RPi2 on LE 9.2.3, issues with tvheadend server 4.3-1896

Hello to everyone! I have an Xbox ONE tuner and, having issues with getting it to work on a Wetek Core, I've tried it on an RPi2 I had lying around.

My current setup is LE 9.2.3, tvheadend server 4.3-1896 and tvheadend client 4.4.21.1. The Xbox ONE tuner is detected just fine, just with the built-in drivers (CrazyCat ones). I can scan the channels and everything seems fine (apart from the awful channel numbering which doesn't resemble the one I get on a 'normal' television while it seems they're sorted in the order they've been found or something similar, completely unusable this way!). The problem is that after a variable period of time (it could be two minutes but also ten seconds, not more than a couple of minutes anyway), the channel I'm viewing shuts down with a still image and the buffering circle at the center of the screen. After that, I'm no longer able to see any channel and I randomly get the error "Tvheadend Server does not respond properly" (not always though). The only way to get it working again is rebooting but then it starts acting up again.

It seems a rather common problem and there are many threads about this issue but the proposed solutions don't work or aren't appliable being for different platforms like OSMC. Maybe it has anything to do with being my server the latest nightly, maybe incompatible with the client? Do you have a suggested version to use? I've also read of someone (more than one) having problems with LE 9.2 and tvheadend at all: should I revert back to 9.0? Would the Xbox ONE tuner be detected on it?

Thanks in advance for your replies and have a nice day!

No advices at all... Usually a bad sign like if I'm asking for something which already has a reply... My bad I wasn't able to find one... I'm not going to downgrade to LE 9.0.2 so I'll try an older version of tvheadend though everything seems very strange to me.

First of all, thanks for your replies! I'm certain that the tv hat is the best available solution given that it eliminates the USB interface just for starters but this isn't the scope of this thread. I have a XBOX One tuner and I'd like to get it working, sure that it is possible to get better results than the ones I'm currently getting, maybe not perfect but certainly not completely unusable like it is now.

I've made some tries dowgrading the client to version 4.4.18.2 (the oldest available in the libreelec repository) to no avail: the behaviour remains EXACTLY the same. Then I've dowgraded the server to version 4.3-1804 (again, the oldest available, this one not in the repository where I couldn't find any but on the nightlies server) and things have even worsened. Now it gives IMMEDIATELY the error message that the server isn't responding properly in spite of the fact that before downgrading I've uninstalled, cleaned all and reinstalled the older version from scratch.

I'd like to try a 4.2.x version for the server but I don't know where to find it given that in the official repository I find only the client, not the server. I'm starting to think that the problem aren't the server and client versions but libreelec 9.2 as others report. Downgrading to 9.0.2 would mean reinstalling everything and this is a pain but I would do it as soon as I would have some spare time.

For what concerns channels numbering, you're right and I know that but I had expected a right numbering from the outset just as it happens with every television because doing it manually is very time consuming: I'm certain there is a smarter solution which I miss because I tend to exclude a great piece of work like tvheadend could have such a big limitation. Have a nice day!

Hello again. I can confirm that I've installed Kodi on Lubuntu along with tvheadend and the Xbox One Tuner works like a charm (apart from a bit of work needed at the beginning to get the tuner recognized, absolutely not a problem because everything was very well documented therefore all the needed files very easy to find). Excluding an issue with Libreelec which I absolutely tend to exclude, this leads to only two possible explanations. The Crazycat drivers have some kind of incompatibility with the Xbox one tuner (which I tend to exclude too) or the Xbox One tuner is too heavy on resources for just a Rpi2. I don't know nor I know what else I could try.

New update on the matter, a good one this time! I've always used my RPi2 with a 5V 2A power supply with no issues at all (no low voltage warnings or else) but, still trying to find a possible explanation to the issues I was experiencing, I've taken a look again at the dmesg output and this time there were plenty of those warnings. I've taken my smartphone power supply (5V 3A) and now the xBox One Tuner works like a charm!

I've come to the conclusion it is heavy maybe on resources too but certainly on power drained. I've just tried to swap the USB cable with another one which was slightly longer and it started acting up again in spite of the fact I've never had an issue with that cable, this confirming that with the tuner connected the RPi2 is on the edge alimentation wise.

I can confirm that on LibreElec 9.80 (the latest build by Milhouse) the xBox One Tuner works out of the box on my RPi2. The only strange thing was that I needed to disable the CrazyCat drivers (with them enabled I've got a lot of errors and I couldn't get the tuner to just search for new channels; should it be of interest, I can check again and post here the exact errors) while the other DVB drivers from the LibreElec team are disabled too so honestly speaking I don't know what drivers I'm actually using... I've to add that HD contents aren't enjoyable at all with a lot of stuttering, probably because the RPi2 hasn't the needed resources or maybe there is some tweak to do I'm not aware of, I don't know.

A brief update on the stuttering 'issue'. I've bought a TV hat and the stuttering with HD contents (over DVB-T, we aren't talking about network contents nor recordings or local files in general) is even worse than how it was with the Xbox One tuner. By what I know (but I may be wrong) HD contents should be MPEG-4 here in my country so purchasing the MPEG-2 codec should be useless while, not being a recording, I can't follow gedakc advices (thanks anyway!).

I've made some digging and I've found some threads like this or even more this one. Unfortunately, I'm still missing how to sum everything up...

EDIT: I've just checked and the HD contents which stutter are H.264 1080p while SD contents (absolutely fine) are MPEG-2 576p.

Mario77

I've obviously read post #12 and I've also explained the reasons why I don't think it applies to my case. Thanks anyway.

EDIT: I need to apologize both with Mario77 and gedakc. Going into details, I've missed the most obvious thing: deinterlacing always happens, no matter if the contents are locally stored, internet based or broadcasted on DVB-T! Stupid me! Indeed I've choosen MMAL - BOB as the default deinterlacing method for all kind of videos selecting the gear icon from the OSD and now (but my testing has been very limited, only one minute of viewing; I would come back with the results of a more thorough use) HD contents seem fine with no need for buying any codec or else. Usually, they began to stutter immediately so it is at least a good sign!

Hello again! I can confirm that, after a more thorough use, even HD contents are now absolutely enjoyable so all my problems are definitively solved. I'd like to thank Mario77, gedakc and Nicolas for the help in the hope that the thread could be useful for someone else!