# Tvheadend



## balanga (Jul 1, 2018)

After months of struggling to get access to my PCTV DVB-S2 usb satellite dongle I managed to do it today, thanks to Phishfry.
Now to try and get TV working around the house via a FreeBSD satellite receiver.

For anyone attempting to do this the preliminary steps required before getting Tvheadend working are to install and run webcamd and then ensure it is working by checking the output from w_scan. Once w_scan is able to access your receiver you can start running Tvheadend. The first time it runs, it will configure the system and search for channels (muxes and services, in Tvheadend-speak) on your chosen network(s).

When started by running `tvheadend` you will be presented with a userid/password prompt. Not sure how these are set on FreeBSD, but to get round this you can run `tvheadend --noacl`  which bypasses authentication.

The initial configuration consists of selecting default language, network type, and (if using DVB-S) pre-defined muxes from a list of satellites.

These lists are in /usr/local/share/dtv-scan-tables - not sure what installs this, but the problems I've been encountering may be due to outdated tables.... Tvheadend uses its own scan tables - not sure of the purpose of this.

On first scan a number of muxes and services are identified, but in my experience never the same number and never as many as my dedicated decoder finds. This scan seems to take forever and can end up with around 1700 services, but unfortunately for me most of the services I want to watch do not appear.  Maybe there are some options available when doing an initial scan.

https://www.lyngsat.com/Eutelsat-Hot-Bird-13B-13C-13E.html appears to provide a definitive list of muxes on Hotbird (E13.0), but this differs slightly from the table provided by Tvheadend.

One annoying problem I have is that I can't figure out how to start from scratch....If I `pkg delete tvheaded` and remove the ~/hts directory and its contents, then reinstall, the option of creating a DVB-S Network does not appear, some tvheadend-related info must be retained somewhere but can't figure out where...

Will have to leave things there and do some more testing.

If anyone has any advice on any of the points I've made I'd be very interested to hear it.


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## Phishfry (Jul 1, 2018)

balanga said:


> but in my experience never the same number and never as many as my dedicated decoder finds


I use terrestrial OTA and it is always the same, give or take one station.
You asked about importing channel lists and it appears that you would do that under under 'Services' tab.
I have never had to use it.


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## balanga (Jul 1, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> I use terrestrial OTA



You should get a Satellite dish installed and then spend your time deciding which channel out of 2000 to watch ....

I still can't get my head around how a 60cm circular piece of metal can pick up signals over the air from a transmitter 100's of miles away...


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## Phishfry (Jul 1, 2018)

I had several back in the sat days with TwinHann cards. The emmunation hacks got shut down around 2012 and I recently threw them out. Just plain old legal OTA now a days. Who could live without 7 HBO's??? What a joke them overpriced subscriptions are.
Bundled for complete idiots.
I still can't believe my internet isn't taxed yet....Bundle and they getcha with all those fees.
Oh yea and the introductory cost too that jumps after the first year. Like a bunch of used car salesmen.


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## balanga (Jul 1, 2018)

No idea what TwinHann cards are but I bought a lifetime subscription for $25 last year to all the channels my decoder could find


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## Phishfry (Jul 1, 2018)

Just a basic PCI Sat card:
https://www.amazon.com/Dvb-s-Twinhan-1020a-Visionplus-Satellite/dp/B001KZAL2G


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