# Installation
-Contents | Description
----------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------
-[Basic Requirements](#basic-requirements) | What's needed to run Tvheadend
-[Install Your Tuners](#install-your-tuners) | Installing and setting up your hardware
-[Install Tvheadend](#install-tvheadend) | Where to get Tvheadend and how-to install it
-
----
-
-## Basic Requirements
-
-### Physical Architecture
-
-It's perfectly possible to install and run Tvheadend as a single-seat installation,
-with the software running on the same system as any client software (e.g. Kodi),
-with all files stored locally.
-
-Alternatively, you can run Tvheadend on a server, perhaps on an always-on
-system that houses your media, perhaps on a dedicated low-power system - it's your choice.
-
-Where you have aerial/coax connections might influence your choice - unless
-you use SAT>IP or have some other way to transport your TV signal over a LAN,
-your Tvheadend installation has to live where you can actually connect your
-tuners.
-
-### System Requirements
-
-Wherever you install it, Tvheadend primarily runs on **Linux** - pre-built
-binaries are available for most Debian-based distributions (Debian itself, Ubuntu,
-Mint...) and RPMs for Fedora, or you can build it yourself. It runs on both
-32- and 64-bit x86 and ARM processors, and so also can be built for Android
-(which uses the Linux kernel).
-
-You will only need **c. 30MB disk space** for the application and associated
-files, and maybe anything up to **1GB** for your configuration - depending on
-how many tuners of what type you have, how many channels you receive, your
-choice of programme guide, and so on. You'll clearly need much more for
-your recordings, though: as a guide, an hour of SD MPEG-2 video will take
-about 1GB, while high bitrate HD H.264 will easily consume 5GB+ per hour.
-
-Tvheadend is intended to be lightweight, so it will run on a NAS or similar
-**low-powered CPU**. Note that the exception here is transcoding: if you want
-to convert high-definition video in real time then you will need a powerful,
-multi-core system. It will happily run in less than **1GB of RAM**, and many
-people run it successfully on original Raspberry Pis with perhaps only 256MB
-of usable free memory. This does depend on what else you're using the computer
-for, though, as a GUI will drain your system as will any serious file serving.
-
-And, of course, you'll need one or more **TV tuners** if you want to receive
-regular broadcast television - otherwise, you're limited to IP sources.
-
-An **Internet connection** is recommended but not essential. You need to
-have an accurate clock for EPG timers to work, for example, but this can be
-synchronised from the broadcast signal if you're not in a position to use
-`ntp` or similar.
-
-### How Lightweight?
-
-How about light enough to run on a travel router? Take a look at this
-[example](https://tvheadend.org/boards/4/topics/16579) from one of our users...
-
----
-
-## Install Your Tuners
-
-This section will give you some basic ideas on how to get your tuner working
-with your operating system. However, it's clearly way beyond the scope of
-this guide to tell you everything: consult specialist forums, search around,
-and at least do some research to work out what's likely to work or not
-before you hand over any money.
-
-There is a discussion about supported hardware on [the Tvheadend
-forums](https://tvheadend.org/boards/5/topics/5102).
-
-### 1. Install the Tuner Hardware
-
-This is obviously a core requirement that's outside of the scope of this guide.
-
-You basically have the choice of:
-
-* External USB tuners that plug in
-* Internal (e.g. PCI) tuners that go inside the computer chassis
-* External SAT>IP tuners that send MPEG-TS streams over a LAN connection
-* External HDHomeRun tuners that send MPEG-TS streams over a LAN connection
-
-Follow the appropriate installation instructions and, if relevant, the
-setup instruction (e.g. for SAT>IP, which are effectively small, standalone
-computers).
-
-#### A Note on USB Tuners
-
-USB tuners are cheap, work well and are frequently well-matched to physically-smaller
-builds (e.g. HTPCs) which simply don't have the internal slots. However, please
-remember that many need external power, or need a powered hub to work properly.
-
-In addition, even USB3 doesn't have the greatest practical bandwidth per bus. That
-means you're probably asking for problems if you have four DVB-S2 dongles on the same USB
-connection to the motherboard.
-
-This is particularly true of systems such as the Raspberry Pi which share USB
-bandwidth with the Ethernet port. Don't be surprised if this kind of platform struggles
-and/or reports errors in a multi-tuner configuration, especially on
-high-bandwidth (e.g. HD) streams.
-
-### 2. Install Firmware and/or Drivers
-
-Similar to the above, Tvheadend can do nothing if your tuners aren't working
-properly. A good place to check how to set up your tuners is the
-[LinuxTV wiki device library](http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_Device_Information) -
-this will not only tell you what's supported under Linux, but also
-how to get it all working.
-
-As a broad guide, though, you need two main components: a driver, and firmware.
-
-The **driver** is the piece of software that, as far as the operating system is concerned,
-controls the tuner hardware.
-
-Driver software typically comes either built-in to the operating system
-(a clue here is documentation that says *"supported since kernel 3.16"*, for example)
-or as an external program that needs to be compiled in (e.g. how you'd build TBS'
-or Digital Devices drivers, or perhaps where the driver is supported in a later version
-of LinuxTV V4L-DVB than has made it to your kernel - the giveaway here is
-*"compile and install the latest media_build"*).
-
-Many tuners then also require **firmware** - normally, a binary file that's been
-extracted from the proprietary drivers used by Windows.
-
-Many Linux distros include a package for the most common devices (e.g.
-*linux-firmwares* under Ubuntu or *firmware-linux-nonfree* under Debian).
-If this isn't sufficient, a good source of firmware files are the
-[OpenElec](https://github.com/OpenELEC/dvb-firmware) and [LibreELEC](https://github.com/libreELEC/dvb-firmware)
-firmware repositories on Github.
-
-Typically, download the binary file and install it into `/lib/firmware`, owned
-by `root:root`, permissions `rw-r--r--` (0644)
-
----
-
-## Install Tvheadend
-
-This section tells you how to get hold of the software in the first place,
-and how to get it onto your system.
-
-Follow the instructions that are specific to your Linux distribution
-(Ubuntu/Debian/Mint, Arch, Fedora...). This will typically be PPA-and-dpkg
-for Debian, but most other distros will need you to build your own version from source.
-
-* [Debian/Ubuntu installation instructions](https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/AptRepository)
-
-* [Instructions on how to build from source](https://tvheadend.org/projects/tvheadend/wiki/Building)
-
-Do not assume that your distro's package manager will give you the latest
-version of Tvheadend - indeed, give you any version at all. Always check.
-
-Where a pre-built package exists, this will usually get you the last official
-stable version. However, more advanced users may be interested in running
-a development version - either a nightly build or a self-compiled version.
-
+For information on the requirements for Tvheadend and installation instructions for various platforms, please see [here](https://docs.tvheadend.org/documentation/installation).
projects / thirdparty / tvheadend.git / commitdiff
