Install Nova Core

From a fresh Linux box to live IP streams in a few minutes. One static binary, no dependencies.

System requirements

OS	A systemd-based Linux. Tested on Debian 11/12 & Ubuntu 20.04+. Also works on Fedora / RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux, openSUSE, Arch, Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit), Armbian.
Kernel	DVB drivers loaded, with your tuner exposed at `/dev/dvb/*`.
CPU	x86-64-v2 (≈2009+) for the amd64 build, i386 (32-bit x86, SSE2 / Pentium 4+) for the i386 build, or arm64 / armv7.
Privileges	root — install writes to `/opt/nova-core` and registers a systemd service.
Dependencies	None. No ffmpeg, no Python, no libc — a single static binary.

Bare-metal recommended. Most DVB cards (e.g. NetUP / cx23885) need real PCIe DMA and do not work reliably under virtualization passthrough. Run on physical hardware for capture.

Non-systemd distros (Alpine, Void, Devuan) can run the binary manually, but the -install command needs systemd.

Download

Grab the build for your CPU architecture — the link always points at the latest release:

amd64	nova-core-linux-amd64.tar.gz
arm64	nova-core-linux-arm64.tar.gz
armv7	nova-core-linux-armv7.tar.gz
i386	nova-core-linux-i386.tar.gz

Each tarball ships a .sha256 next to it — verify before extracting:

# example for amd64
sha256sum -c nova-core-linux-amd64.tar.gz.sha256

Install

Extract and run the installer as root. It copies the binary to /opt/nova-core, writes a default config, registers a systemd service, starts it, and prints the bootstrap admin password.

tar -xzf nova-core-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo ./nova-core -install

You'll see something like:

  Nova Core installed
  URL    http://<your-ip>
  user   admin
  pass   3f8c…  (change it in Settings → Users)

The service is now enabled (starts on boot) and listening on two ports: :80 (admin UI) and :8000 (public stream egress).

Open http://<your-ip> in a browser (admin UI is on port 80).
Log in with admin and the printed password.
Go to Settings → Users and set your own password immediately.

Add a tuner

Open Tuners → Add Tuner.
Pick the physical adapter and the type (DVB-S / S2 / T / T2 / C).
Enter frequency, polarization and symbol rate for the transponder.
Click Scan to lock and list the services on that mux, pick the service you want, then Save.

Budget mode captures the whole transponder TS — required for full EPG and accurate TP-bitrate, at higher CPU. Leave it off unless you need it.

Create a stream

Open Streams → Add Stream.
Input: select the tuner and the programme (PNR) you scanned.
Output: choose HTTP-TS (pull) or UDP (multicast push).
Save — the stream starts immediately and is playable.

Optional — you don't have to create streams by hand to use Nova. Every service you scan, save and enable is automatically hosted on the playlist (/playlist.m3u). This step is only for advanced users who need custom UDP multicast output, per-stream tuning, or a fixed stream ID.

Access your streams

Every enabled stream is reachable on the stream port (:8000 by default):

HTTP-TS	`http://<host>:8000/stream/ts/<id>`
Playlist	`http://<host>:8000/playlist.m3u` — every enabled stream as M3U
UDP	`udp://<group>:<port>` — when a UDP output is configured

Open any of these in VLC, mpv, or load /playlist.m3u into your IPTV player.

EPG (program guide)

Nova harvests the DVB EIT (Event Information Table) straight off a mux and publishes it as XMLTV — the format your IPTV player loads for a program guide. No external grabber, no scraping, no third-party EPG service.

One tuner, the whole bouquet

Most operators broadcast the EPG for every channel on a single mux (a network-wide EIT schedule that includes other-transponder events). Nova tunes that one transponder and collects the guide for hundreds of channels at once — you don't need a tuner per channel. A single budget-mode tuner sitting on the EPG mux gives you the complete lineup's guide.

Add an EPG job

Open the EPG page → + Add job.
Tuner: the adapter on the EPG-carrying mux. Enable Budget mode on it for the complete EIT.
XMLTV filename: e.g. epg.xml.
Save — Nova section-filters SDT (channel names) + EIT (events) and rewrites the XMLTV on each refresh.

Per-job options

Refresh	How often (seconds) Nova re-harvests and rewrites the file.
Offset (min)	Minutes added to every event start time — use it if the broadcaster's EIT clock lags (e.g. `+60`).
Prune days	Days of past events to keep before trimming.
Future days	Days ahead to include in the guide.

Use it

Each job is served on the stream port:

http://<host>:8000/epg/epg.xml      # XMLTV
http://<host>:8000/epg/epg.xml.gz   # gzipped

Point your IPTV player (TiviMate, Plex, Jellyfin, …) at that URL as its XMLTV / EPG source.

Settings

Everything below lives under Settings in the UI. All values persist to nova.json and survive restarts. Port and runtime changes auto-restart Nova so the new values take effect.

General

Admin UI port	Port the admin UI + JSON-RPC listen on (default `80`). Changing it auto-restarts Nova so the new listener binds.
Stream port	Port the public stream egress (HTTP-TS) listens on (default `8000`). Kept separate from the admin port so you can firewall them differently.
GC percent (GOGC)	Garbage collector runs when the heap grows this percent since the last collection. `50` keeps RAM tight (more frequent GC, slightly more CPU); `100` is the Go default (less GC, more RAM). Empty = built-in 50.
Memory limit (GOMEMLIMIT)	Soft heap ceiling in MB. The runtime runs GC aggressively as the heap approaches it, so RSS stays under it even under load. `2048` (2 GiB) fits ~25 HD streams. Raise for larger installs.

Streaming

Restart scheduler	Optionally restart all streams automatically at a chosen day(s) + time — a daily refresh for long-running headends. Off by default.
HTTP-TS buffer	Per-client send buffer in KiB. Bitrate-aware: sized to cover a few seconds of a slow client's stall without dropping it. Larger = more tolerance for laggy clients, more RAM per viewer.

Network

Nova handles the modprobe + sysctl writes for these on save and at boot — you never touch the shell.

Kernel TCP buffer	Caps per-socket TCP send/receive buffers (MB). Linux auto-tunes each socket up to this ceiling based on RTT × bandwidth. `16` MB covers VPN clients with 100–500 ms RTT. Empty = system defaults.
UDP send buffer	Per-socket `SO_SNDBUF` for UDP/RTP egress (MB). Bigger = more cushion before the kernel drops packets. `4` MB fits ~250 ms of a 128 Mbps mux. Bump for full-mux multicast (50 Mbps+).
TCP congestion	Congestion control algorithm. Picking `bbr` also switches the default qdisc to `fq` (BBR's pacing needs it). Leave default unless you know you want BBR.

IP whitelist (access control)

The IP Whitelist tab controls who can pull streams. It gates the stream egress port only (:8000) — the admin UI stays behind its own login. Both lists take one entry per line, plain IPs or CIDR blocks, IPv4 or IPv6.

Allow list	If non-empty, only these IPs/ranges may reach `/stream/…` and `/playlist.m3u`. Empty = open to everyone.
Deny list	These IPs/ranges are blocked outright, and a deny takes precedence over allow — handy for banning one abusive client while the allow list stays open.

Example — only your LAN and one office IP may pull streams:

# Allow list (one per line)
192.168.1.0/24
203.0.113.5

Update & uninstall

Update

Download the new release, stop the service, replace the binary, start again — your config is untouched:

sudo systemctl stop nova-core
sudo cp nova-core /opt/nova-core/nova-core
sudo systemctl start nova-core

Uninstall

sudo ./nova-core -uninstall   # removes service + binary, keeps config JSON

Troubleshooting

permission denied on /dev/dvb	The service must run as root (it does after `-install`). Running the binary manually as a normal user can't open frontends.
Scan: device or resource busy	The tuner is already locked (by a stream, idle monitor or EPG). Nova snoops a live tuner when re-scanning its own transponder.
Stream shows SCRAMBLED	The channel is encrypted. The free Core is free-to-air only; descrambling (CI/CAM, BISS) is an Enterprise feature.
Logs	`journalctl -u nova-core -f`, or the Logs page in the UI.

Need conditional access, transcoding or commercial support? Nova Enterprise →