DVB-T2 help needed in centurion

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cjoliver

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Centurion, Gauteng
Hi all,

Wanted to find out if anyone have been able to get Free-To-Air channels going on the Centurion, Gauteng area. Got myself a usb dvb-t2 dongle and i can pick up all the normal excrypted channels from MultiChoice, but yet to pick up anything else.

Currently using the little antenna that comes with the dongle.

Going to invest in a proper outside mounted one, but first wanted to see if i can get somehing going.

Thanks for all the help.

Cheers
Claude
 
So an update.

After moving my little antenna around, i final got some channels to start showing up in Windows.

Got a few like SABC1/2/3, ETV, SABC HD 1 and a few others.

Now for the big question.

Can i get it working on tvheadend? Anybody that can give me some help on this? Would be greatly appriciated.

Just an example. This is SABC1 setting on the app i used in windows to display the channel.
<DeviceChannel
DisplayName="SABC1"
ChannelType="Tv"
MajorChannelNo="0"
MinorChannelNo="0"
ChannelListIndex="-1"
TunerType="tunerDvbT"
State="Tuned"
Frequency="738000"
VideoStandard="AnalogVideo_None"
Polarisation="NotSet"
SymbolRate="-1"
OuterFecRate="RateNotSet"
Modulation="56"
OuterFecMethod="NotSet"
Bandwidth="8000"
StreamId="0"
SignalStrength="46"
SignalQuality="65"
Antenna="2;0;0"
Device="PCTV 292e.0"
ServiceId="101"
OriginalNetworkId="8902"
TransportStreamId="1"
SourceId="0"
PmtPid="1100"
PcrPid="1101"
ServiceType="ACHD_DigitalTelevision"
TeletextCache="00000003-00000014.ttx"
StreamCount="2"
StreamInfo="12288:1,12289:12,12290:0,12304:1101,12305:27;12288:2,12289:20,12290:0,12304:1102,12305:17,12320:0,12326:0,12321:0"
CountryCode="27"
Scrambled="None"
VirtualChannelId="20" />

Tvheadend has about zero of those settings. My dongle is supported on ubuntu and I have a /dev/dvb/target0/* devices.

I can see the dvb device in tvheadend, and i configure it with all the settings i have for it. Then i create a mux for it. Basically everything is AUTO as i have no idea what to put in there. I use the correct kHz and bandwidth settings. (I think) 738mHz and 8mHz. Then nothing. It doesn't pick up any channels.

Any help?

Thanks
Claude
 
Some more updates. Been playing around with Linux for my usb tuner. Notices in the kernel logs that it wanted an firmware file. So I found it, copied it in, and now the logs are looking a lot better. Finally got tvheadend to start showing some channels. To bad it is all the dstv mobile ones .

I know in Windows you can set a amplifier for the antenna, and I'm wondering if that is set in Linux, because I'm getting the same channels as I was before I moved my antenna outside for better reception. Maybe it is just time to go and get the external antenna.
Any suggestions?

And does anyone know where the tv broadcast stations are in Centurion? Want to make sure I'm pointing in the right detection.
 
I would also be interested and would like to try this in xbmc.
 
So good news. Finally got my USB tuner working 100%. Got a decent amplified bunny antenna, and that is enough to pick up all the channels.

Turns out that there was nothing wrong with my setup. Only problem I had was that tvheadend only scanned for dvb-t channels, and not dvb-t2. That is why it only found the dstv mobile channels. Dvb-t.

So what did I do to fix everything.
1. Updated w_scan with the latest version. Turns out the one on utopic repo is more than a year old. Could only find the source for the latest version, so I compiled it myself. Needed version is >= 201407xx.
Then I could pick up the dvb-t2 channels.

2. Updated tvheadend with the latest unstable build (nightly). Stable repo is version 3.4.xx and unstable repo carries 3.9.xx. And somewhere between they gave us the ability to select dvb-t2 on the MUX. Now I can pick up my free view channels.

Works great and nearly uses no CPU. Roughly about 2.5% on my dual core 2.4ghz celeron, this is while it is actively time shifting.
Another great feature with digital TV is that the epg data is carried right in the bitstream. So no need for xmltv or similar.

Hooked it up to my xbmc boxes in the house and now have digital TV everywhere.

Anyway. Will probably be my last post on topic unless someone asks for some help on there side.
Enjoy.
 
Hi

I just stumbled across this while looking thru the forum for another reason.

What exactly is dbv t2?
What channels are you able to see?
How different is this from normal analogue tv with aerial and tuner?

Can you post some pictures of the installation and the screens that show the epg?
 
midnightcaller said:
Hi

I just stumbled across this while looking thru the forum for another reason.

What exactly is dbv t2?
What channels are you able to see?
How different is this from normal analogue tv with aerial and tuner?

Can you post some pictures of the installation and the screens that show the epg?
Click to expand...

Hi

Dvb-t2 is a broadcasting standard for digital video broadcast via terrestrial antenna, version 2. Basically it is a digital signal via radio waves.

Is uses standard UHF, so most people will be able to keep there normal tv antennas. But you will need a new digital tuner.

Advantages are that the signal is either perfect or nothing, you can have multiple channels on a single frequency, support HD quality broadcasts, eg 1080P, can embed extra information into the bit stream, like epg, and all broadcasting stations can now use one frequency.

I can see all the normal channels and a whole bunch of extra ones. (Content of the channels are still not great ) And I have access to a lot of radio channels as well.

Will post some pick shortly. Hopefully tomorrow.
 
Quantum Theory said:
Was it all you thought it would be? So exciting... What programs are you watching?
Click to expand...

Hi

I use to do this with a analog tuner, but was never happy with the quality. Digital does bump that up a lot.

I'm not unhappy, and I'm a bit of a tinkerer, so the challenge was great, but I wish SABC would start showing some proper content. The thing I'm the happiest about is that I will once again be able to watch some sport on tv, and now I can watch it on my tv, laptop, tablet, phone or whatever else I can hook it up to.

I have recorded a few things on tv just for interest sake, and quickly went through it today just to check if it looks ok, and it works perfectly.

You can see they still testing, e.tv is just a black screen, so is sabc 1 hd. But it is exciting to look at a black screen in 1080p.
 
Hi there. This is a useful post. Just bought a USB TV tuner (Realtek 2838 with 820T TV tuner)
Have Raspberry PI B+ with OpenELEC 5.0.8 with Kodi(XBMC) 14.2. Tuner detected fine and TVHeadEnd 3.9.x installed and accessible on port 9981 in web browser and can select TV tuner.

Am unsure how to set up TVHeadEnd to receive SABC1/2/3 and ETV. Can this be done? Also have you set up South African DVB-T/T2 TV to work in Kodi? Does one use the TVHeadEnd PVR Client? Look forward to your response.
Thanks Paul
 
Hi Paul. I just spent 5 minutes quickly googling your tuner, but I'm struggling to find the specs. Would you mind listing them for me.

What are you looking to get out of your setup? I'm more than happy to help out.

The basic of my setup are the following.
Ubuntu server with pctv 292e usb dvb-t2 tuner, running tvheadend v3.9.x. I have all free channels configured, and being served to my 2x pi2's running openelec 5.0.8 (kodi 14.2) with the tvheadend pvr client.

Cheers. Claude
 
cjoliver said:
Hi Paul. I just spent 5 minutes quickly googling your tuner, but I'm struggling to find the specs. Would you mind listing them for me.

What are you looking to get out of your setup? I'm more than happy to help out.

The basic of my setup are the following.
Ubuntu server with pctv 292e usb dvb-t2 tuner, running tvheadend v3.9.x. I have all free channels configured, and being served to my 2x pi2's running openelec 5.0.8 (kodi 14.2) with the tvheadend pvr client.

Cheers. Claude
Click to expand...

Hi Claude. Thanks for the reply. My device is this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3GRU24/ref=pe_385040_128020140_TE_3p_dp_1

I want to see if I can ditch my dstv decoder and old TV and replace with a digital TV solution using my PI

Would like to get mine going on my PI for portability and ease and use OpenELEC as a media platform.
I also do have Ubuntu 14.04 on my desktop.
OpenELEC 5.0.8 with Kodi 14.2 on the PI allows you to install w_scan. Not sure if this needs to be run on the PI to set up anything in tvheadend?

Any advice or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks :-)

Cheers Paul
 
72859 said:
Hi Claude. Thanks for the reply. My device is this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3GRU24/ref=pe_385040_128020140_TE_3p_dp_1

I want to see if I can ditch my dstv decoder and old TV and replace with a digital TV solution using my PI

Would like to get mine going on my PI for portability and ease and use OpenELEC as a media platform.
I also do have Ubuntu 14.04 on my desktop.
OpenELEC 5.0.8 with Kodi 14.2 on the PI allows you to install w_scan. Not sure if this needs to be run on the PI to set up anything in tvheadend?

Any advice or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks :-)

Cheers Paul
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

From what I can find, it doesn't look like your tuner supports dvb-t2, which is the standard that South Africa uses. You will be able to scan and find the DSTV Mobile channels (which uses dvb-t), but they are all encrypted and until we/I/you/someone find a why or writes an app to get past the encryption, it is basically dead to us.

What I can suggest. Plug it into your Pi, and start a w_scan to see what channels you pick up. You will need w_scan version 20140727 to pick up dvb-t2 channels. This will give you an good idea as to what you can pick up. Post the output here or a link to it, and I will have a look what all you can see. From there we can decide how you would like to proceed, and I'm happy to help you with the steps for setting up tvheadend and the pvr client on kodi.

Good luck, hope you find some t2 channels.
 
Hi Claude. Thanks for your reply.

Sorry about late reply. I managed to get my device working I think - using my PI and under Ubuntu 14.04 with OpenELEC and KODI 14.2. I had to change my TVHeadend repo under Ubuntu to the unstable one first to get TVHeadend 3.9.xx.

It was picking up channels (looked like 57 or 60 odd) from 177.5MHz to 803MHz. But was saying "fail" and not "ok" for all channels except 567MHz. But signal quality was bad. This bad quality I figured could be my antenna or lack of or poor signal availability. So maybe better antenna than the standard whip antenna that dongle comes with? Would need to be broadband so maybe log periodic or similar? What do you use? Do you use indoor or outdoor antenna?

Yes my dongle only does DVB-T so that may explain limited pickup.

My plan was to use it to receive DVB-T with OpenELEC and track aircraft using PIAware which works well and also to use it to track Radio Sonde weather balloon data at 403MHz and also see if I can get it to behave as an amateur radio receiver like my Yaesu VX7. I may try to get a dongle that supports DVB-T2.

What dongle do you use for DVB-T2 reception? If Ubuntu or OpenELEC support the dongle and TVHeadend detects it it will work.
 
Last edited:
Hi all

I came across this thread when searching for help with digital TV.

I have a DVB-T2 device plugged into my Linux server and am running MythTV to record and am using MUMUDVB to stream live TV to other devices (smart TV, smart phone, etc.)

I can pick up SABC channels fine but can't seem to find etv at all.

Can anyone else pick up etv?

Do you perhaps know what frequency it is on?

I'm on the East Rand

Thanks
 
phoenix55 said:
Hi all

I came across this thread when searching for help with digital TV.

I have a DVB-T2 device plugged into my Linux server and am running MythTV to record and am using MUMUDVB to stream live TV to other devices (smart TV, smart phone, etc.)

I can pick up SABC channels fine but can't seem to find etv at all.

Can anyone else pick up etv?

Do you perhaps know what frequency it is on?

I'm on the East Rand

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi phoenix55

Not sure if the frequency is the same for the east rand, but in Centurion it is 738 for SABC and 770 for ETV.

Hope that helps.

To scan for channels, you can use w_scan, version has to be >= 20140727 else it only scans for dvb-t.

Good luck. Let me know if you don't come right.

Cheers.
 
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