Issues with DVBSky T982 PCIe card in conjunction with Tvheadend and DVB-T2 (in Germany)

backslash · November 27, 2017 at 1:06 PM

I am having issues with the DVBSky T982 card in conjunction with Tvheadend and DVB-T2. I am having a hard time nailing down the issue. As long as I am using using only one of the tuners everything works most of the time just fine but from the moment on both tuners are busy I face artifacts and dropouts that behave like reception issues.

Now I read somewhere that the open source driver for the card ist actually part of the 3.19 kernel but the same source states that the firmware for the demodulator chip still needs to be copied into the /lib/firmware folder. Do I still need to do this or is the firmware already part of LibreELEC?

DVBSky T982 - LinuxTVWiki

Firmware

The open source driver requires firmware for demod.

The easiest option is to download it from the OpenELEC firmware collection using the link below.

dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw

Place the firmware file under /lib/firmware.

**CvH** · November 27, 2017 at 2:11 PM Official Post

It is everything at LE already, just plug and play.

As alternative you can also have a look at the 4 tuner card Hauppauge quad HD.

backslash · November 27, 2017 at 3:48 PM

So the mentioned firmware "dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw" is already included in in LE?

**CvH** · November 27, 2017 at 5:26 PM Official Post

LibreELEC/dvb-firmware · GitHub

firmware is not a problem at all as they could be easily copied, it is important that the driver is included (they are for both cards)

backslash · November 27, 2017 at 7:25 PM

As far as I understand the opensource driver is part of the kernel since 3.19 but it seems that the firmware I mentioned above is needed in addition for the card to function properly which it does not in my case. Is the firmware "dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw" included in LE 8.2.1 or do I need to copy it manually to my LE machine?

**CvH** · November 27, 2017 at 8:07 PM Official Post

dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw is part of LE

backslash · November 30, 2017 at 8:44 AM

I got a Hauppauge wintv-quad HD in the meantime and all issues are gone with this card. It seems that I never got the V2 of the DVBSky T982 but a V1.0b instead where the latter is not 100% suitable for DVB-T2 (in Germany) and behaves erratic ones both tuners are busy. So anyone looking for a PCIe card better pick the Hauppauge wintv-quad HD because this one has anyway better value with it's 4 tuners compared to the T982 with only 2 while being similar priced.

**CvH** · November 30, 2017 at 10:44 AM Official Post

tx for feedback, are you located around berlin ? as we have already another DVB-T2 tuner that has problems only in Berlin (for whatever reason)

backslash · November 30, 2017 at 11:08 AM

I am based in Cologne and have currently a T982 (V1), a Hauppauge wintv-quad HD and the Xbox tuners at my disposal in case some testing is needed in conjunction with DVB-T2. I have still one issue in conjunction with DVB-T2 in Germany which is independent of the tuner I use but is connected to LE and more specifically to Kodi. DVB-T2 recordings which include AAC 5.1 audio have audio hickups if played back within LE/Kodi. If I play back the recording e.g. using VLC the audio hickups are gone. I think this boils down to the codec that Kodi uses for playback of .ts files.

**CvH** · November 30, 2017 at 1:56 PM Official Post

Quote from backslash

I think this boils down to the codec that Kodi uses for playback of .ts files.

try remuxing the ts files into a mkv, or you can also directly record into a mkv

Tvh 4.3+ fixes a lot stuff at this direction

backslash · November 30, 2017 at 2:33 PM

Thanks for the tip! Will definately try that though I hope that the issue will be fixed once Kodi Leia is ready for primetime. The strange thing about the AAC 5.1 audio hickups is that while watching live tv e.g. arte with AAC 5.1 audio through Kodi I have no audio glitches but if I watch a recording of the very same program the hickups are there. Seems that Kodi relies on different codecs for live tv and recordings.

**CvH** · November 30, 2017 at 2:37 PM Official Post

As said it is likely due the .ts format, try remuxing into mkv and it should work (at least we had already similar problems that get fixed due that).

backslash · November 30, 2017 at 4:20 PM

What would be the best approach to remux into mkv? At time of recording or after recording? And is this being done ideally by tvheadend or by some other service?

**CvH** · November 30, 2017 at 5:01 PM Official Post

testwise, mkvtoolnix easy and fast

if this works you can record already to mkv at Tvh

backslash · December 1, 2017 at 8:39 AM

Recording straight to mkv by tvh works like a charm. I simply selected the matroska stream profile within tvh. Seems to be hardware accelerated as well since cpu utilization of the J4205 keeps being very low while recording. Iam on a tvh nightly build from you. No audio glitches anymore in conjuntion with AAC 5.1 audio. Finally I can record and watch stuff from arte without any issues.

**CvH** · December 1, 2017 at 10:32 AM Official Post

Just saying,mkv is just an container for every kind of video and audio streams, if you record to mkv no encoding or transcoding was done. Ts container is very bloated and inefficient so you also save some mb due that:)

backslash · December 3, 2017 at 7:08 PM

Thanks for clarification!