[dschmelzer]

I have periodic pauses on live TV in a clean install of OpenElec + RPi + TVHeadend (backend and front-end) with my HDhomerun. It is the worst with 1080i content (every 5 seconds or so), but also with 720p content (every 10 or 15 seconds). 480p content seems to escape the pauses.

Is this a known limitation of the RPi hardware? If not, what do you need for me to provide to do a proper analysis?

Thanks!

[wrxtasy]

Q1 - WiFi or Ethernet ?
Q2 - Overclocked with a proper 5V/2.0 Amp power supply ?
Q3 - XBMC or Kodi ?
Q4 - What deinterlaced settings do you have when video is playing ie. pull up the Video Settings menu ?
Q5 - 24p TV, and do you have Adjust display refresh rate to match video ON or OFF ?

[anon999]

I've been struggling with live-tv, tvheadend, RPi and hdhomerun for a while.
All I get is "no input received" [I do have the MPEG2 license].
I wonder if you could briefly describe how you set this up.
[I can go to videos->files> add the hdhomerun and view channels just fine, although HD channels are a bit choppy].
I get nothing from the live-tv path however. Do you have that working?.

[wrxtasy]

Yes all working using a TvHeadend backend running on Ubuntu feeding into the RPi over ethernet.

1. WiFi is not recommended for Live TV, you will get pausing and stuttering over the WiFi network with the RPi unless you get a dual band (MIMO) USB dongle. I use Ethernet for this reason.
2. I recommend overclocking.
3. XBMC > Settings > Add-Ons > All Add-Ons > PVR Clients > TvHeadend Client > Configure > IP address of HD Homerun or 127.0.0.1 if connected to the RPi locally
4. System > Settings > Live TV > Enable

If you Still have issues:

- You RPi power supply is inadequate. (Very likely)
- Your Router is playing up
- Check you TV reception is up to scratch and Channels are tuned properly on the HD Homerun.
- Faulty HD Homerun if all the above have been checked.

[stuCONNERS]

Check that you can play the channel via the web interface first. Do they playback choppy on there?

[dschmelzer]

wrxtasy: your post put me on to the solution. I was not overclocking even though I thought I was. Overclocking to Turbo brought the CPU down to ~80% on 1080i, even with Samba and SSH running. It is running smoothly.

With regard to deinterlacing, could you please describe in more detail how to find the control screen? I am running OpenElec Kodi 4.97.3.

[wrxtasy]

These will help too:

System > Settings > Appearance > Show RSS Feeds > off
System > Settings > System > Video Output > Vertical bank Sync > Always Enabled

Your CPU % is still to high, you should see in the Codec info screen when playing 1080i video:
dc:omx-mpeg2 that indicates hardware decoding of mpeg2 is taking place.

(mine shows CPU 29-35% on dc:omx-mpeg2 1080i)

Check:
1. Your mpeg2 licence code is correct as it looks like software mpeg2 decoding (ffmpeg) is taking place ?
2. XBMC > System > Settings > Video > Acceleration:
Decoding method > Hardware accelerated
OMXPlayer > enable
MMAL > enable

For Deinterlacing settings:

When Live Tv is playing, hit Enter or Ok on the remote to bring up the player OSD.
Go to the video Icon (looks like a movie reel):
Deinterlace video > Auto
Deinterlace method > MMAL Advanced or MMAL Bob (i prefer Bob as Advanced produces tiny jaggies)
Then Set as Default for all Videos, to save settings.

http://kodi.wiki/view/Raspberry_Pi#Maxim...erformance

[dschmelzer]

Could the high CPU% be because I have not forced Turbo?

*RSS Feeds are off
*Vertical blank sync is always enabled
*dc:omx-mpeg2 is being used -- appears not to be software decoding
*OMXPlayer acceleration is enabled
*MMAL is enabled
*Deinterlace is Auto, MMAL Advanced (if jaggies or combing happens, it is not objectionable on my 42" screen -- the detail is more appreciated for my use case)

[wrxtasy]

You likely have high bitrate mpeg2 content playing I think.
Pull up the codec info via the (o) key or button and see what your Mb/s bitrate is ?

Also try increasing your gpu_mem=224 in config.txt if you have a 512MB RPi.
And yes I run forced Turbo=1 and the temp never gets above 68 degrees C (max 85).

[kinison]

I have HDhomerun Prime working fine on two Raspberry Pi's running OpenELEC (XBMC 13).

You will need ....

1) Overclock the Pi, Ram, GPU, CPU, all of it. I pushed mind to extremes using a case with built in fan and copper heatsinks.

2) Will need a 2 Amp power supply in order to handle the overclocking of the Pi, otherwise it will become unstable.

3) A very fast storage card, the Sandisk Extreme, which is 95 MB/s is just enough to handle the high bitrates of MPEG2 @ 1080i.

4) Hardwired connection and make sure its connected to a switch and not directly to the router. Buy a switch if you dont have one, I found it odd how many problems I encountered having it directly wired to my router. Moving it to the switch made things much easier.

[wrxtasy]

I forgot to mention as well, if your Overclocking definitely make sure you have a nice thick - quality, usb power cable.
The cheap thin ebay etc. ones are just not up to spec and cause many problems for RPi owners.

Point 3) above, on my RPi B+ (512MB) I just use a cheap Sandisk (2014) no class branded microSDHC card for high bitrate mpeg2 (16 Mb/s) video and do not have any issues.
I don't believe any data is even written to the SD card for just streaming mpeg2 video.
All buffering is done in RAM.
However a 256MB RPi may need the Extreme card, especially if you are using a high textured - heavy skin.

This is my RPi B+ stable overclock in an enclosed case, no heatsinks (68 degrees Max seen):

gpu_mem=224
arm_freq=1100
core_freq=550
sdram_freq=600
over_voltage=6
over_voltage_sdram=4
hdmi_ignore_cec_init=1
force_turbo=1