[PaKman171175]

Sorry for the newbie questions but I've googled and searched the tvheadend and kodi sites but not found an answer that reflects my setup

- OPENelec 5.0.1
- TVheadend 3.9.2427 (from the unofficial kodi repository)
- Sky satellite dish with quad LNB
- DVBsky S660 usb dvb-s2 tuner

I've got it all setup nicely with one usb tuner but I've got a couple of questions:

1. In the TV adapters setup, I selected Universal LNB which seems to work fine but as I've got a quad LNB and want to add more tuners, should I be using Quad switch LNB setting instead?
2. What is the new option "Linked input" for?
3. Where is the tvheadend log file on the backend

Sorry for question 3 but my backed has crashed a few times meaning I can't access the web ui.
As we were watching a movie on the front end ( same box via kodi) I couldn't reboot to restart it.
I wanted to check the tvheadend log to see if I could find the issue but the locations I've googled, I.e sys.log does not exist on my env.
Is the location different for this version of tvheadend that comes with openelec?

Thanks in advance for any guidance or replies

[Prof Yaffle]

1. Not unless you're switching - you have each LNB plugged into a separate tuner, yes? If so, Universal LNB is fine because there's no switch/rotor control involved.

2. From the commit that introduced this feature (273835f):

The DvbSky S952 drivers have numerous tuning bugs and one of it is that if two tuners are not used together, streaming from one tuner can "hang".

This change implements a workaround which makes the second (linked) tuner alive (tuning is joined with these two linked tuners).

There was some debate as to whether or not this was a good thing as it's an application change to work around a driver bug, when the correct fix should be in the tuner modules and not every application that may use them.

3. tvheadend writes to syslog, so it's wherever OE puts that (/var/log/messages or similar, IIRC). It also logs to the webUI - click the up arrows in the bottom-right, then click the cog to get debug logging.

Note that, while tvh is pretty stable for the most part, it is still under active pre-4.x development and so problems can be expected. That's why the OE guys have moved it out of the official repository for the moment.

EDIT

Okay, actually took the time to turn a box on rather than making it up. /var/log/messages disappeared when OE went to systemd, it seems, so use journalctl instead:

o journalctl - pipes to more (equivalent to more /var/log/syslog)
o journalctl --no-pager - doesn't pipe to more (equivalent to cat /var/log/syslog)
o journalctl -f - tracks only recent changes (equivalent to tail -f /var/log/syslog)

[PaKman171175]

Thanks for the swift response, so for answer 2, ideally "linked input" should be enabled when using a tuner card that has multiple tuners, or just enabled when only using one of the tuners on the card? Or is it case of trial and error, I.e if you have problems trying enabling/disabling? It seems it's not applicable for USB tuners but I may be building my own box using a muti-tuner PCIe card in the future if the current setup works ok and passes the wife and kids usability tests.

Yes for answer 1, each connection to the LNB is to a different tuner, or at least will be when the extra ones arrive.
Thanks again for your very useful replies, it certainly explains why I can't find a log file via ssh. I knew about the webui log but as the webui was not accessible during the crash I wanted to see if there was a way of viewing the same log via a backend.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

[Prof Yaffle]

I think the linking is specific to that tuner manufacturer, and is needed if you're accessing only one of them at one time, as both need to be active before everything works correctly. This commit seems to force the unused tuner to 'shadow' the used one and tune to the same services; I assume that using both of them for different services makes both active by definition so the bug doesn't then appear

I'd leave it disabled unless you're using that specific type of tuner - I certainly haven't had need to go anywhere near it with my USB tuners because each is a separate, discrete device.

[PaKman171175]

Thanks.

One final question :

Is there a way to backup your existing tvheadend config /network setup so it can be migrated / copied to another machine? My dish is pointed to Astra 28.8E and all services found that I use are mapped to my channels. The reason I ask is I spent quite a but of time mapping all the services to channels, and manually assigning channel numbers that match our UK FREESAT box. When I do build a new box I'd like to copy this setup over and assign the existing network to the new tuner card(s) as opposed to setting it all up again being as these tuners will be using the same LNB and services.

I read on the TVHeadend forum that I can backup the config from /home/hts/.hts/tvheadend which appears to be /storage/.hts/tvheadend on OpenELEC. Is this all I need to do being as the new box will also run the same version of OE and TVHeadend? Another alternative would be a hard drive clone I guess.
Is there no WebUI feature to save/export config to a file so it can imported later?

[Prof Yaffle]

There's no automated or user-friendly way to do it, no - it's a valid point to perhaps have one - but copying the stuff over is the only way I've done it. Remember to maintain file permissions, and remember that UIDs may be different on different machines (so what belongs to hts on one could end up belonging to fred on another) - easy to fix, just keep an eye.

It used to be the case that moving things like this would get confused unless you had identical tuner setups. However, what you should now find is that your old tuners disappear (i.e. whatever you had on the old box) to be replaced by unconfigured new ones: associate these with the respective network definition and all should be well.

You also should look at the bouquet feature: that should quickly map the Freesat services to sensible channel numbers for you (e.g. your local BBC One == 101, BBC Two HD == 102, that sort of thing).

[PaKman171175]

Ooh, nice call on the bouquets, didn't really see what those were for, will check those out.

Thanks for all your help

[PaKman171175]

I deleted my channels and then used the bouquet "HD England: Meridian South East" which I presumed would be for West Sussex where I live. I checked "Enabled", "Rescan", "Auto-Map to Channels" and "Create Tag" leaving the other colums unchecked.
I then clicked on "Channels" tab and "Map Services" where is went off nicely to pick up all the channels.

What it didn't do is map them to the correct channel numbers according to Freesat's online TV Guide.

I perhaps wasn't patient enough but I then chose to map them again manually.
Does it auto-map them according to the EPG scan results, i.e when it's finished scanning?

[Prof Yaffle]

I can see that you've picked up the bouquets challenge on a different thread, so I'll leave the conversation play out over there - I must confess to never actually having used them myself, so I'll watch and learn along with you!

[PaKman171175]

We'll I couldn't have made it as far as I have without your help so thank you for your helpful replies

[C-Quel]

I deleted my channels and then used the bouquet "HD England: Meridian South East" which I presumed would be for West Sussex where I live. I checked "Enabled", "Rescan", "Auto-Map to Channels" and "Create Tag" leaving the other colums unchecked.
I then clicked on "Channels" tab and "Map Services" where is went off nicely to pick up all the channels.

What it didn't do is map them to the correct channel numbers according to Freesat's online TV Guide.

I perhaps wasn't patient enough but I then chose to map them again manually.
Does it auto-map them according to the EPG scan results, i.e when it's finished scanning?

You do not need to click channels tab and map services!

after you have done

I deleted my channels and then used the bouquet "HD England: Meridian South East" which I presumed would be for West Sussex where I live. I checked "Enabled", "Rescan", "Auto-Map to Channels" and "Create Tag" leaving the other colums unchecked.

just click save and wait

[PaKman171175]

Ah, I see.

If I do decide to configure this all again, I will give that a go, thanks

[PaKman171175]

You do not need to click channels tab and map services!

after you have done

I deleted my channels and then used the bouquet "HD England: Meridian South East" which I presumed would be for West Sussex where I live. I checked "Enabled", "Rescan", "Auto-Map to Channels" and "Create Tag" leaving the other colums unchecked.

just click save and wait

That worked! That's what I was doing wrong. Thanks