Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD USB not recognized in TVHeadEnd on RPi4-8GB

Hello,

I have a WinTV-quadHD USB TV tuner which I am trying to use with my RPi 4-8GB. There is a prior post on this topic here: RE: Tvheadend doesn't see quadHD-USB tuner.

I have installed LibreELEC (official): 9.95.1 10.0 (kernel: Linux 5.10.17) as a clean install on a flash drive on my RPi 4 with 8 GB of RAM. I also installed TVHeadEnd server (service.tvheadend43-9.80.11.100.zip) and TVHeadEnd Client (pvr.hts-8.2.3.1.zip).

The WinTV-quadHD USB TV tuner does not show up as a tuner on the TV adapters tab in TVHeadEnd.

I have attached a journalctl | paste file as was suggested in the prior thread shown in the first paragraph of this post: http://ix.io/2TRV

Can anyone direct me to my next steps to try to get this TV tuner working on my Raspi 4?

Thanks!

Thanks for your reply, kreeture.

Unfortunately, the link you provided isn't for my device. The device at the link you provided is a PCIe device and is for DVB-T/T2/C television. My device is a USB device, and is for ATSC OTA (over-the-air) and clear QAM cable tel3vision. But it is definitely confusing since all these devices are commonly known as Hauppauge Win-TV quadHD tuners.

The prior thread I mentioned in the first paragraph of my initial post in this thread indicated that a patch for this device had been submitted upstream in June 2020 and there was a possibility that this patch might be merged upstream for Linux 5.9. It appears this hasn't been done yet however, which is why I am inquiring now.

I'm unsure what my next steps should be to find out if this TV tuner can be used with LibreElec.

Thanks.

Quote from kkk125

Code

One question, WinTV-quadHD, is PCI, how are you connecting to the Raspberry? do you have any adapter? I have been looking for these usb-pci adapters but I can't find them. Thanks

Hello kkk125,

The version of the "Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD USB" that I own connects via USB. There isn't any PCIe connector on this TV tuner. I don't need any adapters because the device can be plugged directly into one of the USB 3.0 ports on the RasPi 4, or into a powered USB 3.0 USB Hub, which is how I connect it to my RasPi. The "Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD USB" is a USB 3.0 device. Searching for "Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD USB" with your favorite search engine will show you a picture of this device which looks very different from the PCIe version you are referring to.

The naming convention for this TV Tuner has led to confusion since there appear to be at least three versions with basically the same name (USB version has USB in the name, while the PCIe versions do not):

1 version is PCIe, and for DVB-T/T2/C television (connects to PCIe port--not for RasPi devices),

1 version is PCIe and for ATSC/clear (not encrypted) QAM cable television (connects to PCIe port--not for RasPi devices), and

1 version is USB and ATSC/clear QAM television (connects to USB port).

I am trying to make the last version in this list work on my RasPi4.

I can't comment on the existence of PCIe to USB adapters. Good luck with your search.

Hello CvH,

Thank you very much for your reply. I do appreciate you taking a look at my issue.

Here's the dmesg | paste file as requested: http://ix.io/2UaR (in case it shows something different from the journalctl I posted earlier).

Edit:

The dmesg | paste at the link above is from my LibreELEC 9.2.6 install. I figured that it would be best to use LibreELEC (official): 9.95.1 10.0 (kernel: Linux 5.10.17) when trying to debug my inability to use this TV tuner.

After booting LibreELEC 9.95 again, here is the dmesg | paste from that build of LibreELEC as requested: http://ix.io/2Ubj.

I'm sorry for the confusion.

End Edit

Some additional information (for whatever it's worth),

I can provide a similar output for another flavor of Linux where this TV tuner works. The Hauppauge Support site says there is only currently support for this tuner on that one distribution of Linux and I have it working on that distribution.

I am also very willing to do whatever I can to help. If, for example, I can cross-compile, or backport using drivers or firmware or whatever from that other distribution, I can certainly try that. But, just so you know, using words like cross-compile or backport doesn't mean that I know what I'm talking about. I would need some "hand-holding", (and probably a lot). I suspect that if this was easy, it would have already been done. The other distribution is used on a X64 machine, so the drivers/firmware may be completely different on that other hardware and I suppose not usable on ARM hardware.

And, if it's too complicated for a noob like me to try, or if the appropriate drivers or firmware don't exist, a simple statement to that effect is fine. I realize there are many other things to work on that would benefit more members of the community than trying to get this one TV tuner working on my Raspi.

I thank you for reading my post.

Hello mglae,

Thank you for your comment and contribution in this thread. I provided the requested file anyway in case it provides some additional information.

Quote from CvH

the device is supported with kernel 5.12 or if you use dvb-latest at LE10 (LE default ships 5.10)

but currently we are not supporting the dvb-latest drivers at RPi, I can do a "special" build to support it but it MAY produce other problems I am currently not aware of

Hello again CvH

Sounds complicated and I know it's time-consuming to make special builds, and it may wind up still not working. No need to make a special build on my account since the needed changes will likely be incorporated into the official RPi 4 build eventually. I have other devices I can use this TV tuner with in the meantime. I will certainly test this tuner with later RPi 4 builds that incorporate the needed changes when they are available.

Thanks for all your comments in this thread and offer to help get this device working for me. I know how much time and effort you and the other volunteers on this project spend helping us users. And I do appreciate this. Thank you!