A lightweight, self-hosted IPTV streaming server and DVB-to-IP gateway — a free, modern alternative to Astra (Cesbo) and Flussonic for satellite / terrestrial / cable headends.

Features

• Tuner inputs: DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-C (full Linux DVB API, v5 signal stats)
• Network inputs: HTTP-TS, UDP and RTP — unicast or multicast, read natively in-process, so Nova can sit in front of a multicast backbone you already run
• BISS descrambling: apply the key a feed's distributor gives you (12-hex session word or 16-hex control word), using Nova dvbcsa — our own pure-Go DVB-CSA, validated byte-for-byte against libdvbcsa
• Outputs: HTTP-TS, UDP / multicast, and a one-click /playlist.m3u
• Modern web UI — tuners, streams, live signal / quality, client sessions, logs, EPG
• EPG — XMLTV harvest, plus per-channel guide binding merged into one master guide matched to the playlist (Jellyfin / Plex / TiviMate ready)
• Channel logos — per-channel icons downloaded once and served locally, carried in the playlist as tvg-logo
• Single static binary — no ffmpeg, no Python, nothing else to install; that includes the network inputs and the descrambler
• One-command install — systemd unit + bootstrap admin, done
• Light on resources — runs a 60+ stream headend on a low-power APU
• Secure by default — IP allow-list and brute-force-resistant admin login
• Architectures — Linux amd64, arm64, armv7, i386

Requirements

• OS: a systemd-based Linux distribution. Tested on Debian 11/12 and Ubuntu 20.04+; works on Fedora / RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux, openSUSE, Arch, Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) and Armbian. Non-systemd distros (Alpine, Void, Devuan) can run the binary manually but -install needs systemd.
• Kernel DVB drivers with your tuner exposed at /dev/dvb/*.
• CPU: x86-64-v2 (≈2009+) for the amd64 build, or arm64 / armv7 / i386 (32-bit x86, SSE2).
• root (install writes to /opt/nova-core and registers a systemd unit).
• No ffmpeg, Python, or libc dependency — a single static binary.

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

Quick start

# Download the build for your CPU from Releases, verify, then:
tar -xzf nova-core-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo ./nova-core -install
# Open the URL it prints and log in with the generated admin password.

Uninstall any time with sudo ./nova-core -uninstall.

How it compares

	Nova Core	Astra (Cesbo)	Flussonic
Price	Free core	Commercial	Commercial ($$$)
Footprint	Single binary, no deps	Binary + Lua	Heavy install
DVB-S / S2 / T / T2 / C input	✅	✅	✅
HTTP-TS / UDP output	✅	✅	✅
Built-in modern web UI	✅	partial	✅
EPG (XMLTV)	✅	✅	✅
ARM / low-power	✅	partial	❌

Documentation

Full docs and the project site: novaheadend.com

License

Nova Core is proprietary software, free to use in binary form — see LICENSE. The source is not public. An Enterprise edition with extended integrations is available; get in touch via novaheadend.com.

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Docker

An official multi-arch image (amd64 / arm64) is published on every release:

docker run -d --name nova-core \
  --device /dev/dvb \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v nova-config:/config \
  -v nova-data:/opt/nova \
  ghcr.io/novaheadend/nova-core:latest

Published ports are the recommended default: :80 is the web UI / control API and :8000 is the stream / playlist endpoint (M3U + XMLTV + HTTP-TS), both plain TCP — bridge networking works for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and any M3U client. --device /dev/dvb exposes the tuners; the bootstrap admin password is printed in docker logs nova-core. Tags: :latest and :vX.Y.Z.

Use --network host only if you configure a UDP / RTP multicast output on a stream (e.g. udp://239.1.2.3:1234) — multicast egress doesn't cross Docker's bridge NAT. HTTP consumers never need it.