|
1 | 1 | # Installation |
2 | 2 |
|
3 | | -Contents | Description |
4 | | ----------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------ |
5 | | -[Basic Requirements](#basic-requirements) | What's needed to run Tvheadend |
6 | | -[Install Your Tuners](#install-your-tuners) | Installing and setting up your hardware |
7 | | -[Install Tvheadend](#install-tvheadend) | Where to get Tvheadend and how-to install it |
8 | | - |
9 | | ---- |
10 | | - |
11 | | -## Basic Requirements |
12 | | - |
13 | | -### Physical Architecture |
14 | | - |
15 | | -It's perfectly possible to install and run Tvheadend as a single-seat installation, |
16 | | -with the software running on the same system as any client software (e.g. Kodi), |
17 | | -with all files stored locally. |
18 | | - |
19 | | -Alternatively, you can run Tvheadend on a server, perhaps on an always-on |
20 | | -system that houses your media, perhaps on a dedicated low-power system - it's your choice. |
21 | | - |
22 | | -Where you have aerial/coax connections might influence your choice - unless |
23 | | -you use SAT>IP or have some other way to transport your TV signal over a LAN, |
24 | | -your Tvheadend installation has to live where you can actually connect your |
25 | | -tuners. |
26 | | - |
27 | | -### System Requirements |
28 | | - |
29 | | -Wherever you install it, Tvheadend primarily runs on **Linux** - pre-built |
30 | | -binaries are available for most Debian-based distributions (Debian itself, Ubuntu, |
31 | | -Mint...) and RPMs for Fedora, or you can build it yourself. It runs on both |
32 | | -32- and 64-bit x86 and ARM processors, and so also can be built for Android |
33 | | -(which uses the Linux kernel). |
34 | | - |
35 | | -You will only need **c. 30MB disk space** for the application and associated |
36 | | -files, and maybe anything up to **1GB** for your configuration - depending on |
37 | | -how many tuners of what type you have, how many channels you receive, your |
38 | | -choice of programme guide, and so on. You'll clearly need much more for |
39 | | -your recordings, though: as a guide, an hour of SD MPEG-2 video will take |
40 | | -about 1GB, while high bitrate HD H.264 will easily consume 5GB+ per hour. |
41 | | - |
42 | | -Tvheadend is intended to be lightweight, so it will run on a NAS or similar |
43 | | -**low-powered CPU**. Note that the exception here is transcoding: if you want |
44 | | -to convert high-definition video in real time then you will need a powerful, |
45 | | -multi-core system. It will happily run in less than **1GB of RAM**, and many |
46 | | -people run it successfully on original Raspberry Pis with perhaps only 256MB |
47 | | -of usable free memory. This does depend on what else you're using the computer |
48 | | -for, though, as a GUI will drain your system as will any serious file serving. |
49 | | - |
50 | | -And, of course, you'll need one or more **TV tuners** if you want to receive |
51 | | -regular broadcast television - otherwise, you're limited to IP sources. |
52 | | - |
53 | | -An **Internet connection** is recommended but not essential. You need to |
54 | | -have an accurate clock for EPG timers to work, for example, but this can be |
55 | | -synchronised from the broadcast signal if you're not in a position to use |
56 | | -`ntp` or similar. |
57 | | - |
58 | | -### How Lightweight? |
59 | | - |
60 | | -How about light enough to run on a travel router? Take a look at this |
61 | | -[example](https://tvheadend.org/boards/4/topics/16579) from one of our users... |
62 | | - |
63 | | ---- |
64 | | - |
65 | | -## Install Your Tuners |
66 | | - |
67 | | -This section will give you some basic ideas on how to get your tuner working |
68 | | -with your operating system. However, it's clearly way beyond the scope of |
69 | | -this guide to tell you everything: consult specialist forums, search around, |
70 | | -and at least do some research to work out what's likely to work or not |
71 | | -before you hand over any money. |
72 | | - |
73 | | -There is a discussion about supported hardware on [the Tvheadend |
74 | | -forums](https://tvheadend.org/boards/5/topics/5102). |
75 | | - |
76 | | -### 1. Install the Tuner Hardware |
77 | | - |
78 | | -This is obviously a core requirement that's outside of the scope of this guide. |
79 | | - |
80 | | -You basically have the choice of: |
81 | | - |
82 | | -* External USB tuners that plug in |
83 | | -* Internal (e.g. PCI) tuners that go inside the computer chassis |
84 | | -* External SAT>IP tuners that send MPEG-TS streams over a LAN connection |
85 | | -* External HDHomeRun tuners that send MPEG-TS streams over a LAN connection |
86 | | - |
87 | | -Follow the appropriate installation instructions and, if relevant, the |
88 | | -setup instruction (e.g. for SAT>IP, which are effectively small, standalone |
89 | | -computers). |
90 | | - |
91 | | -#### A Note on USB Tuners |
92 | | - |
93 | | -USB tuners are cheap, work well and are frequently well-matched to physically-smaller |
94 | | -builds (e.g. HTPCs) which simply don't have the internal slots. However, please |
95 | | -remember that many need external power, or need a powered hub to work properly. |
96 | | - |
97 | | -In addition, even USB3 doesn't have the greatest practical bandwidth per bus. That |
98 | | -means you're probably asking for problems if you have four DVB-S2 dongles on the same USB |
99 | | -connection to the motherboard. |
100 | | - |
101 | | -This is particularly true of systems such as the Raspberry Pi which share USB |
102 | | -bandwidth with the Ethernet port. Don't be surprised if this kind of platform struggles |
103 | | -and/or reports errors in a multi-tuner configuration, especially on |
104 | | -high-bandwidth (e.g. HD) streams. |
105 | | - |
106 | | -### 2. Install Firmware and/or Drivers |
107 | | - |
108 | | -Similar to the above, Tvheadend can do nothing if your tuners aren't working |
109 | | -properly. A good place to check how to set up your tuners is the |
110 | | -[LinuxTV wiki device library](http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_Device_Information) - |
111 | | -this will not only tell you what's supported under Linux, but also |
112 | | -how to get it all working. |
113 | | - |
114 | | -As a broad guide, though, you need two main components: a driver, and firmware. |
115 | | - |
116 | | -The **driver** is the piece of software that, as far as the operating system is concerned, |
117 | | -controls the tuner hardware. |
118 | | - |
119 | | -Driver software typically comes either built-in to the operating system |
120 | | -(a clue here is documentation that says *"supported since kernel 3.16"*, for example) |
121 | | -or as an external program that needs to be compiled in (e.g. how you'd build TBS' |
122 | | -or Digital Devices drivers, or perhaps where the driver is supported in a later version |
123 | | -of LinuxTV V4L-DVB than has made it to your kernel - the giveaway here is |
124 | | -*"compile and install the latest media_build"*). |
125 | | - |
126 | | -Many tuners then also require **firmware** - normally, a binary file that's been |
127 | | -extracted from the proprietary drivers used by Windows. |
128 | | - |
129 | | -Many Linux distros include a package for the most common devices (e.g. |
130 | | -*linux-firmwares* under Ubuntu or *firmware-linux-nonfree* under Debian). |
131 | | -If this isn't sufficient, a good source of firmware files are the |
132 | | -[OpenElec](https://github.com/OpenELEC/dvb-firmware) and [LibreELEC](https://github.com/libreELEC/dvb-firmware) |
133 | | -firmware repositories on Github. |
134 | | - |
135 | | -Typically, download the binary file and install it into `/lib/firmware`, owned |
136 | | -by `root:root`, permissions `rw-r--r--` (0644) |
137 | | - |
138 | | ---- |
139 | | - |
140 | | -## Install Tvheadend |
141 | | - |
142 | | -This section tells you how to get hold of the software in the first place, |
143 | | -and how to get it onto your system. |
144 | | - |
145 | | -Follow the instructions that are specific to your Linux distribution |
146 | | -(Ubuntu/Debian/Mint, Arch, Fedora...). This will typically be PPA-and-dpkg |
147 | | -for Debian, but most other distros will need you to build your own version from source. |
148 | | - |
149 | | -* [Debian/Ubuntu installation instructions](https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/AptRepository) |
150 | | - |
151 | | -* [Instructions on how to build from source](https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/Building) |
152 | | - |
153 | | -Do not assume that your distro's package manager will give you the latest |
154 | | -version of Tvheadend - indeed, give you any version at all. Always check. |
155 | | - |
156 | | -Where a pre-built package exists, this will usually get you the last official |
157 | | -stable version. However, more advanced users may be interested in running |
158 | | -a development version - either a nightly build or a self-compiled version. |
159 | | - |
| 3 | +For information on the requirements for Tvheadend and installation instructions for various platforms, please see [here](https://docs.tvheadend.org/documentation/installation). |
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