Dvb-t2 / dvb-s2

Live TV & DVR
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Server Version#: latest
Player Version#: latest on nvidia shield pro
Tuner Make/Model: august rebadged version of Geniatech T230C2 - LinuxTVWiki
Guide/Lineup name:
Using XMLTV?: no
Channel number/Name:

Hi,

I am in the UK and looking to tune to both freeview HD and freesat HD channels.

I am running the official docker PlexMediaServer running on a reasonable host on Ubuntu. I have passthrough a o few usb tuners.

I cannot get Plex Media Server to find any dvb-t2 channels (it finds dvb-t channels); and this is despite w_scan2 (GitHub - stefantalpalaru/w_scan2: w_scan fork (channel scan tool which generates ATSC, DVB-C, DVB-S/S2 and DVB-T/T2 channels.conf files)) finding both dvb-t and dvb-t2 multiplexes with this card on the docker host using the same tuner.

Am I right in assuming that there is no dvb-t2 support? is this coming?

I also have dvb-s2 tuners (tevii s480); and cannot get it to tune to any freesat channels.

anyone have this working?

2

If you use USB tuners I’d suggest using TVHeadEnd for that

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Hi, I am in the UK also.

Plex has a long standing (years?) bug where it cannot find DVB-T2 Freeview channels, I have raised the issue several times and got nowhere.

And AFAIK DVB-S2 is not supported- https://support.plex.tv/articles/225877427-supported-dvr-tuners-and-antennas/

Your main options are:

  1. Buy HDHomeRun - I did this in the end

  2. Run tvheadend (to provide tuning etc) and tvhproxy (for plex to connect to) - this worked generally OK for me

4

I am neither a Linux user, nor am I located in the UK.
But I can tell you that Plex has no issue in receiving DVB-T2 channels over here in DE.
I am using a Silicon Dust network tuner.

5

It’s the built in Plex tuning service that doesn’t work here with Freeview DVB-T2, using network based tuners Plex is not using it’s internal tuning service and does not have an issue.

1 Like
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@e10kstarfire I’m in the UK and use HDHomeRun and manage to get all the Freeview channels perfectly fine using Plex without using any other software.

What I’ve had an issue in the past of which @170bgrd was asking about it not Freeview, but Freesat of which HDHomeRun do not do a version of. I’ve tried using USB devices for Freesat, but not able to pickup channels such as Channel 4HD.

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Yes, that’s what I said :rofl:

It’s Plex’s own internal tuning service that does not pickup Freeview HD, network tuners is not an issue.

Oh, and you can use DVB-S2 (eg Freesat) via tvheadend and tvhproxy as I tried that out also. But Plex internal tuning won’t work with it.

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@e10kstarfire Not sure what you are getting at, as when I setup a DVR in Plex, I get Plex to tune the channels for me and it finds all the Freeview HD channels perfectly.

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OK, I’ll explain it simpler.

So there are 2 types of tuners:

  1. Network based like HDHomeRun

  2. One’s you install in the physical machine that run’s PMS, eg. Hauppauge UK | WinTV-quadHD Four tuner digital TV receiver

It’s the 2nd type where Plex cannot pickup Freeview HD correctly.

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@e10kstarfire It might help if you had actually said what you meant rather than gibberish such as below:

plex
plex791Ă—105 22.3 KB

Note: It’s Hauppauge’s range of products that has the issue and not Plex.

11

Ouch, no need to be aggressive.

I stated it as clearly as I could.

And no, it’s not just hauppauge tuners (as per OP and other cards I tried).

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@e10kstarfire The main issue is that USB devices use drivers and it doesn’t matter what other ones you use, they are just re-purposed drivers (i.e. the same, but with a different name). That’s why network devices such as the HDHomeRun works best as they don’t need any drivers.

My only wish is for HDHomeRun to do a Freesat version.

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I agree network based seems the best.

Pity they cannot get ones you install in the PMS to detect Freeview HD because I would have stayed with that solution as I had the PCI cards already.

Only briefly played with USB and not a great lover of those.

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@e10kstarfire All the PCI cards and USB are based on hauppauge, hence the same issues. Hauppauge played the smart move and put a ton of patents in back in the 80’s and 90’s. So if you want the Freeview HD with direct install in PMS then the network based tuners are the only viable way to go.

15

Well PCI works fine in other software, I used SageTV, tvheadend, jellyfin, wscan etc etc all fine and pick up Freeview HD.

It’s clearly a Plex issue. Getting more technical it’s the PLP in dvb-t2 they don’t seem to support.

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@e10kstarfire Actually it comes down to licensing rather than something not supported and as jellyfin doesn’t care much for that then that’s why that works and Plex doesn’t. Though you never know one day that might catch up with jellyfin.

17

We’ll have to agree to disagree :relaxed:

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The hardware technology in your Silicon Dust HD HomeRun is the same as in the USB tuner cards and the PCI/PCIe equivalents. There are plenty of providers of software that can access this - and dont pay Hauppauge anything. Hauppauge isn’t some amazing company - they’re just a half-well-known brand in this space.

Hauppauge cards are just USB tuners connected to a PC; (even the Nova-T series are USB tv tuners interfaced over the PCI/PCIe bus, e.g. a PCI to USB adapter card, then a USB tuner card plugged into it - see Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500 - LinuxTVWiki).

You know what a HDHomeRun is? it’s a tuner interfaced run a small operating system and interface to the modulator and tuner itself and a network connection to send the TV signal out of… essentially the HDHomeRun is a little PC with a USB tuner or two, or four inside.

I’ve not looked into it, but these likely use a miniture version of Linux on an ARM chip interfacing to the “tuner cards” that are built in; and streaming the extracted programme over the network. The interface to the hardware is likely using LinuxTV for tuner interfacing https://www.linuxtv.org/ and other opensource components to strream the signal out onto the network

The firmware for most of these chips are available; many of the chips these days are software defined radio and require the firmware to make the chips work to understand dvb-t2, dvb-t, dvb-c, isdb, atsc, etc.

It is nothing to do with licensing.

Looking at the responses from others here, it is simply that the tuning features of the PMS are unloved and Plex rely on HDHomeRun as a working integration, rather than having to integrate and control the hardware more directly (with HDHomeRun it manages the hardware and you configure through a web-page).

Building a DVR is no small task; just look at the many lines of code is MythTV, TVHeadend, VDR, VBox and many others… Digital video recorder - Wikipedia so it is such a shame that Plex got so close and then “gave up” with supporting it… then again the world is moving to OTT streaming services

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@170bgrd Long reply, but completely missed all the points that are important and jumped to wrong conclusions.

  1. The HDHomeRun units contain licenced hardware and software so that Plex does not need to have any additional licences to use it and it can be controlled and configured all from the Plex UI, therefore there is no need to use the HDHomeRun web-page (only to update it’s firmware).

  2. If you had opened a HDHomeRun then you would have seen by the components that’s not a tiny PC, nor does it run any kind of linux as it doesn’t even have a CPU. This is why the firmware is only 1.75MB.

Conclusion: As I’ve already stated, I wish that there was more choice in the UK when it comes to the HDHomeRun range as in the US they have many more different types including subscription based cable. Can you imagine if there was a HDHomeRun which worked with Sky? Plex would be swamped in the UK with Plex passes that’s for sure.

20

There is nothing stopping Plex from interfacing to the USB tuners… they already are; they just havent implemented the features required for DVB-t2 and satellite. You seem to think Hauppauge - a company that didn’t invent DVB-T2 hold all the cards with regard to licensing… they don’t. DVB-T2 - Wikipedia

The size of “firmware” update, or the total size doesn’t indicate that there isn’t a CPU. I’d like for you to explain to me how you “know” there isn’t a CPU; it indicates that they are running a minimal OS, or simply running software direct on the CPU. In this day and age, they are not running a FPGA, they are running a generalised processing core, such as an ARM chip. a CPU.

Their earlier network tuners certainly included a UBICOM microprocessor with some media capabilities; these were RISC processors, much like ARM chips.