How to install tvheadend with transcoding?

boria

Hello!

Short question. Is it possible to install tvheadend with transcoding on Openelec? I have compiled by own tvheadend with enabled transcoding on Armbian, so I got deb file, but how to install it on OpenElec? Is it possible to convert it to Kodi's zipped plugin, or somehow create own repository?

Thanks in advance for answers... ;)

jernej

By tvheadend you mean backend (server)? Deb files are not installable here as primary filesystem is read only. I'm not familiar with tvheadend, but you can use OpenELEC build system to produce a zip file. If I understand everything correctly, tvheadend is already in unofficial repository and thus easily buildable by build system (zip file). All you need to do is to add patch files in patches/ subfolder.

Can you confirm that tvheadend you have in mind is the same as is in unofficial repository (minus your changes)? Then I can give you more detailed instructions.

boria

Yes, I mean backend server. I use tvheadend backend server with two DVB-S tuners which is currently installed on PC. Tvheadend is attached to oscam proxy so I descramble also paied TV But I would like to have some SBC low power consumption server... I need transcoding as I would like to stream TV signal by internet - I want to watch TV at my second location where I dont have a possibility to install sattellite dish but I got small upload bandwith. Not compressed signal consumes almost all 100Mbit ethernet bandwidth I tried transcoding on Raspberry PI2 - its much too slow, Banana Pi M3 - no comments.... this board should ever been designed. And now Im trying to launch it on OPi. I think it might work as Your compilation of OpenElec is FUNTASTIC. TO be honest I havent seen faster KODI on SBC
So if decoding works OK with h.264 so why encode wouldnt work I tried to launch tvheadend backend server on Armbian and result is not satisfactory - but with my weak linux knowledge I think armbian does not support hardware decode-encode h.264 and OpenElec does... Thats why I want to use OpenElec...
Assuming. I have compiled tvheadend on armbian using this tutorial: https://tvheadend.org/boards/4/topics/13635 . Unfortunately I am not a guru in linux.... do You think it would be possible so You would build zip addon for Openelec?

jernej

I must disappoint you a bit. While HW encoding is definetly possible, there is no single library in OpenELEC which would do that. That means that you are limited to SW encoding. Did you check if existing tvheadend plugin in unofficial repository is enough for you?

jernej

I must disappoint you a bit. While HW encoding is definetly possible, there is no single library in OpenELEC which would do that. That means that you are limited to SW encoding. Did you check if existing tvheadend plugin in unofficial repository is enough for you?

lymon

I have also tried tvheadend + H264 transcoding on a OPI PC and results were disappointing, as you are left with SW encoding (as Jernej also points out) and the processing power of the OPI isn't all that great.
I personally use a Odroid C2 for this now, which is a lot faster and more suitable for tvheadend server + transcoding  (SW) H264 streams.
AFAIK the only boards that currently have/support (working) HW encoding are the RaspberryPi and Odroid U3, but all still a bit experimental and I never got tvheadend + (HW) transcoding working.

If you still want to give it a try on the OPI, you shouldn't use Openelec as a base, but better use a minimal headless server of some sort (eg. minimal debian Jessie) and build tvheadend from source with optimized parameters

NB: Not for the OPI, but for raspberryPi..you may also want to look into this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=123876der
It doesn't use tvheadend for transcoding, instead it uses mumudvb and HW encodes the raw TS-streams and you can then access the encoded stream via http

jernej

Someone already done h264 encoding here: https://github.com/rosimildo/videoenc Although I'm pretty sure I saw completely opensource implementation too. So there is a way, if someone wants it badly enough and knows how to integrate it.

boria

Nice! I'll try solution suggested by You guys ;) My wife won't be happy - another evening spent with cables I'll compile tvheadend and sources of videoenc on Jessie and post the results here. Anyway I would like people to became interested in tvheadend + transcoding as it gives great possibility of watching tv anywhere eg on mobile or tablet. It doesn't consume that much network bandwidth

boria

Lymon, I just bought C2, launched ubuntu minimal, compiled tvheadend with transcoding enabled but still no success got freezing and slow motion instead of fluent stream. Could You pls gibe some more details about Your configuration?

lymon

these are my stream profile settings. (tvheadend server > configuration > stream > stream profiles > webtv-h264-aac-matroska)



adjust to your liking and available bandwidth

Also very important: make sure the client uses this particular streaming profile !
For the newer kodi tvheadend clients you can set the streaming profile it needs to use in the addon settings. (enter the exact name of the profile as shown in the tvheadend server..eg. in this case: webtv-h264-aac-matroska)

check on the tvheadend server (status window/tab> subscriptions)  while streaming if the output kb/s is similar to the bitrate you have set in the streaming profile...if not, the client is not using the correct streaming profile.

Hope this helps