2018-12-22, 11:11 AM
As I found no clear guide on the web that tells you if & how the Elgato EyeTV Netstream 4C SAT>IP tuner works with PVR backends & Kodi frontend, I decided to share my findings here. Spoiler on the result: it works, mainly because of a factory reset.
Before I go into detail, a big THANK YOU! After quite a few experiments with other PVRs / clients, I ended up with NextPVR Server + Kodi Clients for my Elgato EyeTV Netstream SAT>IP tuners. Works great except for a few issues.
As Elgato EyeTV Netstream 4S and Netstream 4C both share the same issues with the SAT>IP tuner not being discoverable, I´ll share my experience with the 4C here. I could not make use of the tuner with any other software than the EyeTV app, or the bundled Terratec Home Cinema. But of course I want a decent PVR backend & nice frontend like Kodi, so I experimented with VLC, Kodi and Mediaportal - no chance to get the Netstream work.
The key to the solution was described in a few forums: a factory reset! ( Hint 1 / Hint 2 / How to factory reset Netstream 4C )
After Factory reset, the firmware is set back to a development version that supports SAT>IP. Now the Netstream can be found in my network, but published channels do not work, and it has no webinterface for tuning or creating an m3u. But I found a way to use all 4 tuners with an m3u I created with the AVM FRITZ!WLAN Repeater DVB-C. That device has an integrated DVB-C dual tuner with a web interface for tuning & exporting an m3u playlist. Simply changing the IP in the m3u to the IP of the Netstream let´s me use it in VLC and Kodi. Btw, here´s an m3u Example for Netstream 4S. I chose this workaround as I do not have a Mac with Elgato EyeTV Software to get the Channel Playlist m3u exported from there - this is another way to get to the m3u .
Btw, tuning the Netstream with the m3u was also not possible before the factory reset. Only after the reset, I could use the Netstream with VLC (m3u) & Kodi (IPTV Simple Client with the m3u)
Next was to integrate the Netstream in a PVR server:
Live-TV works with both AVM tuners simultaneously, even better: NextPVR is able to tune to 2 different channels on the same frequency with 1 tuner (eg ORF and ATV in Austria), leaving the 2nd tuner available!
The issues I found are:
Another issue I found: touching the "Enable" setting in the tuners break the Recording Service, so eg disabling 2 of 4 tuners to reserve them for another PVR service. It loses all tuners in the "Status" window, while all are still available under "devices". Restarting the NPVR Recording Service does not help, only a reinstall of NPVR fixes this. I also had the impression that this behaviour started when I manually executed NPVRServiceControl.exe - could that be?
Hope this helps some of xou guys to finally make use of this great device in a decent way
Before I go into detail, a big THANK YOU! After quite a few experiments with other PVRs / clients, I ended up with NextPVR Server + Kodi Clients for my Elgato EyeTV Netstream SAT>IP tuners. Works great except for a few issues.
As Elgato EyeTV Netstream 4S and Netstream 4C both share the same issues with the SAT>IP tuner not being discoverable, I´ll share my experience with the 4C here. I could not make use of the tuner with any other software than the EyeTV app, or the bundled Terratec Home Cinema. But of course I want a decent PVR backend & nice frontend like Kodi, so I experimented with VLC, Kodi and Mediaportal - no chance to get the Netstream work.
The key to the solution was described in a few forums: a factory reset! ( Hint 1 / Hint 2 / How to factory reset Netstream 4C )
After Factory reset, the firmware is set back to a development version that supports SAT>IP. Now the Netstream can be found in my network, but published channels do not work, and it has no webinterface for tuning or creating an m3u. But I found a way to use all 4 tuners with an m3u I created with the AVM FRITZ!WLAN Repeater DVB-C. That device has an integrated DVB-C dual tuner with a web interface for tuning & exporting an m3u playlist. Simply changing the IP in the m3u to the IP of the Netstream let´s me use it in VLC and Kodi. Btw, here´s an m3u Example for Netstream 4S. I chose this workaround as I do not have a Mac with Elgato EyeTV Software to get the Channel Playlist m3u exported from there - this is another way to get to the m3u .
Btw, tuning the Netstream with the m3u was also not possible before the factory reset. Only after the reset, I could use the Netstream with VLC (m3u) & Kodi (IPTV Simple Client with the m3u)
Next was to integrate the Netstream in a PVR server:
- Mediaportal 2: no chance whatsoever due to lack of SAT>IP suport. The channel import based on the m3u with the IPTV tuner did not work, not matter what format / parameters the m3u contained.
- TVMosaic: found all 4 tuners and the 2 AVM tuners. But I was not able to tune with the Netstream (no channels found), and applying the channel profile from the AVM tuner did not work (no signal), even tough the AVM worked perfectly)
- NextPVR: the free solution the best: most easy to configure, and working almost perfectly! Both the AVM and the Netstream are found in "Devices" tab. The only issue is that scanning with the Netstream does not find any channels. Solution: scan all channels with the AVM tuner, and apply the settings to the Netstream tuners - NextPVR even automatically asks you to copy the channels when you want to configure each tuner! Voila, 6 tuners working perfectly!
Live-TV works with both AVM tuners simultaneously, even better: NextPVR is able to tune to 2 different channels on the same frequency with 1 tuner (eg ORF and ATV in Austria), leaving the 2nd tuner available!
The issues I found are:
- Why can´t the Netstream 4C find channels when scanning? After copying the the channel info from the AVM tuner it worked, but a full scan will not give a result
- A full scan found nothing on the Netstream 4C device, and on the AVM tuner it did not find the most important 5 channels on the very first freq (298000). But a manual scan on that freq found the 5 channels on BOTH tuners, so Netstream was able to find channels? :confused:
- When channels are working, after copying settings from the other SAT>IP tuner, the Netstream still pulls no EPG data?
- Will the Netstream 4C / 4S also work in NextPVR after a firmware update to the newest version?
- From my 1 NextPVR server with 6 (2+4) tuners, streaming to at least 3 devices simultaneously works. But I tried recording 5 shows at once, and only got 2 working recordings - the other 3 were empty 0byte files. Seems only 1 recording per tuning device (AVM / Netstream) works? I was hoping I can make 1 recording per tuner?
Another issue I found: touching the "Enable" setting in the tuners break the Recording Service, so eg disabling 2 of 4 tuners to reserve them for another PVR service. It loses all tuners in the "Status" window, while all are still available under "devices". Restarting the NPVR Recording Service does not help, only a reinstall of NPVR fixes this. I also had the impression that this behaviour started when I manually executed NPVRServiceControl.exe - could that be?
Hope this helps some of xou guys to finally make use of this great device in a decent way
