OSMC DVB-T2/DVB-C TV dongle - Official System Requirements?

Recently I received my order of the OSMC DVB-T2/DVB-C TV USB dongle; it’s a really nicely designed little package :slight_smile:

I was hoping to use it on a Raspberry Pi 4B (Raspbian) running TVHeadend, and connect to that server from the TVH client on OSMC running on a different Raspberry Pi (2B).

When I attempt to use it on the Pi4 (Raspbian)… I seem to be having issues similar to those some people here had back in 2017/18. The dongle appears in the Pi4 with just the Realtek DVB-T tuner, i.e. Sony DVB-T2 tuners are not picked up by the system. However, it’s a little worse than just that, because even the Realtek tuner does not seem to work reliably. For example, when I do a “generic auto scan” it pick up (some) channels broadcast from a mux that’s considerably further away than the one I have my aerial pointed at, but nothing from the one that’s closer to me. If I try to tune to specifically scan the mux that’s closer (which my main TV picks up with 98% signal strength) the scan just fails. Also after attempting some scans the tuner seems to lock up, and then won’t scan anymore. This occurs whether it’s connected to a powered hub or not. I’m guessing it’s a driver issue.

When I connect it to my Pi2 (OSMC)… all three tuners show up in TVHeadend, and using the Sony DVB-T one I can scan and receive the nearby mux, HD/SD are all working with no issues whatsoever. I must however connect it to a powered hub* for smooth operation, otherwise I get what appears to be decoding glitches every 5 seconds or so (SD or HD), so I guess it needs more power than my Pi 2 is delivering to it.

*Edit: Actually I had set it and tested it on the Pi2 just before starting to write this post and it appeared to be working perfectly (via the powered hub). I left it playing in the other room while I wrote, and when I returned to it was glitching as before. During playback the system seems to be under pretty minimal stress CPU/Memory-wise, so not sure why it seems perfect before and there are now issues.

Suggestion: listing the system requirements on the product page would help buyers make a better informed purchases. I understand, from OSMC’s perspective, the aim is to ensure this device works correctly for all OSMC systems (whether running on OSMC hardware, a Pi, or other), and indeed that seems to be the case (edit: although perhaps not on my Pi2). But it would be useful to mention if it also works with plain Raspbian, or if this is explicitly not supported. Also it would be useful to list the minimum power requirements of the tuner, as some may not already have a powered hub and would need to factor that into a buying decision.

Question: is there any easy way to get the dongle working on Raspbian Buster (on a Pi4)? I am aware that OSMC does not currently support the Pi4, but that it probably will do quite soon.

Hi

The device is intended to run on OSMC specifically and we cannot guarantee support for other platforms.

I’m guessing Raspbian Buster is using a 4.19 kernel. I could send you a patch if you are comforting with compiling your own kernel.

When we support Pi4, it will be supported out of the box on OSMC.

Cheers

Sam

Thanks for the offer of a patch. I have never attempted a Kernel compilation before, and I’d prefer to keep that server on stock Raspbian for several reasons.

I really do think it could be useful to add a some more details around compatibility on the product page. Apart from not being supported directly by OOTB Raspbian (Buster at least), I am also unsure if the issues I encountered when testing it on my RBPi2 (running OSMC) was due to an struggling CPU (top didn’t reveal CPU saturation however) or something else about my system that wasn’t up to the job.

Anyway, I’ll send it back to you as arranged off-thread. Thanks again.

I will test it upon its return as I’d be surprised if there is a hardware issue.

I see that DKMS is supported on Raspbian Buster, so if we have any requests from users, we will simply build a package to make the tuner usable under this distribution (no compiling needed).

DVB-T2/DVB-C TV dongle: Shipment arrived from OSMC store: Only an envelope with the USB dongle as it’s seen in web picture (no paper, no manual).
Where do you have support information of it?
I’ve plugged it on a Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspbian (buster) and Kodi software (v18) from distro repositories.
I’ve installed packages:
kodi
vdr
kodi-pvr-vdr-vnsi
vdr-plugin-dvbhddevice vdr-plugin-dvbsddevice vdr-plugin-femon vdr-plugin-osdserver vdr-plugin-vnsiserver
…But Kodi complains about no PVR backend and no PVR client plugins available to be installed.

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 15f4:0131 HanfTek

Am I limited by some drivers lack?
Why Kodi does not offer PVR plugins in its interface?

Is there already some .deb package available to make tuner usable under Raspbian 10 (buster)?

You would need a kernel which has the needed drivers.

Obviously when OSMC runs on Pi 4, this will be supported out of the box.

Don’t know much about Raspbian is packaging Kodi unfortunately. If you have a Pi0/1/2/3 around, it will work out of the box on OSMC.

Sam

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Today I’ve seen that stock Linux 4.19 included with Raspbian Buster fully supports this device.
I’ve veriefied w_scan utility detects DVB and finds TV& radio channels.

Adn I’ve successfully tried with Kaffeine desktop application from Raspbian repositories:

  1. Digital TV
  2. Menu “Television” -> configure Television
  3. Device 1
  4. Set Source: Autoscan -> OK
  5. Menu “Television” -> Channels
  6. Start Scan
  7. Select desired results and press “Add selected” -> OK

I’m only pending now to find proper steps with backend+frontend for Kodi.
Sad to not see any documentation to show this device is useful on many more scenarios than OSMC.

Okay, Kodi 18.7 (shipped with Raspbian buster) has some issue in channels manager and scanner, and this is the cause it seems to not be detection or use of this TV tuner.

I’ve tried with VDR, and suppose other backends should work too:
$ sudo apt install vdr kodi-pvr-vdr-vnsi vdr-plugin-vnsiserver w-scan
$ sudo systemctl stop vdr
$ w_scan | sudo tee /etc/vdr/channels.conf
$ sudo systemctl start vdr
… and now Kodi works with this DVB/PVR software.

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Oh, I didn’t ask for “Santa Claus” hat for my identity.
Please remove this.

This is applied to all poster’s avatars during the Christmas period.