[Plugin] DVB-Driver

[wayner]

Firewire drivers are now included in this plugin, and I use them in a SageTV docker to change channels on my cable set top boxes that have a Firewire port.  Is there any documentation on these drivers?  I would like to send some commands to increase the volume on these boxes as the volume occasionally resets to a low level.

 

edit - In an ideal world I would like so send a command like "fwcommand -c volup -d box1" where c is the command and d is the Firewire device.

Edited February 2, 2023 by wayner

[ich777]

13 minutes ago, wayner said:

Firewire drivers are now included in this plugin

Firewire drivers are now included in Unraid itself.

 

13 minutes ago, wayner said:

Is there any documentation on these drivers?

I really don't understand how that all works but wouldn't this be somehow also be controlled by SageTV and you should look up the documentation on SageTV?

 

13 minutes ago, wayner said:

edit - In an ideal world I would like so send a command like "fwcommand -c volup -d box1" where c is the command and d is the Firewire device.

Firewire is only the bus and with Firewire alone you can't control anything, you need some kind of interfacing application that connects to the Box over Firewire.

 

Hope that makes sense to you.

 

EDIT: Maybe these posts will help:

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37086

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40568

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38466

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35718

[wayner]

Those SageTV threads were all under Windows and Sage works under Linux as well - and there is a docker version that works very well.  I am trying to figure out how to do this from within the SageTV application, but I have yet to figure that out.

 

When I ran SageTV in Windows in the past I used to run a CLI program that increased the volume.  So I am trying to see if I can do that from within the SageTV docker on unRAID.

[Abe87]

I'm having an issue that I'm hoping I could get some help with. I'm using a TBS 6704 and it works great. But I keep getting these kind of messages in my unRAID system log when my Tvheadend docker is running and accessing the card

kernel: cnr = 3430

It looks like cnr is the snr of each tuner. So the log gets spammed with those messages but the number is constantly changing. I'm not sure if the issue is Tvheadend or the TBS kernel. Is there a way to disable this logging?

[alturismo]

1 hour ago, Abe87 said:

Is there a way to disable this logging?

if you just want to suppress the messages from logging, enhaced syslog plugin ...

 

may wait if @ich777 can say something about it

[Abe87]

6 minutes ago, alturismo said:

if you just want to suppress the messages from logging, enhaced syslog plugin ...

 

may wait if @ich777 can say something about it

Thanks for the suggestion. I was able to get it working to block those messages. I can always revert the change if @ich777 has info to stop that message from being created in the syslog.

[ich777]

4 hours ago, Abe87 said:

TBS 6704

Please keep in mind that TBS seems EOL with the next few Unraid versions, see this post here:

[Abe87]

15 hours ago, ich777 said:

Please keep in mind that TBS seems EOL with the next few Unraid versions, see this post here:

I had seen these warnings. It won't impact this machine since it's a purpose built machine. Once it's working reliably it won't be updated. I'll just stick with @alturismo suggestion to suppress the cnr = messages in the syslog.

[colemanuk82]

On 2/9/2023 at 6:37 AM, ich777 said:

Please keep in mind that TBS seems EOL with the next few Unraid versions, see this post here:

ohh no! ive just brought a tbs card. can you tell me a work around for this? can i run a vm with it installed in or something?

 

[ich777]

2 hours ago, colemanuk82 said:

ohh no! ive just brought a tbs card. can you tell me a work around for this?

Have you yet tried if the card is working with the LibreELEC package?

 

Maybe sell the card and buy a tuner from Sundtek or DigitalDevices…

 

You can of course run a VM for that but that is pure waste of resources.

[TOMillr]

Just noticed that the Sundtek Wiki now mentions a Unraid driver plugin:

 

https://sundtek.de/wiki/index.php?title=Docker

 

Did anyone give this a try? How does it compare to the DVB-Driver plugin?

[ich777]

7 hours ago, TOMillr said:

Did anyone give this a try?

I did, and it works perfectly fine.

 

7 hours ago, TOMillr said:

How does it compare to the DVB-Driver plugin?

Install it, visit the plugin page and you will be instructed what to do.

Everything is automated after you've clicked a few buttons.

 

I'm running two Sundtek DVB Tuners on my system and they are working perfectly fine with the plugin in combination with TVHeadend.

 

From what I see the plugin was downloaded 35 times, don't know if these people are using it but no one complained about something not working yet.

[doron]

On 2/11/2023 at 8:33 AM, ich777 said:

I'm running two Sundtek DVB Tuners on my system and they are working perfectly fine with the plugin in combination with TVHeadend.

Which models are they? Are they DVB-T2? PCIe or USB? Curious, as I'm expecting to be forced to replace my TBS PCIe DVB-T2 card at some not-too-far point in the future 😞

Edited February 12, 2023 by doron

[ich777]

1 hour ago, doron said:

Which models are they? Are they DVB-T2?

Yes, DVB-C (USB) and they also support DVB-T2 if I‘m not mistaken.

@Sundtek can you help me a bit what is available in terms of tuners from your side?

 

1 hour ago, doron said:

forced to replace my TBS PCIe DVB-T2 card

Sorry about that, I would support it but since linux_media is now basically deprecated I can‘t see a way to make it work again on newer Kernels.

 

If I see anything so that I can support the package further I will do and keep you updated here.

[doron]

2 hours ago, ich777 said:

USB

I have a couple USB DVB-T2 adapters. Could never get reliable, quality performance from them. The TBS PCIe card has been rock solid (for me).

2 hours ago, ich777 said:

Sorry about that, I would support it but since linux_media is now basically deprecated I can‘t see a way to make it work again on newer Kernels.

Hey, certainly not your fault, your work on this is so much appreciated! 

(Not sure I ever understood why these cards can't be supported with in-tree drivers (kmods). I must be missing something.)

2 hours ago, ich777 said:

If I see anything so that I can support the package further I will do and keep you updated here.

Very much appreciated. Thank you.

[TOMillr]

@Sundtek also provides its own streaming server as an alternative to TVHeadend. Is this server also part of the plugin by any chance? Would it be possible to have the driver as well as the server inside a single container in unraid? 

[ich777]

1 hour ago, doron said:

Could never get reliable, quality performance from them. The TBS PCIe card has been rock solid (for me).

I couldn't believe it too, but I'm now running the SUNDTEK DVB-C Tuners (two of those) for about 2 or 3 months now without a single issue so far...

 

1 hour ago, doron said:

Not sure I ever understood why these cards can't be supported with in-tree drivers (kmods). I must be missing something.

A few TBS cards are supported through the in-tree drivers (the LibreELEC package are basically all in-tree DVB drivers) but not all and this is where things start to get really messy since they are only supported only through linux_media which is now, as said above and mentioned in the post on page 31 at the end, deprecated:

 

[ich777]

49 minutes ago, TOMillr said:

Is this server also part of the plugin by any chance?

No, because Unraid works really differently because it is run from RAM and this would over complicate the process.

 

50 minutes ago, TOMillr said:

Would it be possible to have the driver as well as the server inside a single container in unraid?

The server is meant to be installed on the host, not in a container AFAIK

The plugin was designed with that mind and it was also discussed directly with @Sundtek to create the plugin around TVHeadend, what is preventing you from using TVHeadend?

 

Did you install the plugin yet? It is really easy to set up and a step by step guide is on the plugin page too what to do.

[TOMillr]

17 hours ago, ich777 said:

what is preventing you from using TVHeadend?

Primarily because Sundtek has made the streaming server compatible with the Plex Media Server. For TVHeadend you have to rely on yet another intermediate piece of software to get it to show up as a compatible tuner.

 

 

[ich777]

18 hours ago, TOMillr said:

For TVHeadend you have to rely on yet another intermediate piece of software to get it to show up as a compatible tuner.

Understood, but the plugin is not designed in that way currently, maybe I can wrap my head around this but it won't be in the near future.

 

Wouldn't it be also possible to create a request in the Plex forums so that they create TVHeadend support? This would ultimately solve the issue, even if they add support for xmltv this would solve the issue I think.

[Mowee]

Please forgive me if this question has already been answered in this way. I tried to look at it beforehand in my research and at least I could not find the exact answer to my question.

First, the preconditions: I would like to watch TV with Plex running on Unraid. Plex runs in the official Docker container. I have looked at the Plex documentation (https://support.plex.tv/articles/225877427-supported-dvr-tuners-and-antennas/) on the supported tuners.
Since I'm in Germany, I'm leaning towards a Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD or a Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD simply because I expect at least 2 people to be watching TV at the same time. Possibly also sometimes simultaneously a video recording, therefore possibly directly the quadHD.

As far as I have understood correctly, I just have to install the plugin here and make sure that as soon as in Unraid the tuner is detected correctly this can also be configured in Plex.

Now I've read that the Hauppauge tuners are sometimes not optimal. On the one hand, they can become very hot when running for a long time or, for example, switching between channels can be very slow. Is there a better solution here or are my concerns unjustified? Who has experience here?

Edited March 13, 2023 by Mowee

[alturismo]

5 hours ago, Mowee said:

As far as I have understood correctly, I just have to install the plugin here and make sure that as soon as in Unraid the tuner is detected correctly this can also be configured in Plex.

usually, mount the card in your Server, install the plugin, add /dev/dvb as device to your plex docker and run through the plex livetv setup procedure, thats about it.

 

generally your question's are prolly in the wrong section here, i would suggest to ask this in the Plex part or even better in the Plex Forums how the experiences with these card's are. as note, i used to have hp cards, but i never ran them directly in plex, i use them in tvheadend and used xteve as "bridge" to plex.

 

If you have trouble installing the driver, then you should come back here with the error message (which shouldnt happen )

[Mowee]

On 3/13/2023 at 5:36 AM, alturismo said:

generally your question's are prolly in the wrong section here, i would suggest to ask this in the Plex part or even better in the Plex Forums how the experiences with these card's are. as note, i used to have hp cards, but i never ran them directly in plex, i use them in tvheadend and used xteve as "bridge" to plex.

Thanks for your reply. You're probably right about me being in the wrong section here. I've just ordered the Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD from Amazon and will give it a try and see if it's the right fit for my use case.

[ich777]

TBS Driver Update:

 

[cRyyy]

i have a problem with a TBS-6902 DVB-S2 card. i got lots of continuity erros and flickering in tvheadend.

i think it is a driver problem.

i tested the card in a seperate pc with ubuntu and tvheadend local installed (and in docker) with this drivers tbs-open-linux-drivers_v20221231 

with the ubuntu setup it works perfectly without errors or flickering. 

 

Here the infos from Unraid 

lspci -v: 

05:00.0 Multimedia controller: TBS Technologies DVB Tuner PCIe Card
        Subsystem: Device 6902:0003
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 150, IOMMU group 15
        Memory at 51500000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [70] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [90] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
        Kernel driver in use: TBSECP3 driver
        Kernel modules: tbsecp3

dmesg:

dmesg | grep 'DVB'
[   29.354414] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: TurboSight TBS 6902 DVB-S/S2 
[   29.356486] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (TBSECP3 DVB Adapter)
[   29.623267] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (TurboSight TBS 6902 DVB-S/S2 )...
[   29.623661] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (TBSECP3 DVB Adapter)
[   29.854632] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: DVB: registering adapter 1 frontend 0 (TurboSight TBS 6902 DVB-S/S2 )...
[   29.854896] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: TurboSight TBS 6902 DVB-S/S2 : PCI 0000:05:00.0, IRQ 150, MMIO 0x51500000
[   90.686986] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: DVB: adapter 1 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (950000..2150000)
[   91.013997] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (950000..2150000)
[  444.577014] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: DVB: adapter 1 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (950000..2150000)
[  561.609935] TBSECP3 driver 0000:05:00.0: DVB: adapter 1 frontend 0 frequency 0 out of range (950000..2150000)

 

unraid verison: 6.11.5 

dvb-plugin version: 2022.07.20