Hardware in talk: https://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_quadhd.html
Not affiliated to anything, just making guide for future me, because I keep forgetting the linux-firmware-hauppauge package every damn time and then wonder why not working. Also for other who find it useful.
Steps:
0. EndeavourOS or ArchLinux.
1. Install
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-firmware-hauppauge
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/tvheadend
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/kodi-addon-pvr-hts
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kodi
E.g. $ yay -S linux-firmware-hauppauge tvheadend kodi kodi-addon-pvr-hts
Note: Don’t use hauppauge-wintv-quadhd-firmware , doesn’t work.
2. systemctl enable tvheadend
3. reboot so that linux-firmware-hauppauge card driver gets enabled. Make sure kernel got rebuilt with dracut or mkinitcpio. Usually yay does that for you (with hooks) on default EndeavourOS installation.
4. Since now on, TVheadend will be accessible through browser http://127.0.0.1:9981
5. Check on internet what your country’s TV standard are being used in DuckDuckGo Pictures or Google Pictures. Mine is DVB-T.
6-1. Finish wizard on that site and set allowed networks to 127.0.0.0/8 and comma separated your LAN subnet (usually it’s 192.168.0.0/24, but could be anything) in that wizard. And you can specify your Wireguard subnet (how to setup Wireguard are out-of-scope for this tutorial), if you want to watch homeland TV on your phone from anywhere in a world. If you fail to specify this line correctly, you can lock yourself out of tvheadend. Which will need to systemd-stop service and delete all tvheadend config.
6-2.Setup admin and normal user. Normal user will be used in Kodi.
6-3.Set mutex (in case of DVB-T) to auto-Default.
7-1 By default Tvheadend only enabled 3 out of 4 adapters which this TV card are capable of. In TVheadend webyou need to go to tab Configuration->DVB-T Inputs->TV adapters → /dev/dvb/adapter3 → DVB-T#0 → Enabled tick box. Also below this tickbox is Networks. Keep this setting in mind for troubleshooting, your TV network should be checkboxed, and TV networks are created in Configuration-> DVB-Inputs->Networks tab. From networks mutexes are created. From mutexes services are created. And from services TV channels emerges. Only need to know that on first-time configuring, if not traveling. These 4 tabs are the most important when creating your channels with semi-auto discovering.
7-2. Try out TVheadend TABs at the top. Note: Each tabs line is separate nesting level (like tabs inside tabs inside tabs; line by line).
8-1. Play around to learn. You can see EPG guide here conveniently. Make local recordings, scheduled, reoccuring recordings to watch later as MP4, etc.
8-2. For example you can set Tvheadend channel numbers. And any device connecting to your PC (phone through Wireguard for example) will get correct channel number automatically from now on.
9. Open Kodi.
10-1. If asked if you want to enable Tvheadend HTSP Client, press Yes. Select Edit “Unknown” [Enabled] and specify username and password of Tvheadend normal-user, and Name for this connection-settings. Don’t change the HTSP port. IP should be 127.0.0.1
10-2. If not asked, you can find this menu in: Kodi->Settings->Addons->MyAddons->PVRclients->Tvheadend_HTSP_Client (usually should be only one option on fresh kodi install)-> Configure->Edit “Unknown”. See [10.1] for etc.
11. Get back to Kodi main menu by spamming Esc.
12. Select TV from menu.
13. Enjoy.
Extras things:
Kodi are media center. But if you only planning on using it for TV only, then I suggest:
- Kodi main menu->Settings->Interface->Skin->Configure skin…->Main menu items. And disable what you don’t want to see on main menu.
- Kodi main menu->Settings->Interface->Startup->Perform on startup ->Play TV
- Kodi main menu->Settings->Interface->Startup->Startup window TV guide
- Kodi main menu->Settings->Interface->Regional->Region default format->Central Europe (24h)
- Kodi main menu->Settings->System->Display->Display mode->Windowed
Keep in mind if you want to watch TV recording, enable Videos on main menu in Kodi and set directory where videos are saved at.
With TVheadend you can also make playlist of MP4 streams and watch it through most video players.