Setting up Freeview EPG

flipsidelive

Hi, I'm really struggling to setup TVHeadEnd. I've been trying for several days and it just doesn't seem obvious.

I have a Raspberry PI running Raspberry PI OS. I've bought the official RPI TV Hat to have DVB-T as source. I've managed to setup the Muxes successfully. I had to do that manually as the data for the Winter Hill transmitter seems out of date. Where I'm getting stuck is with the EPG. All Muxes are set to UK: Freeview as epg source.

I've enabled the freeview EPG grabber module. I've mapped 2 channels (names BBC One and BBC One HD) just to keep things simple. I go to the EPG Grabber page and trigger the OTA refresh.

I get the following line in the debugger:
"subscription: 0002: "epggrab" subscribing to mux "578MHz", weight: 4, adapter: "Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0", network: "Terran", service: "Raw PID Subscription""

But then I get a timeout response:
"UK: Freeview - data completion timeout for 578MHz in Terran"

I've tested the EPG by plugging the COAX cable into a TV and that retrieves the EPG as normal so I'm thinking this isn't a signal issue.

I'm really struggling to see what I'm missing. Please can someone help?

flipsidelive

A bit more information from the debugger when left for a few minutes:

2024-10-15 11:18:41.326 mpegts: 626MHz in Terran - tuning on Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0
2024-10-15 11:18:41.326 epggrab: 626MHz in Terran - registering mux for OTA EPG
2024-10-15 11:18:41.326 subscription: 0004: "scan" subscribing to mux "626MHz", weight: 5, adapter: "Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0", network: "Terran", service: "Raw PID Subscription"
2024-10-15 11:18:46.326 mpegts: 626MHz in Terran - scan no data, failed
2024-10-15 11:18:46.326 subscription: 0004: "scan" unsubscribing
2024-10-15 11:18:46.326 mpegts: 522MHz in Terran - tuning on Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0
2024-10-15 11:18:46.326 epggrab: 522MHz in Terran - registering mux for OTA EPG
2024-10-15 11:18:46.326 subscription: 0006: "scan" subscribing to mux "522MHz", weight: 5, adapter: "Sony CXD2880 #0 : DVB-T #0", network: "Terran", service: "Raw PID Subscription"
2024-10-15 11:18:51.326 mpegts: 522MHz in Terran - scan no data, failed
2024-10-15 11:18:51.326 subscription: 0006: "scan" unsubscribing

davep

"Data completion timeout" is normal, Tvheadend continues gathering EPG until the timeout set in Configuration -> Channels/EPG -> EPG Grabber -> EPG scan timeout. 5 minutes is adequate.

"Scan no data" means that the tuner did not find a signal on the frequency.

According to ukfree.tv the muxes for Winter Hill are 538, 554, 562, 578, 586, 602 MHz. 522 and 626MHz are very low power local muxes which may be out of range for you.

flipsidelive

Hi DaveP. Thanks for helping out. It's difficult trying to figure this out on your own.

You are right 522 and 626 are very low power and when the COAX is plugged into a TV, they are not recieved. TVHeadend seems to have added them itself so I suspect unrelated to the problem at hand. They do fail scan.

The Muxes you have listed are the one I am interested in and are added successfully and viewable. I seem unable still to add an EPG.

Interestingly, when I disable and reenable to grabber, I get the following.

module uk_freeview - scraper disabled by config

Appreciate any help.

davep

"Scraping" is about pulling data from the EPG to help with indexing, and is not needed for a simple DVB recorder. You can leave all the scraping boxes unticked.

EPG is stored against channels, not services. You won't get EPG for channels you haven't mapped.

What do you see in the log when you press the "Trigger OTA EPG Grabber" button? I get lines such as:

2024-10-15 18:08:37.012 mpegts: 522MHz in Sandy - tuning on DVB-T #1
2024-10-15 18:08:37.012 subscription: 0153: "epggrab" subscribing to mux "522MHz", weight: 4, adapter: "DVB-T #1", network: "Sandy", service: "Raw PID Subscription"

flipsidelive

Ah. OK. This is helping.

I’ve disabled all scrapers. I have 2 channels mapped from two muxus. BBC 1 and BBC 1 HD. When I trigger OTA, I get nothing in the debug area. Any other ideas please?

davep

Confirm you have the "Over-the-air: EIT: DVB Grabber" and "Over-the-air: EIT: Freeview" grabbers enabled at their default priorities, also that you are using the "Trigger OTA EPG Grabber" button on the "EPG Grabber" screen not the one on the "EPG Grabber Modules screen" (no I don't know the difference...).

Adrian Smith

davep using the "Trigger OTA EPG Grabber" button on the "EPG Grabber" screen not the one on the "EPG Grabber Modules screen" (no I don't know the difference...)

I may be wrong but I've always understood the difference to be that in the "EPG Grabber Modules" tab some have "Internal" prepended to their names (basically the XMLTV grabbers) and some have "Over-the-air" prepended to their names. The "trigger" button on the "EPG Grabber Modules" page triggers the internal grabbers only. On the "EPG Grabber" tab you have the choice to trigger OTA grabbers or Internal grabbers as you wish.

DaveH

On an older version the EPG Grabber Modules button is labelled "Re-run Internal EPG Grabbers" whilst on the EPG Grabbers tab there are two buttons. One is the same as before and the other is labelled "Trigger OTA EPG Grabber". That seems quite clear; I don't understand why it would have been obscured.

But I'd second davep's point about enabling the Over-the-air: EIT: DVB Grabber

_Crash_

According to ukfree.tv, the HD Channels are on 585.8Mhz. I had this added but I still never got any EPG data after a week. All the other channels seem fine though. I can also watch a HD channel fine too with low SNR. So I'm not sure what the issue is. It's not clear what the other settings are meant to be e.g. Constellation, etc.