TUTORIAL: Installing TVHeadend on Ubuntu 20.04 LTSR

Continuing with the installation of the TVHeadend server on an Ubuntu machine.

But before I describe the installation process, I wanted to provide some background information. For a long time, I’ve wanted to have a satellite dish at home so that satellite TV can be viewed in every room. In 2014, I installed coaxial cables in every room of the house for this purpose. However, looking back, I wouldn’t do this today as IPTV at home is a good alternative. Well, requirements have changed somewhat, and one thing led to another, and now I’ve set up a TVHeadend server.

The satellite feed into the TVHeadend server (which is running virtually on my HyperV server) is provided by two Telestar Digibit R1 Sat to IP receivers. Each Telestar receiver is connected to a satellite dish aiming at two different satellites.

This is how it all looks:

Both satellite dishes are equipped with Quattro LNBs. On the Astra LNB, there is an Axing SPU 58-06 multiswitch which continues to distribute the Astra signal to my rooms via coaxial cables. After the multiswitch, the Digibit R1 is connected, which in turn is linked to TVHeadend via LAN. On the Hispasat side, the setup is similar but without a multiswitch, although the Hispasat also uses a Quattro LNB.

For TVHeadend, I have the Digibit R1 running with the original firmware without making significant changes to it… I just defined the LNB type, and that setup is working well for me at the moment.

Now, onto the TVHeadend installation. As mentioned earlier, I have set up a virtual Ubuntu on my Hyper-V (refer to the oscam post) and then executed the following commands in the console via SSH:

 wget -qO- https://doozer.io/keys/tvheadend/tvheadend/pgp | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://apt.tvheadend.org/unstable bionic main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tvheadend.list
apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tvheadend

Please note that the following commands will install the current “Unstable” version. If you want to install the current “Stable” version, simply replace “Unstable” with “Stable” in the second command.

Now, enter the username and password for the initial setup:

Now the server is accessible on port 9981.