XBOX One DVB Tuner and LibreElec 8.1.1 ?

  • Hi all,

    Sorry - posted this elsewhere on the forum but this section is probably more appropriate.

    New poster here. I've been using Libreelec for some time now after migrating from OpenElec. It's a great tool and much appreciated in this household!


    I've just ordered one of these XBOX One tuners to play around with after seeing that the 8.1.1 beta release of Libreelec "supports" it.

    I'm running Libreelec on an old HP 8200 Elite SFF PC which doesn't have USB3.0 but I'm presuming the tuner dongle works with USB2.0 since I've seen people saying it works with the Pi2.

    Is there anything specific that I need to do to get this to work with Libreelec? Or should it be recognised automatically?


    Thanks in advance,

    Jerzy

  • Hi,

    Thanks for the response. When you say it should "just work", does that mean that I don't need to install any addons to get TV? I'll just be able to go to the TV menu in Estutary and there will be some mechanism of tuning it/watching channels?

    Otherwise, if I do need to installl add ons (particularly PVR for recording from it), what are the best/most compatible options, please?

    Thanks,

    Jerzy

  • USB2 vs USB3 shouldn't be an issue.

    Welcome to Linux DVB where this is an issue :) Not for every device ofc (didn't test if it works with that stick).

    does that mean that I don't need to install any addons to get TV?

    You need Tvheadend or VDR installed (that are tv server for scanning channels, epg and stuff) - addons avaible in repo, after you configured your channels etc there you need the Kodi addon to connect to this server (pvr.hts for Tvh and pvr.vnsi for VDR).

  • I'm using one in a Pi3, with TVHeadend server and client both on the Pi, seems to be quite stable from my limited use so far.
    The Pi only has USB 2 ports, and I'm pretty sure it's only a USB 2 device.

  • Hi all,

    Thanks for the info again.

    An update....

    Tuner arrived today so unpackaged and plugged into the PC with LibreElec 8.1.1 running.

    Installed VDR first (server and client) . Set for DVB-T , UK etc and scan started. Only found 11 services and VDR kept losing connection to the server at particular frequencies...as though something was crashing. Not good.

    Went to TV menu and 11 services listed. Selected each one in turn and no TV...except one. Which gave me some hope.

    Tried a few re-scans using VDR but same thing happened repeatedly.

    So, switched to TVheadend. Installed server and client. Wondered why it didn't have a config utility like VDR then read the documentation (!) and found the web interface.

    Disabled VDR at this point.

    Followed the wizard...all good. Set up an admin and user account. Set network mask to x.x.x.0/24 etc. Set source to The Wrekin (which I thought was my TX) and few services found, none working. Switched to Sutton Coldfield TX and lots of services found although one or two I hoped to see (Freesports, for example) not present.

    So, all good! Sort of!

    From the web interface, on my laptop, I could select and watch programmes which is great. However, in Kodi (LibreElec) - in the TV menu - I only see the 11 or so channels that appear to have been "left behind" by VDR.

    Uninstalled VDR at this point in the hope that it would sort out the TV menu channel listing but still the same.

    Any advice on how to get the channels "from tvheadend" visible in the Kodi menu?

    Thanks in advance,

    Jerzy

    PS is there one revision of this tuner? Mine is a model 1611 with a lot no/date 1415. Sounds old if 14 or 15 is the year?

    Edited once, last by JerzyBulovski (September 7, 2017 at 11:51 PM).

  • You will need to install and configure the pvr.hts addon in kodi so that I can connect to your TVHeadend installation.

    To clear out the old VDR stuff from the kodi database go into Settings > PVR & Live TV Settings > General > Clean Data.

  • I use the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, and I found that the mux list is wrong. Full list here: Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitter | UK Free TV 📺

    I did a bit of digging and found that the muxes are hard-coded, so the simplest thing is to correct it manually. I'm getting 140 channels.

    Freesports is on Com8: DVB-T2, 586000000, 8MHz, QAM/256, 32K, 1/128, NONE, 2/3, NONE, 0.

    You might find this useful to see if you're using the best transmitter: Full service Freeview transmitters | UK Free TV 📺
    Sutton and The Wrekin appear to have a massive overlap, but Sutton is a much more powerful transmitter (200kW vs 20kW).

    With the old channel list, try: Settings->PVR & Live TV settings->General->Clear data

    It should re-import after you do that.

    Mine is the same model and lot numbers. The tuner was released in 2014 and cost a fair bit more than it does now. Maybe the low price is because they weren't selling and there's a lot of old stock to get rid of? Doesn't matter if it does the job.

  • Hi,

    Thanks for the info.

    For the PVR.hts file, is this expected to be in the add on repository somewhere as I can't find it under any add on section menus. Or, do I have to get it from github or similar?

    With respect to the transmitter mux, how do I modify this in tvheadend to get all of the services from Sutton Coldfield? (Or The Wrekin)

    Thanks in advance,

    Jerzy

  • I've got that installed then. I'll check that filename is in the filesystem later but that htsp client is definitely installed.

    If it's the one with 3 or 4 menus, then when I set it with the required password, it says it fails to connect or similar. IP is 127.0.0.1 from memory and I can connect to the server from my laptop with the same credentials. Is something likely to block a local loopback?

  • To tune Tvheadend into extra muxes:

    Open the web interface and sign in with an admin ID.

    Navigate to Configuration->DVB Inputs->Muxes

    Here you should see a list of the ones it's detected.

    One of the defaults (514MHz) will probably have "Fail" in the Scan detect column as this is wrong. Just ignore it or Edit and disable it, it'll just come back if you delete it.
    Use the link I posted earlier to see which one(s) are missing. Click Add, fill in the details, and then save.
    Sutton has 9 muxes, I can't remember which are missing, but you should end up with 10 listed (because of the erroneous one).

    I have 5 at DVB-T/QAM64, 1 at DVB-T/QPSK, 3 at DVB-T2/QAM256.

    It's possible that you won't pick up mux 9 (714MHz) as that's supposed to be local to Brum and at much lower power, it only carries 5 channels anyway. I'm less than 5 miles from the transmitter so they're all perfect reception for me.

    Once you've done that, go to the Network tab, select the network, then click Force Scan. Wait a few minutes and you should get the extra channels added.

    Hopefully that's enough info to get you going, post back if anything isn't clear.

  • Thanks, Garyb - I've now added the missing MUX via your information which was perfect! I've only tuned to Sutton Coldfield (binned the Wrekin) and everything looks good, inc having Freesports. Channels are showing in Kodi TV menu and can set recordings up etc.

    I suppose my next question is whether I can add another Xbox tuner to get multiple channel recording? i.e. WIll they get enumerated automatically? I was thinking of buying a Vu+ or Dreambox with 2x terrestial tuners to replace an ageing SD Topfield and I don't think that I'll be able to fully replicate those PVRs with Kodi but I'd like at least to see how close I can get especially for how much these tuners cost.

    Thanks for help, everyone.

  • You can have multiple tuners attached to the same box, Tvheadend will automatically decide which tuner to use and it's seamless within Kodi.

    What doesn't work very well is having tuners in two different boxes. Kodi will let you add two PVR front ends, but it doesn't merge the channels, they all get listed twice with the same name. It ends up a bit of a mess. I've been trying to find something that will let me merge backends, and present a single PVR to Kodi, haven't found anything yet.