Sat>IP support

Channels DVR Server Feature Requests
#305

Thanks.

I think the problem is going to be, that even if some software / script can essentially copy from kingofsat and put that into the standard SATIP format, there will still be the need for some manual input. The IP address for example, the type of stream, whether diseqc is being used, options for audio feeds, subtitles...etc. Then you get into the problem of tagging channels by identifiers / names, assigning / obtaining logos etc. It all gets very complicated.

I was also working on a way to not just generate an accurate up to date M3U / channel list, but also try and tag the channels so they would auto map EPG listings like HDHomerun does in Channels DVR... I found out how to do it, but then realised that different EPG sources use different methods to auto map channels... And so more variables / problems.

I just don't have the spare time to look into all the above, and I don't have any programming experience and not up for trying to learn programming code etc... I simply want an easy way to get that ini file from kingofsat put it into a channel list that I can use in Channels DVR, and the ability to automate the process so that the list is auto updated and auto refreshed - Basically runs trouble free once initially setup.

#306

That SATIP website... Don't use those channel lists anything more than an example to see what the format should be... I don't think they have been updated for years.

#307

Yeah I don't have any programming experience but if you need any help with anything else would be happy to!

#308

Spot on Alex, I appreciate that.

On another note, I should be getting satellite TV re connected in the next week or so (I'm having to replace some 40 metres of network cabling). Once this is done, I should be able to generate a full, up to date M3U list, which I can share here for people to use.

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#309

Sounds like a fun refurbishment. Do share pictures, I do like seeing people's installs :smile:

#310

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The first picture is a 19" rack I installed which has 2 SATIP servers running wideband. The Kathrein supplies my home network with 24 tuners for UK Freesat FTA from astra 28.2 and the second Triax is connected via diseqc to provide 2 wideband feeds for FTA channels from astra 19.2 and hotbird 13e. In total from the Triax has 4 tuners, so can use 2 per satellite if running individually (ie streaming from both 19.2 and 13e) or 4 tuners if just using 1 satellite (ie watching from 19.2 gives me 3 additional spare feeds).

The second picture is my 60cm dish, mounted currently with 2 wideband lnbs, one for astra 28.2 and the other for astra 19.2. I originally had 3 lnbs mounted, the third for hotbird 13e, but the original lnb bracket broke, so had to fab up a new one and at the time didn't bother putting 13e back. The reason for that is the difficulty in setting up a single dish to receive 3 satellites. It's doable, and worked really well, but a lot of time to adjust the dish angles and lnbs to balance everything up so I have decent signal strengths and signal quality from all 3 satellites.

I think when I did have my dish setup for all 3 satellites, I had something crazy like +3000 FTA satellites channels.

The cabling connects from that rack showing in the picture above, to another rack which has my HDHR devices mounted onto it (for UK Freeview).

Originally I had 2x 40 metres runs of cat6, but upgraded and ran new. It's a total pain getting the cables run, and its just the last (most difficult) bit left to do, which is running them up into the house soffit and into the loft space. Obviously with the British weather, Ive been a bit reluctant to start removing some of the roof tiles etc as the cables can only be pulled through from the outside.

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#311

All,

Please see hyperlink below for an updated .ini file for Astra 28.2 FTA (UK Freesat) Transponder list.

Covers all UK Freesat transponders for FTA channels as of April 2024.

Note that the link is only valid for 30 days.

Astra 28.2 FTA (UK Freesat) Transponder List (April 2024)

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#312

All,

Please see hyperlink below - Updated channel list for Astra 28.2 FTA (UK Freesat).

Covers all UK Freesat channels for FTA channels as of April 2024.

Note that the link is only valid for 30 days.

  1. Download the file & open in notepad.
  2. Replace "MY SATIP ADDRESS" with the IP address of your SATIP server.
  3. Copy the contents into the "custom channels" section of the Channels DVR server as source TEXT.
  4. Set stream format as MPEG-TS.
  5. Map EPG.

Note: There will be some duplicated channels. Either delete these from the text entry under SOURCES or remove them from the line up list in the Channels DVR server.

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Astra 28.2 FTA (UK Freesat) Channel List (April 2024)

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#313

Thanks for all of the info and help Neil.

In the UK I think Sat>IP is ultimately a better solution than HDHRs for FTA. Apart from there being more HD Channels on Satellite, and more channels generally, I have also discovered that the picture quality of some of the SD Channels is better on Satellite too. EG The Yesterday channel (which has some very good car programs IMO) is only 544 x 576 via Aerial / HDHR but is 720 x 576 on FTA Satellite. Sadly the HD version of that channel is encrypted and only available on Sky.

I have now switched away from my Vu to a Kathrein EXIP418. I have painstakingly created (with a lot of help plus my own research) a custom M3U so that the EXIP418 is tuned directly from Channels very similar to Neil's example above, but am still getting quite slow channel changes, especially on HD channels.

@tmm1 Aman, I know you made some changes when we were discussing this before with the Vu, but is there anything more that can be done on the Channels side to help with this? The exact same M3U file that can take up to 8 seconds from selection to a picture on Channels is pretty much instant on VLC. It is also quite variable, the same channel change (I am using ITV1 HD to BBC News HD as a benchmark) can take 3 secs one time then 8 secs the next. When changing channels, I can see, watching it's Web IF, that the Kathrein gets a lock on the signal almost instantly. The delay seems to be Channels "locking into" the stream after that.

I have tried both Hardware and Software decoding on my Shield Clients. That didn't change the tuning time but I sometimes get a slight green pixelation on initial tune and forward/backward seek using hardware decoding so have left it on software at the moment.

Happy to provide any diagnostics that may help.

#314

Just something to check Geoff, and it may not be the case, however have you double checked Channels is set to 'Original/Direct' streaming? Also is Buffer protection off?

#315

Yes to both, but thanks for the suggestions. I'm willing to try/check anything that might help.

#316

Just to support Geoff's post... I have just got satellite TV up and running and also experiencing the same slower channel changes through SATIP.

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#317

I have to concur with you guys here - I customised your freesat channel list and added it as a source to my Channels server.

I think switching time was around 10-12 seconds compared to around 3-4 with Tvheadend as the go-between. I hadn’t realised I had been treated to such swift changes!

Both Tvheadend and my m3u direct to the Sat>IP box work the same on VLC, but I think I have read the Channels app uses a completely bespoke video player. It also looks tremendous on HD material off-air.

#318

Aman @tmm1

I've just done a bit more testing on the channel change delay and I am convinced the delay is Channels "locking on" (not sure how else to phrase it) the SATIP stream rather than any delay in the SATIP tuning. The reason I am sure is that if I have one client already on a SATIP channel (BBC1 HD in my tests) and then select that channel on another client, it still takes around 7 seconds to tune into it, even though the logs show it is sharing an existing connection.

Sharing existing connection to M3U-KatSatIP for ch1 BBC ONE SW HD (clients=2, len=0)

I have submitted diagnostics from the client 5778f9a3-66ff-42e8-aef3-cd6668285fb6

I have also uploaded a short recording of the channel to the DropBox (Bridge of Lies Celebrity Special 2024-04-06-1757.mpg)

#319

I'd be guessing, but it's probably the way the Channels player deals with a Transport Stream in that case.

#320

The Transport Stream has a number of PIDs that are in the PMT that don't have any data sent over them. We normally see this with misconfigured filters.

The player is waiting a long period of time to see if there is anything that is going to be sent on those PIDs to identify the codec to be used to decode them and that is the timeout you're seeing.

|=============================================================================|
|  Service: 0x2865 (10341), TS: 0x07FE (2046)                                 |
|  Service name: (unknown), provider: (unknown)                               |
|  Service type: 0x00 (Undefined)                                             |
|  TS packets: 178,178, PID's: 18 (clear: 18, scrambled: 0)                   |
|  PMT PID: 0x0103 (259), PCR PID: 0x1450 (5200)                              |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|     PID  Usage                                     Access          Bitrate  |
|   Total  Undefined .................................... C    4,416,046 b/s  |
|  0x0103  PMT .......................................... C       22,554 b/s  |
|  0x0901  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x090F  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0911  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F00  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F01  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F02  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F03  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F04  MPEG-2 Private sections ...................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F06  DSM-CC U-N ................................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F07  DSM-CC U-N ................................... C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F09  DSM-CC U-N (The Digital Network) ............. C            0 b/s  |
|  0x0F0B  MPEG-2 Private sections (AIT) ................ C            0 b/s  |
|  0x1450  AVC video (1920x1080, high profile, level 4.0  C    3,874,233 b/s  |
|  0x1451  AC-3 Audio (eng, AC-3, stereo (L,R), @48,000   C      234,982 b/s  |
|  0x1453  Teletext (eng, Teletext subtitles, Initial Te  C            0 b/s  |
|  0x1454  Subtitles (eng, DVB subtitles, no aspect rati  C       21,092 b/s  |
|  0x1455  MPEG-1 Audio (NAR, Audio layer II, 256 kb/s,   C      263,186 b/s  |
|          (C=Clear, S=Scrambled, +=Shared)                                   |
===============================================================================
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#321

Is this what TVheadend manages to remove hence quicker ’tuning’?

#322

Thanks Eric, that's very interesting. I've deliberately left out the PIDs for teletext subtitles (which I don't want) and only put in the one for DVB subtitles. The reason I did that is that I wanted a simple toggle for subtitles on/off, but if you have 2 sets of subtitles active you end up having to toggle on and off twice to get through both sets. But it looks like that might be causing the long tuning time issue.

I'll add the teletext PIDs back in and see what difference it makes.

Edit.

Having said that I have no idea what the other "missing" PIDs might be and I dont have any filters set. This is running direct HTTP control to the SAT>IP tuner, not via TVHeadend or similar.

#323

In general if the PIDs are advertised in the PAT and PMT then they should be present in the TS stream. If pids are removed, then the tuner or tuning software should be updating all the tables accordingly to avoid dangling pointers to things that are not there.

That said, thank you for the new sample. We will see if further improvements are possible on our side.

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#324

The missing items are in the stream table with 0 bits present