[Anonojohn]

Hi,

I am using the Tvheadend HTSP Client add-on with the latest stable version of Kodi. TVHeadend is connected to Freeview ( The DVB-T/2 system in the UK )  

SD channels work fine however HD Channels often don't load, or only play audio. On occasion they will work. I have replicated the issue with an Amazon Firestick 4K and a Raspberry Pi 3 running LibreElec, however the same channels fine on Kodi running on my Huawei P30 Pro. These HD channels are encoded in H264 MPEG4 AVC are 1080p.

I tried using an alternative IPTV add on connected to the same TVHeadend server, and I the HD Channels work fine, which I think rules out issues with Transcoding or similar but I could be wrong. I've tried changing the hardware encoding and related settings within Kodi to no avail.

Here are The logs

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to try next, so any help greatly appreciated

[mcelliott]

Raspberry Pi 3 is a bit under-powered for HD. What are you running as the TV server? I use a Raspberry Pi 4 with three DVB-T2 cards, and it works great!

[noggin]

The Pi3B has historically been fine with Freeview HD stuff in my experience (Advanced MMAL deinterlace works fine on 1080i25 streams on the 3B and 3B+?)

Freeview HD channels on PSB3 (BBC One/Two/CBBC/ITV/C4/C5 HD) all have the unusual 1080p25/1080i25 on-the-fly format switching that the encoder handles (it dynamically switches from 1080p25 progressive to 1080i25 interlaced MBAFF to improve encode quality) but the last time I checked on a Pi 3B+ all was well (that will have been about 6 months ago). I certainly didn't have 'no video' issues.

@Anonojohn can you post a full log rather than a truncated one?

[Anonojohn]

The server is a Pi4 

I will grab a full log later today. I did notice in the log output from HTSP Client it only seems to "negotiate" the audio and subtitle streams and then logs something like "dropping unknown stream: 1001" which I assume is the video stream.

I am using XBox One Tuners and found a thread on a Czech Forum where people report the same issue, so I now suspect the tuner is at fault. I've ordered a HDHomeRun tuner to see if things are any different.

Thanks

[noggin]

The server is a Pi4 

I will grab a full log later today. I did notice in the log output from HTSP Client it only seems to "negotiate" the audio and subtitle streams and then logs something like "dropping unknown stream: 1001" which I assume is the video stream.

I am using XBox One Tuners and found a thread on a Czech Forum where people report the same issue, so I now suspect the tuner is at fault. I've ordered a HDHomeRun tuner to see if things are any different.

Thanks

The Xbox One TV tuner is notoriously not very good. I don't know if it's the Linux driver or the hardware/firmware on the tuner itself - but I was very disappointed by the performance.  They were cheap on Amazon UK for a while and I bought a couple - but I don't use them.

If you are in the UK and only need a single tuner on a Raspberry Pi - then the DVB-T2 TV Hat is on Amazon UK for just £7 at the moment.

The HD Homeruns are very neat solutions too though - and have the benefit that you can separate your TV Headend client from your Aerial connection as long as you have Ethernet connectivity between the two. (For instance you could run TV Headend on an unRAID Docker or VM or on a NAS)

[sonofdibnah]

Firestick 4K does not handle the deinterlacing of the H264 streams that are used for UK HD channels on Freeview. See the write up for the 4K in the Hardware section. I have exactly the same issues with my 4K. I use a Vbox TV gateway but have tried the xbox tuners and TVHeadend. whichever one I use, I get the same behaviour with HD channels.

For the Pi 3, I'd recommend you install OSMC. Live TV plays fine on it and it is much better than the Libreelec I tried.

[noggin]

Firestick 4K does not handle the deinterlacing of the H264 streams that are used for UK HD channels on Freeview. See the write up for the 4K in the Hardware section. I have exactly the same issues with my 4K. I use a Vbox TV gateway but have tried the xbox tuners and TVHeadend. whichever one I use, I get the same behaviour with HD channels.

For the Pi 3, I'd recommend you install OSMC. Live TV plays fine on it and it is much better than the Libreelec I tried.

LibreElec works fine with UK Freeview HD TV Headend streams in my experience on a Raspberry Pi 3B.  You may need to set "MMAL Advanced" deinterlacing as the default for all content if it defaults to something else (do this whilst watching a Live TV source and bringing up the Video settings, ensure deinterlace mode is MMAL Advanced and then scroll down to save this for all content). This will deliver a high quality 50fps deinterlace similar to YADIF 2x.  You should also enable refresh rate switching and/or whitelisting to ensure 50Hz Live TV and Recorded TV is output at 50Hz not 60Hz.  You may get a TV resync (cut to black and OSD flashes on) on the refresh rate change - so if you us the Pi 3B more for TV than other sources then setting the default output to 50Hz in display settings makes sense (then it only resyncs when you play non-50Hz stuff like 1080p24 movies)

[Anonojohn]

Thanks for the suggestions both.

I can confirm LibreElec on a Raspberry Pi 3b+ works fine

[mcelliott]

The server is a Pi4 

I will grab a full log later today. I did notice in the log output from HTSP Client it only seems to "negotiate" the audio and subtitle streams and then logs something like "dropping unknown stream: 1001" which I assume is the video stream.

I am using XBox One Tuners and found a thread on a Czech Forum where people report the same issue, so I now suspect the tuner is at fault. I've ordered a HDHomeRun tuner to see if things are any different.

Thanks

I have three of these tuners running on a Pi4 server with LibreElec. I have a second Pi4 client, a PC as client, and occasionally a Mac as client. I have mounted a SMB share on my NAS to save recordings and timeshift files, and I see no problem at all with this configuration.

Are you timeshifting/recording to the SD card?

[noggin]

The server is a Pi4 

I will grab a full log later today. I did notice in the log output from HTSP Client it only seems to "negotiate" the audio and subtitle streams and then logs something like "dropping unknown stream: 1001" which I assume is the video stream.

I am using XBox One Tuners and found a thread on a Czech Forum where people report the same issue, so I now suspect the tuner is at fault. I've ordered a HDHomeRun tuner to see if things are any different.

Thanks

I have three of these tuners running on a Pi4 server with LibreElec. I have a second Pi4 client, a PC as client, and occasionally a Mac as client. I have mounted a SMB share on my NAS to save recordings and timeshift files, and I see no problem at all with this configuration.

Are you timeshifting/recording to the SD card?

There is a well known issue with the Xbox One DVB-T2 tuner (at least under Linux - not sure on Xbox Ones) that is present whether used on x86 or ARM in my experience.  I found it a very poor solution compared to other DVB-T2 USB tuners (PCTV 290e, Win TV Dual HD, August T210 etc.) with some muxes just refusing to tune reliably at all.  I bought a bunch of the Xbox tuners when they were ~£5 on Amazon (one for each UK T2 Mux at the time) but they never really saw active service as they just weren't reliable for PSB3, COM7 and COM8 in London.  (I had PS3 Play TV Dual DVB-T tuners for PSB1&2, COMs 4, 5 & 6 and the Local Mux). I had to compile my own Linux kernel to get past the 8 DVB device limit (as I wanted a tuner per mux and there were 9 London muxes at the time). 

I've since switched to an HD Homerun Quad as I seldom need to record from more than 4 muxes or >80Mbs total, and it's a LOT neater.

[mcelliott]

The server is a Pi4 

I will grab a full log later today. I did notice in the log output from HTSP Client it only seems to "negotiate" the audio and subtitle streams and then logs something like "dropping unknown stream: 1001" which I assume is the video stream.

I am using XBox One Tuners and found a thread on a Czech Forum where people report the same issue, so I now suspect the tuner is at fault. I've ordered a HDHomeRun tuner to see if things are any different.

Thanks

I have three of these tuners running on a Pi4 server with LibreElec. I have a second Pi4 client, a PC as client, and occasionally a Mac as client. I have mounted a SMB share on my NAS to save recordings and timeshift files, and I see no problem at all with this configuration.

Are you timeshifting/recording to the SD card?

There is a well known issue with the Xbox One DVB-T2 tuner (at least under Linux - not sure on Xbox Ones) that is present whether used on x86 or ARM in my experience.  I found it a very poor solution compared to other DVB-T2 USB tuners (PCTV 290e, Win TV Dual HD, August T210 etc.) with some muxes just refusing to tune reliably at all.  I bought a bunch of the Xbox tuners when they were ~£5 on Amazon (one for each UK T2 Mux at the time) but they never really saw active service as they just weren't reliable for PSB3, COM7 and COM8 in London.  (I had PS3 Play TV Dual DVB-T tuners for PSB1&2, COMs 4, 5 & 6 and the Local Mux). I had to compile my own Linux kernel to get past the 8 DVB device limit (as I wanted a tuner per mux and there were 9 London muxes at the time). 

I've since switched to an HD Homerun Quad as I seldom need to record from more than 4 muxes or >80Mbs total, and it's a LOT neater.

Maybe I have just been lucky, but I've not had any problems at all. Live and recorded TV all work perfectly. I'd love a tidier solution, but the cost difference is significant.

[noggin]

I have three of these tuners running on a Pi4 server with LibreElec. I have a second Pi4 client, a PC as client, and occasionally a Mac as client. I have mounted a SMB share on my NAS to save recordings and timeshift files, and I see no problem at all with this configuration.

Are you timeshifting/recording to the SD card?

There is a well known issue with the Xbox One DVB-T2 tuner (at least under Linux - not sure on Xbox Ones) that is present whether used on x86 or ARM in my experience.  I found it a very poor solution compared to other DVB-T2 USB tuners (PCTV 290e, Win TV Dual HD, August T210 etc.) with some muxes just refusing to tune reliably at all.  I bought a bunch of the Xbox tuners when they were ~£5 on Amazon (one for each UK T2 Mux at the time) but they never really saw active service as they just weren't reliable for PSB3, COM7 and COM8 in London.  (I had PS3 Play TV Dual DVB-T tuners for PSB1&2, COMs 4, 5 & 6 and the Local Mux). I had to compile my own Linux kernel to get past the 8 DVB device limit (as I wanted a tuner per mux and there were 9 London muxes at the time). 

I've since switched to an HD Homerun Quad as I seldom need to record from more than 4 muxes or >80Mbs total, and it's a LOT neater.

Maybe I have just been lucky, but I've not had any problems at all. Live and recorded TV all work perfectly. I'd love a tidier solution, but the cost difference is significant.

Yep - it seems entirely dependent on what modulation and frequencies you need in your area (some DVB-C channels are a real problem, as are some DVB-T2 muxes). I've not seen anyone work on a correlation as to what the precise issue is (it may well be a tuner code bug that the driver/firmware author hasn't hit I guess, though apparently they are a bit hit-and-miss on Xboxes as well). On muxes I could receive with my Xbox One tuners I noticed they were less sensitive (though this may be a driver LNA issue possibly?)

The Raspberry Pi DVB-T/T2 (no-C) TV Hat is currently £7 on Amazon UK - and pairs nicely with most Pis. In my experience you can't quite stream a full DVB-T2 mux continuously (i.e. stream the full 40Mbs mux) but if you only want to record a couple of UK PSB T2 HD feeds (which are all on the same mux so received with a single tuner simultaneously), or some T SD stuff they work OK.  The Hauppauge Win TV Dual HD is also a neat dual-tuner USB solution - but nearer the £50 mark.  You can now also switch this between Bulk and Isochronous mode using a Windows utility supplied by Hauppauge, or an experimental Linux tool (beware this tool lets you potentially brick your tuner)

For pure plug-and-play neatness though, the HD Homeruns are difficult to beat. (You can do some quite cool stuff with them with their additional API tools - like multicast, though because they are limited by their 100Mbs Ethernet you can't do things like stream 4 x entire 40Mbs DVB-T2 muxes simultaneously. In the UK we only have 2 now anyway...)

[iberia]

Like the OP I'm using the xbox tuners. I seem to have come across a workaround.  If I record a HD channel, subsequently, I can watch live any other HD channel on the same mux. As per the OP the SD channels stream live fine without such a workaround. Info on a fix would be appreciated.

[iberia]

I've found a new (to me option) that resolves this issue for me,

TVheadend HTSP PVR client > Configure > Stream setting > set 'Use HTTP streaming for channel'.

[routir]

've found a new (to me option) that resolves this issue for me,

TVheadend HTSP PVR client > Configure > Stream setting > set 'Use HTTP streaming for channel'.

Not working for me on windows, but does on CoreELEC HTSP Client with htsp profile.

What actually happens is that Kodi plays audio stream(sent from Tvheadend), but in a couple of seconds a video stream loads in the background and stays behind the music overlay.
The question is how to make Kodi close the music overlay and focus on video?
Because when I press the ESC button the overlay dissapears as shown on this video example

log
https://pastebin.com/cs1CMEHh