German DVBT-2 support / HEVC / H265

Channels Apple TV
#1

First of all, thank you very much for your exceedingly nice app, which I enjoy very much.

Here’s my problem - and I’m sorry that it requires such a long-winded explanation. DVB-T2 is currently only in the testing stages where I live, i.e. Germany. Since Germany is a late adopter, the broadcasters have decided to use the HEVC/H265 codec for DVB-T2 broadcast. All DVB-T1 broadcasting will cease in March 2017; afterwards, only boxes and TVs that are capable of decoding HEVC will be able to display OTA broadcasts.

My HD HOMERUN Connect is currently capable of picking up two DVB-T2 channels and relay them to my Apple TV 4 running channels. But since the broadcast is in HEVC, the picture is choppy and extremely laggy. I realise that the Apple TV 4 does not support HEVC natively; still, I have to ask: is there any way to include decent software HEVC decoding in Channels? If not, I’m afraid your superlative app will become useless to me in March 2017.

Thank you very much for your response - here’s hoping that this is of interest to other Channel users residing in Germany.

#2

Please send us a video sample from the HEVC channel and we will see what’s possible.

Capture a short sample video from http://HDHOMERUN:5004/auto/vCHANNEL?duration=30 and send it to [email protected].

For example, if your hdhomerun’s ip is 10.0.1.1 and the channel number having issues is 12, visit this URL in chrome: http://10.0.1.1:5004/auto/v12?duration=301

#3

Will do as quickly as possible! Thanks for the swift response!

#4

Please do send us a sample, as there a few things we can try to improve decoding performance on the ATV4 hardware.

#5

Hi,

Would you mind sharing your discover.json of the HDHR device? I am trying to get channels to work with tvhProxy for Plex, and appearantly there does seem to be missing very much.

Krgds,
Alex

#6

I just sent an email with a link to two samples. Sorry it took me so long!

#7

@Alex: I’ll gladly help if you let me know how I would go about doing this. I honestly don’t know what the discover.json is…

#8

@snow66 mentioned on another thread that Infuse Pro can play HEVC without issue. If that’s the case we should be able to do the same. Maybe someone with an Infuse setup can try your video sample to see if it plays.

#9

I’d be happy to test the HEVC file with Infuse Pro. Let me know where the file is and I will check it out on the ATV4 and various iOS devices to get a sense of performance across Apple CPUs. I primarily use Infuse on the ATVs but I occasionally use it on iOS devices as well.

#10

Very tardy reply again, sorry. I tried Infuse Pro myself - I’m afraid it’s fairly choppy and in some instances doesn’t play the video at all. Let me know if I can provide any details.

#11

I’ll post the samples in a bit so that you can try them yourself. Thank you!

#12

tvOS 11 includes support for HEVC decoding, and we should be able to add support for it with a little bit of work. Are you still interested in trying Channels on your Apple TV?

#13

The latest beta of Channels now supports HEVC decoding in hardware and can playback german DVB-T2 channels.

#14

HEVC support is now available in v2.1.40 via the App Store

#15

Do you mind me asking, did you ever get tvhProxy working with Channels? Any pointers are appreciated!