Tvheadend add-on on raspberry pi - not working
#1
There have been a few posts in different forums on problems with the raspberry pi and tvheadend.

When trying to watch TV using the tvheadend add-on there are a few problems making the raspberry pi useless as a LiveTV device.
1. When watching a channel it will display in an incorrect aspect ratio (shrinked to 4:3?)
2. When switching channels it will most likely only display a black screen (when you stop live-tv you will get one frame of the feed).
3. If you have switched channel once it's very hard to get picture again (every channel will be black when switched to).

These problems only occur with LiveTV - if you record a channel and replay the channel (either in the add-on or using SMB and play it like a video) it will work fine.

In several other forums I have seen that this problem is only available with the TvHeadend add-on. Other addons (Myth, VDR) does not seem to suffer from this problem.

I would be really grateful if somebody could look into this issue and try to get it fixed - right now the raspberry is just a paperweight for me...
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#2
Long discussion here:
https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv/...t-10692248
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#3
Thanks for pointing to that discussion. The black screen problem seems to be solved on the latest nightly of raspbmc, but there is still a problem with aspect ration. A workaround that I have working is to go to Settings/Video/Playback and set "Display 4:3 videos as" "Stretch 16:9".

Hoping that will be fixed also.
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#4
I tried Raspbmc RC2 and the black screen seems to be fixed for SD (MPEG2) channels only. HD channels still appear as a black screen for me. I can also confirm the aspect ratio issue.

For reference, the Tvheadend add-on version in RC2 is 1.6.6. OpenELEC is on 1.6.4 last time I checked.
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#5
Just tested the latest RC1 release of openelec 3 and the problem is still there. The tvheadend addon is 1.6.10 in the latest openelec.

Either this is a very unique problem only effecting a few of us or there are not that many users of raspberry pi that use LiveTV? This problem is a true showstopper for the raspberry pi as a cheap xbmc livetv frontend with tvheadend and that is a real shame.

Since it works to play recordings using Videos and also works to play livetv using an rtsp://tvheadend-server-ip/ the problem seems to be in how the tvheadend addon passes the videostream to the player. If there is somebody working on this problem I would be happy to provide testing/logfiles/etc.
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#6
I can confirm the issue with wrong aspect ratio when using openelec 3 RC1 with tvheadend on raspberry pi!
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#7
Would love to see this solved. Tried today with OpenELEC-RPi.arm-devel-20130104215936-r12815 and HTS Tvheadend 3.3.208~gd23f60b, sometimes SD/MPEG2 channels are working (with incorrect aspect ratio as described above). No joy with any of the HD/H.264 channels that I've tried, only black screen. I could provide log files, access to RPi, etc. if needed.
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#8
There is another thread in the raspberry pi area dealing with the same issue
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=148646&page=3
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#9
I have same black screen issues with HD mpeg4 tv channels. My SD mpeg4 channels are fine. Raspbmc RC2, tvheadend 1.6.6; HD channels play fine on windows laptop.
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#10
I think it has something to do with the PVR/LiveTV functionality.
If you add htsp://tvheadendsrv.lan:9982 all channels will work fine (after a lengthy buffering period).

The only difference I can make out is that while adding tvheadend manually not as LiveTV, each channel buffers for about 7-15 seconds before starting (it doesn't do that on regular LiveTV).
Image
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#11
This is a known issue with the xbmc media player code on rpi (the HW APIs changed a while back and broke things I think). I believe that it is being investigated by the necessary parties.

Adam
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#12
Thanks for the info Adam - looking forward to getting it resolved.
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#13
(2013-01-05, 00:30)rebelyell Wrote: Would love to see this solved. Tried today with OpenELEC-RPi.arm-devel-20130104215936-r12815 and HTS Tvheadend 3.3.208~gd23f60b, sometimes SD/MPEG2 channels are working (with incorrect aspect ratio as described above). No joy with any of the HD/H.264 channels that I've tried, only black screen. I could provide log files, access to RPi, etc. if needed.

I have the same config and exactly the same issues.
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#14
Same issue for me, bacl screen use DVB-T.
same time that work fine.
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#15
I am still experiencing this. Black screen on channel change and cropped display.

@Adam: Who is investigating? is there a bug to follow? Any idea of timeline?
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