Sundtek Tuner: Obtain Transport Stream Recording

[abu baniaz]

I am posting this for anyone wanting to obtain a raw Transport Stream recording using a Sundtek tuner. (Please do not confuse with normal video recording in .ts format.)
The transport stream recordings are useful for interrogating the data.

Issue the following command, this will give you the tuner frontend node (on set top boxes usually adapter1)

/opt/bin/mediaclient -e | grep adapter

Output will be similar to

     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0
     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0
     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0

Tune to your desired frequency. In this example, adapter is 1 and frontend is 0.
You must ensure adapterN matches your tuner. (We got this using the mediaclient -e command)
Modify the values according to your need (those sample values).

For Terrestrial.

/opt/bin/mediaclient -m DVBT -f 490000000 -b 8 -d /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0

For Cable

/opt/bin/mediaclient -m DVBC -f 667000000 -S 6952000 -M Q64 -d /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0

-m device mode
-f frequency in Hz
-M modulation
-S Symbol rate

Ensure you get a LOCKED notification.

If you don't know any cable frequency you might try doing a blind scan to figure out some frequencies on the console

/opt/bin/mediaclient --blindscan /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0

Make sure enigma2 is not accessing the tuner. Simplest thing to do is to disable the tuner in the tuner configuragion menu.

/opt/bin/mediaclient --lc

Snippet below shows nothing is connected

root@tmnano3t:~# /opt/bin/mediaclient --lc
**** List of Media Clients ****
/dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0:
  No client connected
/dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0:
  No client connected
/dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0:
  No client connected
/dev/mediainput0:
  No client connected

This will list who is currently accessing the tuner this should show up "No client connected".

Once your tune command has locked to a channel and printed [LOCKED] and there's no other client connected, you can start to capture some raw data.

To be sure that the frequncy is useful, for you perform a channel scan

/opt/bin/mediaclient --tsscan /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0

(Again, take care about adapter number, it's usually adapter1 on set top boxes)

This should give you a list of TV channels on the transponder you are tuned to.

Ensure you have enough space on the storage device for the recording otherwise the box might crash if you run out of space).

In this example, we are saving to the hdd. Amend for your needs

/opt/bin/mediaclient --cat /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0 > /media/hdd/test.ts

You can abort/end the capturing by pressing CTRL and C together. Two minutes recording is usually enough.