IPTV Help

G C

Hello,

Can someone help with some IPTV problems as I'm trying this feature for the first time. I'm running 4.1-2405 on ubuntu 16.04

I added a network as IPTV Automatic and pointed to a m3u8 file. I also set the "Service ID"=1 as it doesn't seem to find anything otherwise. This creates a whole bunch of Muxes and if I have "Service ID"=1 then it also creates Services for every mux. If I try to play the channel I get this in the log

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Mar 30 13:47:01 us-tvh tvheadend[999]: http: x.x.x.x: using ticket 77CE3908629BEA5D2095C5A01648C11B68159627 for /stream/mux/091f2348a5f3c940bda99fbbd62efe9c
Mar 30 13:47:01 us-tvh tvheadend[999]: mpegts: name
Mar 30 13:47:03 us-tvh tvheadend[999]: subscription: 18A3: "HTTP" subscribing to mux "name", weight: 10, adapter: "IPTV", network: "xxx", service: "Raw PID Subscription", hostname="x.x.x.x", client="VLC/2.2.4 LibVLC/2.2.4"
Mar 30 13:47:19 us-tvh tvheadend[999]: subscription: 18A3: service instance is bad, reason: No input detected
Mar 30 13:47:21 us-tvh tvheadend[999]: subscription: 18A3: No input source available for subscription "HTTP" to mux "name"
Mar 30 13:47:21 us-tvh tvheadend[999]: webui: Couldn't start streaming /stream/mux/091f2348a5f3c940bda99fbbd62efe9c?ticket=77CE3908629BEA5D2095C5A01648C11B68159627, No input detected

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I did an ffmpeg -i on the m3u file that is listed under the mux and it says this

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Input #0, hls,applehttp, from 'http://host/file.m3u8': Duration: N/A, start: 30370.372000, bitrate: N/A
Program 0
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 960x540 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 126 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified

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any thoughts for my next steps? I can open the m3u8 fine with VLC and open the particular stream i am testing with

UPDATE:

I can also do this and get data (.ts file grows quickly and i can play that .ts file in VLC)

ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -i http://server:80/path/file.m3u8 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -metadata service_provider=XXX -metadata service_name=XXX -f mpegts pipe:1 > output.ts

Robert Cameron

IIRC, Tvheadend does not support HLS streams as IPTV inputs. Your IPTV stream must be MPEG-TS.

If it is not, the. You either need to find a different input, or use the pipe:// protocol to convert your input before it gets to TVH.

G C

I think i figured it out (although I don't fully understand). The first m3u8 just had a list of other .m3u8 files in it

-----------------------
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,CHAN1
http://server/path/file1.m3u8 #EXTINF:-1,CHAN2
http://server/path/file2.m3u8 #EXTINF:-1,CHAN3
http://server/path/file3.m3u8

----------------------

This didn't work. I found another m3u8 file that had this instead

----------------------
#EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="CHAN1" tvg-id="xxx" tvg-logo="xxx" group-title="CHAN1",CHAN1
http://server/path/file1.ts #EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="CHAN2" tvg-id="xxx" tvg-logo="xxx" group-title="CHAN2",CHAN2
http://server/path/file2.ts #EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="CHAN3" tvg-id="xxx" tvg-logo="xxx" group-title="CHAN3",CHAN3
http://server/path/file3.ts

----------------------

This seems to work fine. Should the first file also work but i'm missing a step?

Robert Cameron

G C wrote:
> I think i figured it out (although I don't fully understand). The first m3u8 just had a list of other .m3u8 files in it
>
> -----------------------
> #EXTM3U
> #EXTINF:-1,CHAN1
> http://server/path/file1.m3u8 > #EXTINF:-1,CHAN2
> http://server/path/file2.m3u8 > #EXTINF:-1,CHAN3
> http://server/path/file3.m3u8 > ----------------------
>
> This didn't work. I found another m3u8 file that had this instead
>
> ----------------------
> #EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="CHAN1" tvg-id="xxx" tvg-logo="xxx" group-title="CHAN1",CHAN1
> http://server/path/file1.ts > #EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="CHAN2" tvg-id="xxx" tvg-logo="xxx" group-title="CHAN2",CHAN2
> http://server/path/file2.ts > #EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="CHAN3" tvg-id="xxx" tvg-logo="xxx" group-title="CHAN3",CHAN3
> http://server/path/file3.ts > ----------------------
>
> This seems to work fine. Should the first file also work but i'm missing a step?
>

> M

No, the first file will not work. M3U8 files are playlists. Specifically, they are HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) playlists, which are lists of sequential segments of a video stream. For Tvheadend this is not a valid IPTV input.

The second playlist has entries that are transport streams. Those are the only types of files that are supported as inputs for IPTV in Tvheadend.

Saen Acro

M3U8 is not asm3u, it is manifest of dynamical created "on website" playlist.

M3U8 is used when there is a HLS or DASH streaming,
both use small segments /chunks/.
DASH serve multiple bitrates for same service, "multi screen" aka multi resolution.

G C

well inside the nested m3u8 files are links to .ts files. I got a different file that has the .ts files directly in a m3u8 rather than in an m3u8 inside another m3u8 and its all working fine.

Is there anyway to tell tvheadend to filter certain muxes? some of these files have a ton of garbage in them. Or is it easier to parse the file with a script prior to tvheadend?

Robert Cameron

G C wrote:
> well inside the nested m3u8 files are links to .ts files. I got a different file that has the .ts files directly in a m3u8 rather than in an m3u8 inside another m3u8 and its all working fine.
>

> Is there anyway to tell tvheadend to filter certain muxes? some of these files have a ton of garbage in them. Or is it easier to parse the file with a script prior to tvheadend?

I would say the best solution is to use valid and legitimate sources straight from your IPTV provider, not a questionable random site on the internet with more-than-likely pirated/illegal streams.