Lightest OS to run Tvheadend in a virtual box within Windows.

ServeMe · 2026-04-02T12:49:08+00:00

Hi guys, New to Tvheadend, and I think I'll love this TV server... Please, need your help to start using the program. I want to install it as a TV server...

Tony Wagner

ServeMe The main reason for me, besides using this TV server to serve more devices if needed

This sounds like you would be better off using a dedicated server. A cheap NUC, mini PC, or even a Pi would work, especially if you don’t need to transcode.

Otherwise, you are going to need to leave your Windows computer running all the time in order to access TV from these other devices, and anything you want to do on the Windows side will see reduced performance because you are making it run a full Linux VM all the time.

Or, if you are not using it on the Windows side, just load Linux on it.

ServeMe

Thanks, guys. I'll have a look into that Docker, and will try later the LibreELEC install on a VM.

ServeMe

Hi guys,

Finally I had more time to test this. I got it to work with a Linux distro. Installed the driver of the tuner,
then Tvheadend, although this distro installed an old version, 'HTS Tvheadend 4.2.8-dirty', and VLC
and other players play fine in Windows the streams of the channels that the tuner provides.

The virtual machine's network mode is set to Host-Only, so there is no traffic to the fiber router, the 3
ethernet adapters, the real one, and the 2 virtual ones installed by the VM show no traffic at all, so this
is what I wanted in the first place for a faster more fluid streaming. I did turn off the router to check this
and the streaming didn't stop.

But I used a big Ubuntu Studio ISO I had, too big for just a TV server, so I want to try the smallest possible,
maybe TinyCore and Alpine. Later I want to try Docker in case it can access the USB tuner and with a very
small, only 77 MB, container I've seen is available.

Now, a couple of questions, please:

How do I install the latest version of Tvheadend, what commands and repo?
And, in case the server may fail, how can I restart it without having to restart the VM or Docker?
Any commands available to restart the sevice or whatever is needed to do so.

Thanks.

Cheers.

chewitt

ServeMe How do I install the latest version of Tvheadend, what commands and repo?

Instructions for the main distro types (deb or rpm) are here: https://tvheadend.org/p/downloads

ServeMe And in case the server may fail, how can I restart it without having to restart the VM or Docker? Any commands available to restart the sevice or whatever is needed to do so.

If the OS is running systemd systemctl restart tvheadend should do it.

ServeMe

OK, thanks. Will try tomorrow those litte distros, hopefully they work.

Tony Wagner

For a minimal install, you can look at the Dockerfile for the Linuxserver TVHeadend image to see how they build it: linuxserver/docker-tvheadendblob/master/Dockerfile

ServeMe

Tony Wagner

Thanks. First of all about Docker... I installed Docker earlier and was surprised to see that it takes uo 2.5 GB of
disk space on C:, way way too much for the only use I'd want it for... So I uninstalled it.

Secondly... I just thought if there could be a sort of portable small image of Docker to use with Tvheadend, or
if it is possible to run the Tvheadend container availabe here without Docker Desktop, only with WSL2 as a
Linux base, or any other method or workaround to achieve this.

I just saw that the Tvheadend container is pretty small, just about 10 MB.

By the way, I noticed that the deinstallation of Docker has removed WSL from Wndows. I'd have to reinstall it
manually if finally I use this method. And am wondering how much space it takes. If its big too, maybe I won't
bother with it.

I'm going to try now an old version of VirtualBox with a tiny Linux distro, and if I can make it work, maybe this
solution will consume less resources, disk and RAM, than the Docker solution. I'm only interesed in running
Tvheadend as a TV server.

Thanks once again, guys.

Cheers.

ServeMe

Sorry, I forgot an important detail. Alpine Linux and TinyCore Linux are independent distros, not based on
Debian nor Red Hat, so what package should I use to install Tvheadend? I guess .deb files won't work.

Thanks.

Tony Wagner

ServeMe you could build TVHeadend from source. All the commands are in the Dockerfile linked above.

ServeMe

Tony Wagner

Thanks, but I'm not a programmer. I don't know how to do that. I'll start trying ISOs to see if I can make
some work. A lot of work and time awaits me, I guess.

chewitt

Tvheadend is not a heavy application and you've already proven that an Ubuntu image functionally worked for your use-case (and you understood enough to get it working). So for me the obvious solution is to run a current Ubuntu release; but use the 'server' version that starts out with a much more minimal footprint than the Desktop versions which preinstall all manner of things that you don't need. If you want/need WSL on Windows for other reasons (and thus accept the overhead it incurs) I would simply install Ubuntu server under WSL with the USB tuner devices mapped for pass-through to WSL, and then install Tvheadend using the normal .deb packages in our repo. Then you don't need the additional overheads of Virtualbox or Docker. If you don't need WSL then I would use Virtualbox and a VM with (again) a current Ubuntu server image. Learn (or ask your favourite AI tool) about how to reduce the runtime footprint of Ubuntu server by disabling and uninstalling things you don't need rather than trying to use DevOps/Container oriented distros with unfamiliar non-standard packaging. IMHO it's also false economy to use 'old' distro images. The ISO image you download might be smaller than a current release, but the installed footprint once packages are installed isn't hugely different and the current distro at least has support and security updates for a few years and up-to-date documentation. The big difference is server vs. desktop, not old vs. new.

ServeMe

I just checked, and thought it was much smaller, but this working Ubuntu Studio, which I installed
eliminating all possible apps, takes up 13,5GB... Jesus, I was mistaken, don't know how I could see
only about 2 GB.

I'm thinking about testing some distros without GUI, they will consume much less RAM and disk
space. And, since this distro will only be used to run Tvheadend, a 12-20 MB app, I find absurd
to use more than 1 GB of disk space and some hundreds MB of RAM. Also, I don't care about
security if I use an old or even very old distro because I'll use the Host-Only mode which will
prevent any connection to the Internet, only local use inside the VM.

A server or net version distro should be smaller, plus only CLI, maybe. Will have a look to those.

Anyway, I'll start my ISOs testings later. Hopefully one of those .deb Tvheadend packages can be
installed and works fine with old distros.

Thanks.

chewitt

I would always thin-provision a minimum of 10GB to an Ubuntu server install. In reality it should occupy less space on physical disk and there are some simple tricks that work in most hypervisors that you can run post-install to zero unused space and allow the hypervisor to compact the virtual disk and reclaim space. Most of the common hypervisors run compaction automagically for Windows VM's but not for Linux.