Tuner question

[Paul]

Hi, I have successfully installed the software and it all seems to be working. I am using an old USB tuner I got from my Beyonwiz. (Picture below). Some channels pixelated very badly using this tuner but not when I plug the exact same antenna lead directly into the TV. I assume there is a problem of some sort with the USB tuner? I just occurred to me, that I don't know if I plug the USB tuner into a port that provides power. is that likely to be the problem? Thanks, Paul.

Edit. I'm a clown, the USB was powered using the lead clearly shown in the picture. I need to find a power source for it - open to suggestions! :-)

[prl]

That USB tuner is powered from the USB port. The socket where you had a plug to "power" it is the antenna connection.

[Paul]

Thanks Peter, so no need to plug it in since the antenna doesn't need power?

[prl]

Thanks Peter, so no need to plug it in since the antenna doesn't need power?

The tuner needs an antenna connection. Without it it won't be getting any signal

On a Beyonwiz setup, the USB tuner's antenna connection would normally go into the last "antenna out" in the tuner pass-through chain. If there's no provision for that on the box you're using, you'll need a splitter to get antenna signal into the USB tuner.

[Paul]

Sorry, I have now applied my brain! I assume I am correct in my assumption that the USB tuner is not suitable as it produces a very pixelated image on the ICEBOX. If I pull the antenna lead out of the USB tuner and plug that lead straight into the TV reception is fine. Does anyone know if it is likely to be a software or a hardware issue? Thanks.

[IanL-S]

Could be both. There is good news and bad news. LibreELEC 11 has improved device support over LibreELEC 10 which is used in the current IceBox firmware. So when IceBox moves to LibreELEC 11 the issue may go away. My initial thought is that it is a driver issue, but it is possible that it is a hardware issue.

I have tried to use a similar USB tuner, which is recognized by the PVR add-on, TVHeadend, but has so far proved problematic. This type of tuner is prone to loose connections, particularly between the tuner and the coax.

There is a remote possibility that the pixilation is due to the IceBox settings; the resolution should be set to 1920 x 1080; if it is higher setting upscaling results in a serious degradation in performance, including issues with sync between the video and sound.

Not sure why this happens, as in theory decoding of the signal should use hardware assistance. With the units shipped by IceTV (at least in earlier firmware builds) you needed to use HDMI 2 output rather than HDMI 1; for some reason hardware decoding did not work with HDMI 1.

[IanL-S]

Using the latest beta build I started recordings on (1) 10 Bold, (2) C31, (3) SBS HD, (4) ABC HD, (5) 9HD, and (6) 7HD, then cycled through live TV checking all networks. All worked as expected.

The tuners used were (1) Sony PlayStation dual tuner, (2) 3 x XBOX ONE tuners, (3) DVB-T+FM+DAB 820T2 & SDR identified by IceBox as Realtek RTL2832) [the tuner you have]. The latest beta build uses an updated Linux kernel which may explain why it is working so well. Previous testing I did was with the older kernel used by current public IceBox firmware, and had intermittent performance issues.

Ian

[Paul]

That's great to hear, thanks Ian - looking forward to upgrading to the new build!

Edit to add: Upon reflection, the pixelation appears far less random than a weak signal as well as having a different pattern.  Could be the driver.

[Paul]

Just noticed that it works fine on HD channels but not SD. While not an expert, sounds like a driver issue to me!

[IanL-S]

I suspect it is a driver issue. Not sure why it should be worse with SD transmission - they mostly use MPEG2 (one exception is 7Flix, at least in Melbourne), whereas HD uses H.264. If 7Flix in your area uses H.264, could you check it out to see if there are similar issues. I think Racing.com also uses H.264.

Ian

[Paul]

Yes, 7Flix (Sydney) also works - it seems to be the H.264 that works

[IanL-S]

Have you tried swapping the HDMI cable on the IceBox to HDMI2? For some intel chipsets (including the one used in the IceTV IceBox) the driver disables hardware decoding on HDMI1. However, in that case it tends to be all or nothing rather than just MEPG2.

Ian

[Paul]

I'm using a BYOD icebox. Can't remember if the repurposed media PC has a second HDMI output or not, will check tonight. The machine is old and was given to me.

[IanL-S]

If it is a NUC style PC, it is likely to have 2 HDMI, some have a DisplayPort. Mine has a mini HDMI and mini DisplayPort ports. If it is a standard PC it varies.

If it has a separate GPU (display card), then support may be limited - particularly if they have an nVidia GPU. Extended support for nVidia GPUs has been added to LibreELEC 11. IceBox currently uses LibreELEC 10. Also the range of outputs include HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and VGA.

[IanL-S]

It occurs to me that there could be a misconfiguration of Kodi.

Makes sure that settings are set to "Expert" - use the cogwheel bottom left of the screen.

Go to Settings > Player, then select Videos, and make sure that under Process, "Allow hardware acceleration - VAAPI" is on for "Use MPEG-2 VAAPI".