TVHeadEnd BDA Drivers?

Help with tuners from ATI, Hauppauge, AverMedia and more.
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Minxster

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TVHeadEnd BDA Drivers?

#1

Post by Minxster » Sun Jan 14, 2018 4:56 pm

I've got a couple of HDHomeRun units, but I'm testing Plex DVR which is causing WMC to clash on occasion. That said, I've got TVHeadEnd up and running and have Plex DVR talking to it with no (very little) issue. I don't want to stop using WMC as my main DVR, but Plex is great for remote viewing/streaming to devices when away from home.

What I'm trying to find out is if there is a way to get WMC to use TVHeadEnd as the tuner source? A BDA compatible driver maybe? I've seen people in the past talking about it and also seen a few people asking to get TVHeadEnd to emulate HDHomeRun protocols; I've even seen a full HDHomeRun emulator but there are issues with channel mappings.

I can't be the only one trying to do something similar? :D :lol: :shock:

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Crash2009

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#2

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 9:44 am

DVBLink Server V 6.0 might make the connection for you. Tvheadend might be seen by wmc as a virtual tuner.

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#3

Post by jachin99 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:37 pm

Crash, what would be the difference between how wmc treats a virtual tuner vs how it treats a real one? In other words, what difference does it make?

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#4

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 3:38 pm

Dvblink might do a better job of installing TV head-end into the OS

Server BDA might do the job too

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#5

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:45 pm

Is there some reason why you guys want to do this the hard way

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#6

Post by Minxster » Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:39 pm

I'm not sure I'm picking the hard way, though it's not lost on me the limitations of WMC/BDA. I'm looking to reduce the number of moving parts, so I'd rather not have to add another layer of software or extra server.

Currently I have plex talking to TVHeadend with no issue, but WMC is only talking directly to my HD HomeRun Connect box. This works fine until there is a recording conflict. Having TVHeadEnd as the "main controller" for my tuners should mean a better balance for multiplexing as well as giving WMC a simple "in-use" error message.

DVBLink I've never used and I don't know if it's compatible with Plex, but can you clarify what you mean by Server BDA?

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#7

Post by Crash2009 » Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:47 pm

Minxster wrote: what you mean by Server BDA?
Is your Google not working?

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#8

Post by Minxster » Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:02 pm

Just to add, I also know I'm asking a lot here ;) ... TVHeadEnd really has not set the world a light for WMC, but DVBLink has filled the void for IP based tuners :) . So I 100% understand I'm probably asking too much if people have not tried to use TVHeadEnd instead of DBVLink :(

I just thought other people may be in a similar position? Trying out new PVR systems but wanting to ensure tuners behave when in use by another package?

To try and get around the BDA driver issue on WMC, I did start looking at HDHRProxyIPTV (by dsaupf) on GitHub. WMC should have no problems using this emulator but I got lost quickly on how to configure it, let alone getting it to talk to TVHeadEnd.

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#9

Post by Minxster » Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:04 pm

Crash2009 wrote:
Minxster wrote: what you mean by Server BDA?
Is your Google not working?
Yeh, Google is working thankfully, so the world has not ended. But I didn't think you meant looking at instructions on how to install BDA drivers on Windows Server?

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#10

Post by Crash2009 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 1:34 pm

Minxster wrote: Plex is great for remote viewing/streaming to devices when away from home.
Here is what I am talking about when I said...(why you guys doing this the hard way) WMC/WMC Server and Emby all ready provide a seamless working solution. Streaming (Live or RecordedTV, Music, etc. ) to LAN or WAN without tuner sharing problems.
Minxster wrote:What I'm trying to find out is if there is a way to get WMC to use TVHeadEnd as the tuner source?
If.....you decided to try DVBLink Server, leave the tuners assigned/installed to Plex/TVHE. Do a Factory Reset on WMC. Install DVBLink and see if it recognizes the tuners (through your Plex/TVHE combo). If so, run the DVBLink add in from WMC Extra's and setup your "(Virtual Tuners... Plex/TVHE combo)" LiveTV/Guide must be working in DVBLink prior to importing into WMC.

I am leaning toward the first suggestion as being your best alternative.

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#11

Post by Minxster » Fri Feb 09, 2018 2:26 pm

Thanks for your response Crash, and for your time!

I've spent a lot of time with FreeNAS, virtualisation and Plex Server, so I'm in with Plex for the long haul. I'm not a Linux guy by any means, but the latest TVHeadEnd is really showing promise, OTA EPG and Multiplexing. However its a new install and I'm not reliant on it, so maybe I should re-think TVHeadEnd if DVBLink can fill the gap better.

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#12

Post by Crash2009 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 6:09 pm

I miss understood what you were asking when I threw Server BDA out there. Server BDA is used to copy the BDA files from a Television Enabled O/S, then the files are injected into an O/S that is unable to play Television. Server 2012 was just used as an example. Server BDA can also be used to remove and replace specific TV files if you can ever figure out which ones need replacing, if any.

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#13

Post by Minxster » Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:33 pm

It's all good here Crash :thumbup: ;)

On as side note, I've been testing with Windows 2016 Server VMs to see what Docker and Linux-on-Windows can bring, just to see if it's feasible to decrease the number of servers I'm running. That's where TVHeadEnd came ;)

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#14

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:55 pm

Minxster wrote: I've been testing with Windows 2016 Server VMs
have you considered this?

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/thread ... tp4.65614/

BTW, you have to be a member and logged in to see links to software.

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#15

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:04 am

I realize it's a 5-year thread, but since it's one of the very first results you get when Googling for "Windows Media Center + Tvheadend", I guess it's not totally unreasonable :mrgreen:

FWIW, I was able to make the "WMC + Tvheadend + an HDHomeRun emulator" combo work and blogged about it here: https://kevinchalet.com/2023/07/05/conn ... o-dvblink/.

TL;DR: there's a bit of work to set up everything, but the result is incredible and much more robust than DVBLink (all my HTPCs now use Tvheadend instead of using a local DVB-T tuner).

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#16

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:15 am

Minxster wrote: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:33 pm It's all good here Crash :thumbup: ;)

On as side note, I've been testing with Windows 2016 Server VMs to see what Docker and Linux-on-Windows can bring, just to see if it's feasible to decrease the number of servers I'm running. That's where TVHeadEnd came ;)
For the record, Windows Server 2019 and 2022 make fantastic WMC recording machines as they come with BDA already fully functional (no need for ServerBDA).

The only missing piece is the MPEG2 audio decoder (amusingly, the MPEG2 video decoder is already present).
You can easily copy it from a Windows client machine: it's named msmpeg2adec.dll and located in System32. Once imported, you can register it using "regsvr32.exe C:\Windows\System32\msmpeg2adec.dll".

It's fun to see that while WMC has been killed by MSFT a while ago, using it on Windows Server has never been so easy :roll:

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#17

Post by Minxster » Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:45 am

Pinpoint wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:04 am I realize it's a 5-year thread
@Pinpoint 🙀

I saw a couple of email alerts come into my Inbox and wondered what was going on here 🤣... This thread is like a little time machine and I had to re-read the whole thread to figure out what I was trying to do.

Long story short: I abandoned WMC altogether, and don't (currently) use TVHeadend. As I ran Plex with a Windows Server version of WMC, I just found I had too many separate working parts making things overly complicated, including needing a dedicated HTPC. I often look at my WMC remote control (I still have it 😊) and think "I do miss how simple and easy this was once" 🤣

I'd be interested to know if it were possible to installed HDhomerun software on a WMC, then when it asks for the IP of the device, will it work with an emulator/proxy? E.g. https://github.com/jfarseneau/antennas. I'm in no position to test or find-out, but it may help someone? Also, I note that the article you sharded was doing the same thing, but with a lot more manually config file re-writing...

Anywho, nice to read all of this again and I hope you get (and keep) things working for your own setup 👍🙂


TL;DR

TBH, I ended up ditching WMC altogether (which is a shame if I'm being honest) and have stayed with Plex. I do have a backup Jellyfin server running and I'm actually using both Plex and Jellyfin to record TV/DVR... Jellyfin is using OTA EPG where as Plex is using it's own in-built EPG. Jellyfin is my backup media server + backup DVR, in that it's set to record the same shows as Plex since Plex keeps messing up and missing things (because they keep having EPG issues) 😢🤕. HDHomerun still doesn't do anything like multiplexing natively so when when a show is being record twice it's using two out of the four tuners.

Strangely enough, I was looking at TVHeadend for Plex and Jellyfin recently, as I'd still like to have multiplexing working (allow multiple recordings from a single tuner when possible, so I have spare tuner capacity). But most of the old "emulate hdhomerun" pages are no longer being maintained (or are just old). But I did find this, that could be interesting:
https://github.com/jfarseneau/antennas

I did read the article you linked but they're still using this old (probably no longer maintained???) repo https://github.com/dsaupf/HDHRProxyIPTV ... er/Release . Depending on people's setup, the Antennas docker image might be of use? Then again, if you're running WMC, you'd want a Windows version of a proxy/emulator 🤷‍♂️😉

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#18

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Aug 10, 2023 1:45 pm

Minxster wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:45 am Strangely enough, I was looking at TVHeadend for Plex and Jellyfin recently, as I'd still like to have multiplexing working (allow multiple recordings from a single tuner when possible, so I have spare tuner capacity). But most of the old "emulate hdhomerun" pages are no longer being maintained (or are just old). But I did find this, that could be interesting:
https://github.com/jfarseneau/antennas

I did read the article you linked but they're still using this old (probably no longer maintained???) repo https://github.com/dsaupf/HDHRProxyIPTV ... er/Release . Depending on people's setup, the Antennas docker image might be of use? Then again, if you're running WMC, you'd want a Windows version of a proxy/emulator 🤷‍♂️😉
Amusingly, Antennas is actually the first HDHR emulator I've tried during my experiments (more info here, if you're interested: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/thread ... st-1784767). Unfortunately, it didn't work because it only emulates a very limited set of HTTP APIs and the HDHomeRun setup utility/BDA drivers rely on a UDP-based API that Antennas doesn't implement. That said, it's very possible/likely it may work with non-BDA-based software like Plex :mrgreen:

Regarding HDHRProxyIPTV, it's indeed no longer maintained but it's really rock-solid: I've been using this setup for a few months now and I haven't encountered a single bug on any of my machines :clap:
And since it's open-source, nothing prevents making any change you want/need and compiling your own version.

It's interesting to note that the wiki mentions the possibility of running HDHRProxyIPTV on Linux via WINE: https://github.com/dsaupf/HDHRProxyIPTV ... n-on-Linux. Maybe that would be worth giving it a try? ;)
Minxster wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:45 am I'd be interested to know if it were possible to installed HDhomerun software on a WMC, then when it asks for the IP of the device, will it work with an emulator/proxy?
The HDHomeRun setup utility relies on broadcast-based SSDP discovery so it doesn't ask for any IP address (consumer-grade HDHomeRun hardware doesn't allow configuring a static IP address, so it would be pointless anyway).
I personally opted for installing the HDHRProxyIPTV emulator on each WMC machine (so each machine gets its own fake HDHR), but it also works flawlessly if you install it on a server machine and share it with multiple WMC machines.

I can confirm the scenario you mentioned (i.e sharing the same physical tuner for recording multiple channels from the same multiplex) works fine with this setup :mrgreen:

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#19

Post by Minxster » Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:58 pm

Really nice to know you've had a deep dive into all of this, and that you've got a working setup. Especially for WMC 👍😉 Which is what this forum is all about 🥰

It's interesting for me to re-learn what I've forgotten, from your post, UDP requirements, not all emulators work with all the API calls, etc 👍 I did realise about HDhomerun and lack static IPs, but I run my own DHCP server, so I have no worries on that score as it's a mapped MAC/IP 😁 For the life of me, I've no idea why Plex didn't look to add in native support for TVheadend. Though I do a plugin for Jellyfin 🤷‍♂️

I think HDHRProxyIPTV was my last stumbling block, way back when, as I knew I wanted to shift over to Ubuntu + Docker. So my setup now is Plex and Jellyfin running on a Ubuntu VM, but everything else I'm working with is in another VM running Ubuntu, with Docker. Including a backup Plex instance. I did check that my Plex container can be migrated over to my main VM so I can use hardware passthrough for transcoding. Overall it's more about redundancy for the next time Plex falls over (like it did at the start of the year when transcoding stopped working)... Anywho, enough about Plex 🤣😉

In todays, Googlein' around it fed me back to this post 🤣🤣🤣 So it's still a topic people must be looking up 🙀... It's also really good to see you posting back in the forum as it'll help people work out what's best to get TVheadend and WMC working 🤝 It was also nice to wonder of the forum and see things are still going strong, and with a W11 compatible installation MSI. I don't think it's enough to drag me back over to WMC, but I love the fact it's still rockin' and rollin' 😊

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#20

Post by Kevin Chalet » Thu Aug 10, 2023 5:53 pm

Minxster wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:58 pm I think HDHRProxyIPTV was my last stumbling block, way back when, as I knew I wanted to shift over to Ubuntu + Docker. So my setup now is Plex and Jellyfin running on a Ubuntu VM, but everything else I'm working with is in another VM running Ubuntu, with Docker. Including a backup Plex instance. I did check that my Plex container can be migrated over to my main VM so I can use hardware passthrough for transcoding. Overall it's more about redundancy for the next time Plex falls over (like it did at the start of the year when transcoding stopped working)... Anywho, enough about Plex 🤣😉
I tried Plex (alongside a few other options like XMBC/Kodi or SichboPVR) when I evaluated my potential options a few years ago (like many people, I guess :lol:), but while it had many interesting features, I didn't feel it was the right DVR/PVR for me. Most notably, the fact it didn't embed the program details in its recorded TV files was a complete no go for me: I don't want to depend on a remote service or an entry in a database to get basic things like the program/series name or the description (with .wtv containers, all these things are taken from the EPG guide and stored as metadata attributes) :mrgreen:
Minxster wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2023 4:58 pm In todays, Googlein' around it fed me back to this post 🤣🤣🤣 So it's still a topic people must be looking up 🙀... It's also really good to see you posting back in the forum as it'll help people work out what's best to get TVheadend and WMC working 🤝 It was also nice to wonder of the forum and see things are still going strong, and with a W11 compatible installation MSI. I don't think it's enough to drag me back over to WMC, but I love the fact it's still rockin' and rollin' 😊
Yeah, that's exactly why I decided to revive this 5-year old thread: I hope it will be useful to someone else (even if I guess many people moved to different DVR/PVR solutions).

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