Raspberry Pi DVB TV μHAT - Official GPIO HAT adds a DVB-T/T2 Tuner to Raspberry Pi
#1
Big news this one, could make an awesome cheap TVHeadend server.

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https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-tv-hat/

Description
Today we are excited to launch a new add-on board for your Raspberry Pi: the Raspberry Pi TV HAT.
The TV HAT connects to the 40-pin GPIO header and to a suitable antenna, allowing your Raspberry Pi to receive DVB-T2 television broadcasts.
Watch TV with your Raspberry Pi
With the board, you can receive and view television on a Raspberry Pi, or you can use your Pi as a server to stream television over a network to other devices. The TV HAT works with all 40-pin GPIO Raspberry Pi boards when running as a server. If you want to watch TV on the Pi itself, we recommend using a Pi 2, 3, or 3B+, as you may need more processing power for this.
Stream television over your network
Viewing television is not restricted to Raspberry Pi computers: with a TV HAT connected to your network, you can view streams on any network-connected device. That includes other computers, mobile phones, and tablets. You can find instructions for setting up your TV HAT in our step-by-step guide.

Price
£20

Setup guide
https://www.raspberrypi.org/app/uploads/...TV-HAT.pdf
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#2
I've just ordered one for myself! Maybe this can replace my fanless 5th generation NUC running TVHeadend.

Will test speed when it gets delivered.
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#3
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has officially launched their own cheap DVB-T/T2 over-the-air TV-tuner for Raspberry Pi (which should work with LibreELEC JeOS distro out-of-the-box):
 
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With this board, you can receive, view, and record free over-the-air Live TV (in Europe) on a Raspberry Pi, just like a TV set-top-box. The TV HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) works with all 40-pin GPIO Raspberry Pi boards when running as a server, including the Raspberry Zero series. If you want to watch TV on the Pi itself, the Raspberry Foundation recommends using a Pi 2, 3, or 3B+, as you might need a little more processing power for this.

For how to do this in Kodi checkout the wiki pages https://kodi.wiki/view/Live_TV and https://kodi.wiki/view/PVR

You can even use your Pi as a TV-server to stream television over a network to other devices. Any Raspberry Pi can be used to stream to other devices. As with a TV HAT connected to your network, you can view streams on any network-connected device. That includes other computers, mobile phones, and tablets. You can find instructions for setting up your TV HAT in our step-by-step guide. Some more information about that here https://www.raspberrypi.org/app/uploads/...TV-HAT.pdf and https://kodi.wiki/view/PVR_recording_software

The TV HAT connects to the Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO header and to a suitable antenna, allowing your Raspberry Pi to receive DVB-T2 television broadcasts (in Europe). To get started you will need:
  1. Any 40-pin Raspberry Pi (including Pi Zero and Zero W, provided they have headers soldered), a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 (or later) is however recommended for viewing TV on the Pi itself.
  2. A suitable aerial antenna to receive over-the-air DVB-T/T2 broadcast television.

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TV-tuner hardware specification:
  • Sony CXD2880 TV tuner
  • Supported TV standards:
    • DVB-T2 (1.7MHz, 5MHz, 6MHz, 7MHz, 8MHz channel bandwidth)
    • DVB-T (5MHz, 6MHz, 7MHz, 8MHz channel bandwidth)
  • Reception frequency: VHF III, UHF IV, UHF V

Some more detailed hardware information is posted here:
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#4
Shame it's only single tuner which makes it of limited use.
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#5
I now only wish that Kodi will gain PVR backend add-ons that fully supports first-time tuning setup and configuration directly from Kodi's GUI so that you that way do not have to configure the tuning of channels from a separate web-interface. Maybe even through a 'setup wizard' if that such are not too frowned upon these days?

How wonderfully user-friendly would it not be from an end-users perspective if you did not have to exit Kodi's GUI to do the first-time install and configure your PVR backends? Such capability would make Live TV installation and TV-tuning changes in Kodi work just like a commercial PVR set-top box.
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#6
(2018-10-19, 11:34)jjd-uk Wrote: Shame it's only single tuner which makes it of limited use.
Only a single tuner but at least it does support viewing/recording multiple channels at the same time as long as those channels are within the same muxiplex/mux stream (as DVB uses multiplex technology, also known as "bouquets" and "virtual sub-channels"). This means that even with a single tuner many people will still be able to view one channel and record another channel, or record different two channels at the same time, again as long as those channels are broadcasted as a single DVB mux stream.

I do however think that it is a shame that they did not choose to use Hybrid DVB-C tuner chip instead of that it could tune Cable TV reception as well. I think that they missed an opportunity to catch another good market-share portion of Kodi users in Europe there. Today there as at least many USB and PCIe hybrid TV-tuner cards that support both DVB-C and DVB-T/T2 (and most non-satellite TV set-top boxes in Europe today supports both DVB-C and DVB-T/T2). I guess it is a matter of cost but I believe that the value added on having both DVB-C and DVB-T/T2 supported by the same chip would have weighed up for that extra cost as more users and developers would be able to use it.

Also, another opportunity missed is that they did not choose to use one of the Realtek RTL2832 tuner chips that are popular for SDR (Software Defined Radio) so that we could use the RTL-SDR FM Radio Client Addon for Kodi. That RTL-SDR addon for Kodi adds the ability to receive FM-radio with RDS, however, that (binary) add-on has not yet been updated for Kodi 18 (Leia):

https://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:RTL-SDR_FM_Radio_Client

Cool progress nonetheless! This new hardware could bring Kodi PVR to the masses!
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#7
The Pi Hut have also done a tutorial here about how to set them up and configure them with both TVHeadEnd/LibreElec and also with Plex.

Looks a nice little board, but only a single tuner and DVB-T/DVB-T2 (as its name says) which would limit application outside the UK.
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#8
Threads merged together, as we had two.
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#9
Although a single tuner, it is a great addition as it makes the hardware for an HTPC just over £50! I was going to build a fully fledged HTPC, but after reading this, if there was a case for both boards this is worth considering.

Again it would be great if being able to tune via the Kodi gui, as this would compliment libreelec and the Raspberry Pi as an all in one HTPC solution.
Server: Ubuntu Server 22TB HDD running SAMBA
Kodi: 4 Raspberry Pi 3 running Libreelec -  on the main PC - running Linux Mint
My Setup thread |
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#10
In the UK a single DVB-T2 tuner is a great solution for mainstream channels - as BBC One HD, BBC Two HD, ITV HD, C4HD and C5HD are all broadcast in the same multiplex - PSB3 (aka BBC B) - so you can record any / all of these channels simultaneously with a single tuner Smile
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#11
All setup in about 20mins. Works great!
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#12
Looks interesting, I'm looking for a recording device to work with Kodi - I already have TVHeadend with Media Portal - but this is annoyingly slow at changing channels and a pain to set up and get working.

I'm wondering if I could set one of these up with Kodi locally to do recording only (I'd use the TV to do watching)...
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#13
(2018-10-23, 10:23)archie456 Wrote: Looks interesting, I'm looking for a recording device to work with Kodi - I already have TVHeadend with Media Portal - but this is annoyingly slow at changing channels and a pain to set up and get working.

I'm wondering if I could set one of these up with Kodi locally to do recording only (I'd use the TV to do watching)...

Would the TV be running Kodi - or can your TV just point at an SMB-shared recordings folder?  You don't have to use Kodi in that use case, as you can set recordings from the TV Headend web interface (I do this quite often anyway as the search functionality in TVH is useful) and possibly also the TVH app?

That said there is no issue running Kodi on a Pi Zero W with a DVB-T2 tuner (I've built one as a proof of concept with a USB DVB-T2 tuner) - the only limitation in that case is the Zero W's WiFi speeds (buffering and a little bit of break up on high bitrate DVB-T2 channels was my experience).  Using a cheap USB OTG->Ethernet connection improved on this (and you can use a Zero not a Zero W in that use case - and don't need a combo with a hub as you don't need a USB port for the TV uHAT, nor is it sharing USB bandwidth)

I also had some success with a Zero W running Kodi as well as TV Headend. It wasn't perfect, but with the MPEG2 licence for SD MPEG2 stuff in the UK it was functional.

A Pi 3B+ with a TV uHAT should be a very neat solution indeed for a TV Headend + Kodi combo.  I've got a TV uHAT on order from Pimoroni - so will report back when it's arrived. I've got an unhealthily large number of Zero, Zero W, 1B, 1A, 1B+, 1A+, 2B etc and 3B, 3B+s so can test in most combinations (I have almost every version of the Pi manufactured - including the original, 256MB, Model B)
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#14
@noggin

Think of all those kids in the U.K. deprived now because of your unhealthy amount of Pi!

Back to the thread now lol...

Are there any cases about right now that can utilise this already? I so want to try it out, but this is my only concern!
Server: Ubuntu Server 22TB HDD running SAMBA
Kodi: 4 Raspberry Pi 3 running Libreelec -  on the main PC - running Linux Mint
My Setup thread |
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#15
(2018-10-23, 13:27)tjay260476 Wrote: @noggin

Think of all those kids in the U.K. deprived now because of your unhealthy amount of Pi!
Think of how much money the Pi Foundation charity has made from me to help young coders Wink

Quote:Back to the thread now lol...

Are there any cases about right now that can utilise this already? I so want to try it out, but this is my only concern!

Until I receive mine I can't really provide absolute guidance, however the laser-cut acrylic sandwich style cases which have open sides but provide protection above and below may be a good bet, though the stand off mounting may be an issue?

Hopefully someone will design a Pi Zero and a Pi 3B+ case that accomodates?  (A flying cable rather than the in-line adaptor may help with the antenna connection too?)
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Raspberry Pi DVB TV μHAT - Official GPIO HAT adds a DVB-T/T2 Tuner to Raspberry Pi0