using and where you installed it from.

TVH installed via mamarley ppa at https://launchpad.net/~mamarley/+archive/ubuntu/tvheadend-git.
“About” shows “HTS Tvheadend 4.3.0_pre+202408252012-0_{built202408261237}git266d03527_ubuntu24.04.1”.

DeltaMikeCharlie Try going into the debugging window and enabling tracing/debugging for MPEGTS and ATSC modules and see if you get additional information.

Enabling debugging on “tbl-atsc” (without me attempting to map channels or do anything at all) yields groups of messages which repeat several times per second:

2024-08-26T11:17:58.130870-04:00 INTERNETBLACK tvheadend[238916]: tbl-atsc: vct: pid 1FFB tableid C8 extraid 0000000000000fd1 len 156
2024-08-26T11:17:58.130968-04:00 INTERNETBLACK tvheadend[238916]: tbl-atsc: vct:  section 0 last 0 ver 0 (ver 0 st 2 incomp 0 comp 1)
2024-08-26T11:17:58.131016-04:00 INTERNETBLACK tvheadend[238916]: tbl-atsc: vct:  skip, already complete (2)
2024-08-26T11:17:58.194818-04:00 INTERNETBLACK tvheadend[238916]: tbl-atsc: stt: pid 1FFB tableid CD extraid 0000000000000000 len 13
2024-08-26T11:17:58.194904-04:00 INTERNETBLACK tvheadend[238916]: tbl-atsc: stt:  section 0 last 0 ver 0 (ver 0 st 2 incomp 0 comp 1)
2024-08-26T11:17:58.194946-04:00 INTERNETBLACK tvheadend[238916]: tbl-atsc: stt:  skip, already complete (2)

Enabling debugging on “mpegts” results in lots of lines with what looks like EPG data, but no additional lines/messages appear when I attempt to map the missing services and see that they are still ignored.

I have attempted to enable trace for both of these modules as well via the web interface by specifying path “/home/jeff/Desktop/tvheadendlog.txt”, checking “Debug trace (low-level)”, specifying Trace subsystems values “tbl-atsc,mpegts”, and clicking button “Apply configuration (run-time only)”. However, the file never appears – any advice on where I am going wrong?

DeltaMikeCharlie Does the mux in question have all of the right settings? Perhaps if it has changed to ATSC3, the setting may need to change.

This mux was detected upon TVH's initial scan of network "ATSC-T Network" - no manual changes by me so far. That said, do you have any advice on how I can determine if it has moved to ATSC3 and/or test changing the appropriate setting(s) to see if they resolve the issue?

Thanks again for your efforts here - they are appreciated.

DeltaMikeCharlie

Jeff This mux was detected upon TVH's initial scan of network "ATSC-T Network" - no manual changes by me so far. That said, do you have any advice on how I can determine if it has moved to ATSC3 and/or test changing the appropriate setting(s) to see if they resolve the issue?

The muxes are detected by using the parameters in the scan files. If the settings in the scan file are not quite right for that mux, perhaps this could explain your results.

You could try scanning with wscan to create your own scan file and then see if the mux created from that works better.

DeltaMikeCharlie

Jeff I have attempted to enable trace for both of these modules as well via the web interface by specifying path “/home/jeff/Desktop/tvheadendlog.txt”, checking “Debug trace (low-level)”, specifying Trace subsystems values “tbl-atsc,mpegts”, and clicking button “Apply configuration (run-time only)”. However, the file never appears – any advice on where I am going wrong?

Does the user running TVH have write access to this location?

Flole

Have you tried an unmodified version of Tvheadend already?

Jeff

Flole Have you tried an unmodified version of Tvheadend already?

Not exactly sure what counts as "unmodified", but to be sure, I just uninstalled tvheadend entirely and then installed the binary https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/tvheadend/tvheadend/deb/ubuntu/pool/noble/main/t/tv/tvheadend_4.3-2360~g266d03527~noble/tvheadend_4.3-2360~g266d03527~noble_amd64.deb.

Same issue with mux 593.028: tab “Configuration” → tab “DVB Inputs” → tab “Muxes” → row for mux “593.028” shows column “Services” 6 and column “Mapped” 0, but tab "Services" does not contain 593.028 at all. On tab "Services", clicking button "Map services" --> "Map selected services" does indeed list the six services for 593.028, but when I check them and click button "Map services", all 6 still show status "Ignored".

Flole

Jeff Not exactly sure what counts as "unmodified"

A version that is built from the source code that can be found on the official repository.

Are you sure those channels are actually broadcasting when you are trying to map them?

Jeff

Flole A version that is built from the source code that can be found on the official repository.

Last night, built from source at tvheadend/tvheadend. Issue persists.

Jeff

Flole Are you sure those channels are actually broadcasting when you are trying to map them?

Definitely broadcasting. When I go to tab “Configuration” → Tab “DVB Inputs” → Tab “Muxes” and click the play button in the first column, one of the six services (random?) plays perfectly fine in Celluloid. Also tested hooking my antenna directly to my TV - channels come in perfectly.

Jeff

DeltaMikeCharlie You could try scanning with wscan to create your own scan file and then see if the mux created from that works better.

Successfully used w_scan to create my own scan file, then started TVH wizard from scratch (and directed TVH to use my file to scan). Issue persists.

Jeff

DeltaMikeCharlie Does the user running TVH have write access to this location?

I would have thought so - it's just my Desktop - but will try to investigate further.

Jeff

I think that I may have stumbled upon a solution, although I can't say that I understand why it works.

In an attempt to remove extraneous data from the debug log when specifying module "mpegts", I went to tab "Configuration" --> tab "DVB Inputs" --> tab "Muxes" --> column "EPG Scan" and set the mux in question to "Disable". I then went to tab "Networks" and clicked button "Force Scan". Once the scan was complete, the services associated with the mux appeared on tab "Services" just as they should and I was able to successfully map them to channels!

I tested this numerous times: after going to tab "Services" and deleting any successfully scanned services from previous experiments, going to tab "Muxes" and setting column "EPG Scan" to "Enable (auto)", and then initiating a scan, the mux's services are never added to tab "Services". When this procedure is repeated with "EPG Scan" set to "Disable", the mux's services always appear on tab "Services".

Once tab "Services" has been populated, I once again set "EPG Scan" to "Enable (auto)" to get EPG information - no ill effects so far.

Thanks to everyone for your assistance. If anyone would like me to experiment and post excerpts from a debug log etc., reply here and I will attempt to do so.

Jonas Lang

When you originally started out with your install you mentioned that you used the Configuration Wizard. Did it prompt you for a predefined mux table and if so did you supply one.

The reason I ask is that many of the predefined mux tables are out of date and settings for that particular mux could well be incorrect.

Clearly by supplying your own channel list via w_scan you will have picked up the correct setting for each individual mux.

Just for your own benefit it might be worth starting the configuration wizard fresh without supplying a predefined mux table and manually supply the correct mux details for each known working mux and run Force Scan.

Jeff

Jonas Lang When you originally started out with your install you mentioned that you used the Configuration Wizard. Did it prompt you for a predefined mux table and if so did you supply one.

Yes, I originally used the predefined "us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB". However, even after I subsequently removed this configuration and started over with my own w_scan table, I continued experiencing the issue. Re your suggestion to input mux details manually, where would these details come from? The only source I know of would be my w_scan table, but I would assume that these have already been tried by specifying this table in the Wizard.

Jonas Lang

No the Configuration Wizard predefined mux list would not reflect any changes to that mux list if any changes were made after it was created.

Use your own w_scan list as a reference and enter those settings in the Add a mux section.

I found this interesting post from a while back but it may be helpful to you. Unfortunately I’m not in the ATSC region so I can’t assist with any scanning tests.
https://tvheadend.org/d/3772-missing-atsc-t-pre-defined-muxes/6