Limit recordings per tuner/mux

[bccrew]

@Griga

I have a 2 DVBC tuners with each a CI module from my provider. The cam can only descramble 3 channels at the same time. The 4th recording of a channel on the same mux results in a scrambled ts file because it uses the same tuner that is already in use. It doesn't switch to the secondary tuner.

How can I achieve that the 4th recording will make use of the second tuner with a CI module? All 4 channels are on the same mux.

Thanks

 

If this is not possible, can I make it a feature request?

[Griga]

Which DVB hardware? Usually DVBViewer only allows one scrambled channel per tuner and CAM, because it doesn't know how many the CAM is able to process. How did you make the reception of 3 scrambled channels with one tuner work?

[bccrew]

@Griga

 

I forgot to mention that I run the DVBC tuners on a linux system with minisatip. Then I add the minisatip server 2x as input hardware source in the DMS.

 

Decryption is done by the cams which are initialized by minisatip. (dvben50221 library)

[Griga]

It seems that this problem must be solved on the server side, but I don't know minisatip and how it handles tuner <-> client (request) assignments. So I can't really help in this case.

 

DVBViewer doesn't provide a "maximum channels per tuner" setting, and a demand for it in just one case isn't enough to justify implementation.

 

Using channel groups enables fixed channel -> tuner assignments, e.g. to bind two channels of a mux to tuner 1 and two other channels of the same mux to tuner 2.  However, that decreases flexibility and is probably too restrictive for this case.

[bccrew]

So, if there would be a kind of limitation built into minisatip, the tuner would have a status "busy" if all 3 channels are being requested (of a same mux) by a backend at the same time?

 

I will try to talk to the minisatip dev if it's possible to implement.

 

 

I though this kind of intelligence was to be found in the backend itself. Ofcourse DMS will see it's a frequency that is already tuned so won't it keep trying to use the first tuner?

[Griga]

1 hour ago, bccrew said:

Ofcourse DMS will see it's a frequency that is already tuned so won't it keep trying to use the first tuner?

 

Yes, if the channel(s) are flagged as unencrypted in the DVBViewer channel list and if it is not excluded by channel group assignment.

 

If channels are flagged as encrypted, DVBViewer only uses tuners with "Has CI" set and one tuner per channel, regardless whether they are located on the same transponder or not.

 

If the server can handle more than one encrypted channel per CI and tuner, it would have to map different client connections to the same CI/Tuner in this kind of configuration. The DVBViewer Media Server is able to do that. However, your description suggests that minisatip is rather using a straightforward "one client connection per tuner" mapping.

 

That's why I would first try to solve the problem by using channel group assignments in DVBViewer. Maybe it is suitable for you. Let's assume there are 4 encrypted channels Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4 (flagged as unencrypted in DVBViewer) on the same transponder:

• Go to the channel editor. Set Ch1 and Ch2 to channel group B, Ch3 and Ch4  to channel group C.
• Go to Options -> Hardware. Untick group C for the first tuner -> it won't be used for channels belonging to group C anymore.
• Untick group B for the second tuner -> it won't be used for channels belonging to group B anymore.

Now Ch1 and Ch2 are bound to the first tuner, Ch3 and Ch4 to the second tuner. For all channels belonging to group A (default) DVBViewer can still allocate tuner 1 or 2, depending on the availability. Try how it works in scenarios that are typical for your setup and if it causes unacceptable restrictions.