PVR Setup Quick Start Idea

emveepee - I’m a little confused. I get my scan tables via the TVH JSON API.

http://<TVH>:9981/api/dvb/scanfile/list?type=dvb-t

I’m not sure where TVH gets that data from.

Are you saying that in the process of building the LE TVH addon, that LE download and insert the updated scan tables into their build of the TVH server somehow?

On my LE Dev box, I can see the scan files in:

/storage/.kodi/addons/service.tvheadend42/dvb-scan/dvb-t/au-Sydney
/usr/share/dvbv5/dvb-t/au-Sydney

LEDev:~/.kodi/addons/service.tvheadend42/dvb-scan # ls -laF
total 108
drwxr-xr-x    7 root     root          4096 Dec 17 07:40 ./
drwxr-xr-x    9 root     root          4096 Dec 17 07:41 ../
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root          4096 Dec 17 07:40 atsc/
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root          4096 Dec 17 07:40 dvb-c/
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root          4096 Dec 17 07:40 dvb-s/
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         36864 Dec 17 07:40 dvb-t/
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         53248 Dec 17 07:41 isdb-t/

I assume that TVH parses the file name to extract the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 value and then converts that to the country name for presentation via the API. Alternately, TVH may parse the content of the scan files because there are some location descriptions within the comments. I have not looked into it.

Looking at how the scan table ‘vals’ are composed via the TVH API:

DVB-T = Country:Region

}, {
    "key": "dvb-t/auto/dvb-t_auto-With167kHzOffsets",
    "val": "--Generic--: auto-With167kHzOffsets"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-t/ax/dvb-t_ax-Smedsbole",
    "val": "Aland Islands: ax-Smedsbole"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-t/ad/dvb-t_ad-Andorra",
    "val": "Andorra: ad-Andorra"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-t/au/dvb-t_au-Adelaide",
    "val": "Australia: au-Adelaide"
}, {

DVB-C = Country:Cable Provider

}, {
    "key": "dvb-c/at/dvb-c_at-Vienna",
    "val": "Austria: at-Vienna"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-c/be/dvb-c_be-IN.DI-Integan",
    "val": "Belgium: be-IN.DI-Integan"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-c/br/dvb-c_br-Net-Digital",
    "val": "Brazil: br-Net-Digital"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-c/hr/dvb-c_hr-B.net",
    "val": "Croatia: hr-B.net"
}, {

DVB-S = Longitude:Satellite name

}, {
    "key": "dvb-s/geo/dvb-s_> 76.5E:Telstar10_C",
    "val": "> 76.5E:Telstar10_C"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-s/geo/dvb-s_> 75.0E:ABS1",
    "val": "> 75.0E:ABS1"
}, {
    "key": "dvb-s/geo/dvb-s_> 72.0E:Intel4",
    "val": "> 72.0E:Intel4"
}, {

ATSC-T = Country:Region or Protocol

       }, {
           "key": "atsc-t/ca/atsc-t_ca-ON-Toronto",
           "val": "Canada: ca-ON-Toronto"
       }, {
           "key": "atsc-t/us/atsc-t_us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB",
           "val": "United States: us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB"
       }, {

ATSC-C = Country:Protocol

Harmonic Related Carrier (HRC)
Incremental Related Carrier (IRC)

{
   "entries": [{
           "key": "atsc-c/us/atsc-c_us-Cable-EIA-542-HRC-center-frequencies-QAM256",
           "val": "United States: us-Cable-EIA-542-HRC-center-frequencies-QAM256"
       }, {
           "key": "atsc-c/us/atsc-c_us-Cable-EIA-542-IRC-center_frequencies-QAM256",
           "val": "United States: us-Cable-EIA-542-IRC-center_frequencies-QAM256"
       }, {
           "key": "atsc-c/us/atsc-c_us-Cable-HRC-center-frequencies-QAM256",
           "val": "United States: us-Cable-HRC-center-frequencies-QAM256"
       }, {
           "key": "atsc-c/us/atsc-c_us-Cable-IRC-center-frequencies-QAM256",
           "val": "United States: us-Cable-IRC-center-frequencies-QAM256"
       }, {
           "key": "atsc-c/us/atsc-c_us-Cable-Standard-center-frequencies-QAM256",
           "val": "United States: us-Cable-Standard-center-frequencies-QAM256"
       }
   ]
}

ISDB-T = Country:Region

       }, {
           "key": "isdb-t/ar/isdb-t_ar-Argentina",
           "val": "Argentina: ar-Argentina"
       }, {
           "key": "isdb-t/br/isdb-t_br-Brazil",
           "val": "Brazil: br-Brazil"
       }, {
           "key": "isdb-t/br/isdb-t_br-ac-Bujari",
           "val": "Brazil: br-ac-Bujari"
       }, {

I will make the Wizard split into the same categories provided by the TVH API and label the buttons/steps accordingly.

With respect to users 'getting stuck': Perhaps an extensive 'try every combination' approach would be required. Unfortunately, that could take hours to do a scan. Every mux has a frequency, then several possible bandwidths for that frequency, then several possible encoding parameter variations.

A 5 minute (literally) search of the TVH MakeFIle suggests that TVH scan files come from ‘https://github.com/tvheadend/dtv-scan-tables’ which is cloned from ‘https://github.com/crazycat69/dtv-scan-tables’.

Regardless of the upstream source, the PVR setup wizard will take whatever the TVH API provides.

Quote from chewitt

Making the inclusion of scan tables and the path to expect them under build-time --configurable would be a nice-to-have change so LE can drop the patch. I have a large to-do list, but I'll add that somewhere.

This is off-topic, but I have often thought that a command line option for the location of the config/data files would also be useful.

Quote from emveepee

Why would that be needed on LE especially if you are trying to simplify things?

I was referring to a change to TVH. The default location for TVH’s data files is something like ‘/home/<user>/config/.hts’ and for the LE addon, it is changed to something like ‘/storage/.kodi/addons/service.tvheadend42’.

Having a command line switch in the TVH executable to change the default data location would allow for easier configuration for LE as well as allowing for multiple configurations on a system while testing.

I have decided to name it a "PVR Quick Start" rather than a "Wizard" because I think that it will translate with a clearer meaning and a "Quick Start" is a more modest claim than a 'Wizard".

I’ve made most of the transition from my prototype stand-alone script to a Kodi-aware script addon.

The green items are complete and the red items are outstanding.

Once a red item is complete, it turns green and the next item is requested.

One thing that I noticed during my initial development and also with the Kodi addon is that when TVH scans for services, it does not always capture the LCN (logical channel number) on the first attempt. Sometimes it can take up to 3 attempts to successfully scan services with their LCNs.

The result that I get is that every service on a mux will be missing their LCNs. As tuning progresses, I check for the presence of LCNs on the scanned services and schedule a mux to be re-scanned if LCNs are not found for that mux. If a mux has no services, it is skipped for all future scans. I do this up to 3 times for each mux before abandoning the process.

I also time-limit this exercise. I take the number of muxes, multiply by 3 and then allow 15 seconds per mux. If this calculated time exceeds 2 minutes, then I cap the process at 2 minutes.

This works fine for my DVB-T system with 6 muxes (5 active) yielding 57 services. However, my previous experience with Topfield PVRs, suggests that DVB-C and DVB-S users may have many dozens of muxes providing hundreds, if not thousands of services.

Some questions for DVB-C and DVB-S users:

• Do you think that 15 seconds per mux is sufficient?
• How long does a standard TVH scan take if you were to use the existing TVH wizard?
• Do your broadcasters supply LCNs?
• Are LCNs important to you?
• Does anyone have multiple cable or satellite providers connected to their system.

petediscrete - Thanks for the feedback.

Based on your figures, you are averaging 26 seconds per mux. This is almost twice the time that I am allowing before taking my arbitrary limit into account. I definitely need to reconsider my approach!

I think that I will still calculate the maximum time that a scan can last for, but remove the cap. In addition to this, I will give the user the option to abort the scan and then either exit completely or just map the services that have already been discovered to channels.

For your particular setup, a scan could last for close to 2 hours with multiple passes to catch LCNs.

Whilst I am sure that the time that it takes the adapter hardware to retune for each mux may play a role in the duration of a scan, I also think that the frequency with which the provider broadcasts the DVB table that contains the service information also plays a big role.

I just with the "Generic - Australia" set of DVB-T muxes. This contains about 100 mux definitions and I was able to scan them all, including LCNs, in around 5 minutes. When I review my log file, I can see that the first scan of a mux did not always finds LCNs and that some muxes were scanned multiple times.

With respect to LCNs: Do you use them? Does your broadcaster supply them?

I may add an option “Extra scans for missing LCNs” and allows the user to set between 0 to 3 additional scans for muxes with services but no LCNs.

I hope that I am ready for the first public test of my addon so I am seeking volunteers who may be interested in testing this addon.

Be warned: This addon is intended to be run on a pristine, newly installed system so it will do some significant damage if run on a running system. Testers should be prepared to backup/restore their live system or use a test/development system instead.

Here are the steps that the addon takes:

• Check to see that Kodi addons ‘service.tvheadend42’ and ‘pvr.hts’ are installed and enabled. If they are not installed, install them automatically answering user prompts. If they are installed but not enabled, enable them (You never know!).
• If installation of the above addons fails, abort after presenting an error message to the user.
• Check if parental rating labels are supported. Suppress the option if not.
• Get the local IP address to display in the window sub-heading.
• Check that there are adapters connected. If not, notify user and loop until the user connects adapters or exits.
• Get the Kodi language and convert that into the closest TVH UI language.
• Get the LibreELEC host name.
• Automatically prompt the user to select a tuner type only showing the tuner types for the detected adapters.
• Depending on the tuner type selected, automatically prompt the user for the first location category. This could be country or satellite longitude, etc.
• Automatically prompt the user for the next location category. This could be geographical region, cable TV provider or satellite name.
• If this version of TVH supports the feature, automatically prompt the user to enable parental rating labels, otherwise, skip this step.
• Highlight the ‘Configure’ button.
• Ask if the user really wants to proceed.
• Perform configuration:
  • Set TVH UI language.
  • Set TVH server name.
  • Create a new TVH ‘Network’ of the appropriate type automatically associating the muxes from the selected location categories with that network.
  • Attached the new network to the adapters matching the selected adapter type.
  • Initiate a service scan time-limited according to the number of muxes.
  • Provide the user with a scan progress.
  • For successfully scanned services, rescan the source mux if no LCNs are present. Scanning a maximum of 3 scans.
  • If no services are found, display a message then exit.
  • If the user selected Australia as the country, set the OTA genre translations. If the TVH version does not support this feature, this request will be ignored by TVH.
  • If parental rating labels are supported and enabled by the user, enable the feature. Also search for pre-defined rating labels for the selected country and load those if found.
  • Automatically map every service to a channel.
  • Automatically create a channel tag for each mux that has services.
• Notify the user that the setup is complete.
• Change to the EPG grid view.

To install the addon, copy the zip file to your system and install it using the ‘Install from zip file’ option. You may be prompted to allow addons from unknown sources.

Once installed, you into Add-ons/My add-ons/Program add-ons, run ‘TVHeadEnd PVR Quick Start’ and follow the prompts.

Both English and German should work. I plan to add French, Spanish and Czech.

The addon is currently too large to attach here. I need to shrink some images. Instead, it can be downloaded from my GitHub repository: https://github.com/DeltaMikeCharl…pt.quicktvh.zip

Quote from chewitt

Just be advised that the moment there's upstream movement on a TVH 4.4 release we will be dropping the TVH 4.2 add-on (as 4.2 will no longer be the 'stable' TVH release). It would be better to develop against the 4.3 add-on.

Thanks, I have already planned for that. The addon names are held in an external python file that only sets a few default values and can be easily created/edited via a script and basic tools. This file could be easily created/updated by a build script as version numbers progress if the addon is one day shipped as part of LE.

The external file will also be useful if the addon is used as the basis for a NextPVR Quick Start guide.