IPTV - buffering, stalls, general drop outs. Settings that resolved things for me.

J Smith · 2017-11-01T12:28:29+00:00

Figured I'd share this, as I struggled for a long time with IPTV feeds - they would frequently stall, drop out, replay previous 10 seconds or so, etc. Whe...

Darek Z.

Could anyone help please ?

Hiro Protagonist

You can do this with ffmpeg. Documentation here: https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#Stream-selection

Darek Z.

Dennis Heim wrote:

> With that script, how is the url to access the stream being pushed? I see adding it under the mux as a pipe:///usr/hts/stream.sh, do I just add the url as an argument?

Good point.
Shame it remains not answered :/

Hiro Protagonist

Darek Z. wrote:
> Dennis Heim wrote:
> > With that script, how is the url to access the stream being pushed? I see adding it under the mux as a pipe:///usr/hts/stream.sh, do I just add the url as an argument?
>
> Good point.

> Shame it remains not answered :/

Disclaimer: I've not used the script nor have I had anything to do with it previously

From reading the script, mplayer is getting its input from "$1", so it looks like the URL should be supplied as the first argument to the script.

Troy Boy

Been working with IPTV & TVHeadend for the past 6 months now & this thread helped me lots to improve the process.

Here is the mux pipe that i am using that has greatly improved my experiences

pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -reconnect 1 -reconnect_at_eof 1 -reconnect_streamed 1 -reconnect_delay_max 2000 -probesize 1000k -analyzeduration 0 -fpsprobesize 0 -fflags -nobuffer -err_detect ignore_err -i [urlhere] -codec copy -f mpegts -tune zerolatency pipe:1

The -reconnect arguements have helped greatly as have experieced lots of "end of file" errors where tvheadend would just stall, now ffmpeg reconnects and the stream continues.

The probesize, analyzeduration & fpsprobesize is to speed up the start time of the stream

Steve Reid

Troy Boy wrote:
> Been working with IPTV & TVHeadend for the past 6 months now & this thread helped me lots to improve the process.
>
> Here is the mux pipe that i am using that has greatly improved my experiences
>
> [...]
>
> The -reconnect arguements have helped greatly as have experieced lots of "end of file" errors where tvheadend would just stall, now ffmpeg reconnects and the stream continues.
>

> The probesize, analyzeduration & fpsprobesize is to speed up the start time of the stream

Thank You!

Eitan Maodad

Just a quick one for me what resolved all issues was using a proxy (https://www.hls-proxy.com/) that is able to do a lot on the streaming side (buffering and much more) and also deliver to Tvheadend as MPEGTS.

Jim Grove

I'm struggling with getting hls-proxy to work with TVHeadEnd.

I can't seem to get TVHeadEnd to load the IPTV Playlist that is generated by hls-proxy.

What steps did you take to get it to work?

Greg H

Hi all,

I've got this working for my HDHR and TvH Client on my Odroid N2 and TvH Server on my NAS, however the zapping time is like 10-11 seconds. This was mentioned by others in the thread but no one mentioned a fix.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

TIA

Jay O

Greg H wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've got this working for my HDHR and TvH Client on my Odroid N2 and TvH Server on my NAS, however the zapping time is like 10-11 seconds. This was mentioned by others in the thread but no one mentioned a fix.
>
> Any ideas greatly appreciated.
>

> TIA

I've also seen very slow channel zapping on Odroids running Kodi TVH client. 15-20 seconds. No problem on RPi3

Tim Corbeil

Hello.

I have hls-proxy running with channel links entered into Tvheadend.

The end result is certainly working fine but when in tvheadend, when you select a channel to watch, hls-proxy starts to download it's buffer but it's not fast enough for Tvheadend..

Here's an example of what takes place once you select a channel..

2022-04-25 09:46:51.866 mpegts: Leafs Nation Network 422 in StreamWise Media - tuning on IPTV #1
2022-04-25 09:46:51.866 subscription: 00DC: "HTTP" subscribing on channel "LNN 422", weight: 100, adapter: "IPTV #1", network: "StreamWise Media", mux: "Leafs Nation Network 422", provider: "FFmpeg", service: "Service01", profile="pass", hostname="xxx.xxx.x.x", client="Lavf/58.65.101"
2022-04-25 09:47:01.866 subscription: 00DC: service instance is bad, reason: No input detected
2022-04-25 09:47:01.866 mpegts: Leafs Nation Network 422 in StreamWise Media - tuning on IPTV #2

2022-04-25 09:47:01.868 subscription: 00DC: "HTTP" subscribing on channel "LNN 422", weight: 100, adapter: "IPTV #2", network: "StreamWise Media", mux: "Leafs Nation Network 422", provider: "FFmpeg", service: "Service01", profile="pass", hostname="xxx.xxx.x.x", client="Lavf/58.65.101"

I assume the first attempt is labelled "bad" because hls-proxy really doesn't have enough data yet to provide tvheadend..

Is there a way to tell tvheadend to "wait" on the first connection rather than try the 2nd connection?

Chris Gregson

Hi guys - Lot's of great info in this thread around IPTV and TVHeadend! - I have a quick question, but not sure it's something TVHeadend can do. On occasion a few channels from my IPTV provider 'loop' the same few seconds over and over. The issue is usually resolved on the provider side eventually.

I have setup service priorities accordingly and mapped multiple services to the same channels, however this doesn't help with the looping issue. Are there any settings I could try that would switch to the next service I have defined in these cases?

Many thanks

Bob Birch

Hey guys,

I know this is an older thread, but having issues like this as well.

I’ve made the changes as in the OP. Didn’t make a difference. I assume I am supposed to leave “pass” as the default profile?

I looked at modifying the m3u file with adding the pipe: stuff. Is there a way to change just one channel to see if it makes a difference? I tried modifying one channel in the Muxes section and changing it’s URL, but when I try to watch the channel I get a “No input detected” error.

Do I need to need to remap the service or anything to test it? I have around 1000 channels so would like to test before redoing the whole setup again.

Any hep would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if there is any logging I should include.

Thanks,
Bob

JD J

Can you just put the pipe argument in (envirment) pipe to do the same thing as inserting it in m3u file?

I have been trying to use perl and it executes but no file change.

Gerrit Gogel

I was fiddling around with my IPTV setup for some days now. I found a lot of helpful information in this thread. Especially the FFmpeg parameters provided by Troy Boy helped a lot.

Here are the full commands I'm using:

Adapt the paths according to your setup.

Download your m3u file:

wget -O /tvheadend/config/iptv.m3u http://path.to.your.m3u

If the file has Windows line breaks (CRLF), convert it to Linux line breaks (LF):

dos2unix /tvheadend/config/iptv.m3u

Insert the pipe command to every line starting with `http://`:

sed -i 's#^http://.*#pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -reconnect 1 -reconnect_on_network_error 1 -reconnect_on_http_error 1 -reconnect_streamed 1 -reconnect_delay_max 4294 -fflags -nobuffer -err_detect ignore_err -i & -c copy -map 0 -f mpegts -tune zerolatency pipe:1#' /tvheadend/config/iptv.m3u

The FFmpeg command is based on the suggestion made by Troy Boy.

I added `-map 0`, such that every audio and subtitle stream is piped, if multiple are available.

I added `-reconnect_on_network_error 1 -reconnect_on_http_error 1 `, which force FFmpeg to reconnect when a TCP or HTTP error is received. For instance, my provider sometimes gives HTTP 404 errors.

Further, I increased `reconnect_delay_max` to the max value of 4.294 seconds. It determines how long FFmpeg tries to open the stream when an error occurs. Sadly, in some scenarios, even this can be too low. My IPTV provider seems to start streams on demand, meaning if nobody is watching them the stream is "sleeping". This often takes 10-20s. In this case, I have to start the stream a second time. But even with FFmpeg, this problem cannot be solved at the moment, due to the relatively low limit of `reconnect_delay_max`.

In any case, these parameters gave me the best experience. I use Kodi, Emby, and Jellyfin as clients.

EDIT:
I removed the following parameters because they made the audio become async after a while. I guess because the video FPS isn't determined correctly. I didn't notice any significant change in the stream start-up time.
`-probesize 1000k -analyzeduration 0 -fpsprobesize 0`

Bob Birch

Hey Gerrit,

Thanks for the ideas.

I created the new entry for one of my channels using your sed command. I edited the Mux and saved it.

When I try to play it from the TVHeadend web interface, it opes VLC, but fails.

Attached are the logs for the playing of the channel:


2022-09-04 12:09:17.628 [   INFO]:http: ::ffff:192.168.1.139: using ticket 5e14011a45fc78d9398dbe5cca9da1564d35a4dd for /stream/mux/f4c39330ad210fa9942e2592e6d23926
2022-09-04 12:09:17.631 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - add raw service
2022-09-04 12:09:17.634 [  DEBUG]:service: 3: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends si 0x562752560ef0 <unknown> weight 0 prio 11 error 0 (OK)
2022-09-04 12:09:17.634 [  DEBUG]:service: 2: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends si 0x562752517900 <unknown> weight 0 prio 11 error 0 (OK)
2022-09-04 12:09:17.634 [  DEBUG]:service: 1: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends si 0x5627528bb190 <unknown> weight 0 prio 11 error 0 (OK)
2022-09-04 12:09:17.635 [   INFO]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - tuning on IPTV #1
2022-09-04 12:09:17.863 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - open PID 0000 (0) [20/0x5627592d2b70]
2022-09-04 12:09:17.863 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - open PID 0001 (1) [16/0x562759d91230]
2022-09-04 12:09:17.863 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - open PID 0010 (16) [20/0x5627542f49a0]
2022-09-04 12:09:17.864 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - open PID 0011 (17) [20/0x5627581ace40]
2022-09-04 12:09:17.864 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - open PID 0011 (17) [16/0x562756a4e5a0]
2022-09-04 12:09:17.864 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - started
2022-09-04 12:09:17.864 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - open PID fullmux subscription [0003/0x5627536b8c90]
2022-09-04 12:09:17.864 [   INFO]:subscription: 0204: "HTTP" subscribing to mux "jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi", weight: 10, adapter: "IPTV #1", network: "TVLegends", service: "Raw PID Subscription", hostname="::ffff:192.168.1.139", username="admin", client="VLC/3.0.17.3 LibVLC/3.0.17.3"
2022-09-04 12:09:17.865 [   INFO]:spawn: Executing "/usr/bin/ffmpeg"
2022-09-04 12:09:18.936 [  ERROR]:spawn: ffmpeg version 4.4.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2021 the FFmpeg developers
2022-09-04 12:09:18.936 [  ERROR]:spawn:   built with gcc 11 (GCC)
2022-09-04 12:09:18.936 [  ERROR]:spawn:   configuration: --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --datadir=/usr/share/ffmpeg --docdir=/usr/share/doc/ffmpeg --incdir=/usr/include/ffmpeg --libdir=/usr/lib64 --mandir=/usr/share/man --arch=x86_64 --optflags='-O2 -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -fexceptions -g -grecord-gcc-switches -pipe -Wall -Werror=format-security -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1 -fstack-protector-strong -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 -m64 -mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection' --extra-ldflags='-Wl,-z,relro -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,now -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-ld -specs=/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-annobin-cc1 ' --extra-cflags=' -I/usr/include/rav1e' --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-version3 --enable-bzlib --enable-chromaprint --disable-crystalhd --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gcrypt --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom -
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libavutil      56. 70.100 / 56. 70.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libavcodec     58.134.100 / 58.134.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libavformat    58. 76.100 / 58. 76.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libavdevice    58. 13.100 / 58. 13.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libavfilter     7.110.100 /  7.110.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libswscale      5.  9.100 /  5.  9.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libswresample   3.  9.100 /  3.  9.100
2022-09-04 12:09:18.948 [  ERROR]:spawn:   libpostproc    55.  9.100 / 55.  9.100
2022-09-04 12:09:19.863 [  DEBUG]:service: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends: Status changed to [CA check] 
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn: Input #0, mpegts, from 'http://XXXXXX.XXX:8080/XXXXX/XXXXXX/59030':
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Duration: N/A, start: 1350.000000, bitrate: N/A
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Program 1 
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:     Metadata:
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:       service_name    : Service01
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:       service_provider: FFmpeg
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Stream #0:0[0x100]: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p(progressive), 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Stream #0:1[0x101]: Audio: aac (LC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 130 kb/s
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn: Output #0, mpegts, to 'pipe:1':
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Metadata:
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:     encoder         : Lavf58.76.100
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p(progressive), 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 130 kb/s
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn: Stream mapping:
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn:   Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn: Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  ERROR]:spawn: frame=    1 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 size=       0kB time=00:00:00.00 bitrate=   0.0kbits/s speed=  11x    
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  DEBUG]:service: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends: Status changed to [Demuxed packets] [CA check] 
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  DEBUG]:service: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends: Status changed to [Demuxed packets] [Reassembled packets] [CA check] 
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [  DEBUG]:webui: Start streaming /stream/mux/f4c39330ad210fa9942e2592e6d23926?ticket=5e14011a45fc78d9398dbe5cca9da1564d35a4dd
2022-09-04 12:09:24.170 [WARNING]:webui: Stop streaming /stream/mux/f4c39330ad210fa9942e2592e6d23926?ticket=5e14011a45fc78d9398dbe5cca9da1564d35a4dd, timeout waiting for packets
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [   INFO]:subscription: 0204: "HTTP" unsubscribing, hostname="::ffff:192.168.1.139", username="admin", client="VLC/3.0.17.3 LibVLC/3.0.17.3"
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - close PID fullmux subscription [0003/0x5627536b8c90]
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - stopping mux
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - close PID 0000 (0) [20/0x5627592d2b70]
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - close PID 0001 (1) [16/0x562759d91230]
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - close PID 0010 (16) [20/0x5627542f49a0]
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - close PID 0011 (17) [16/0x562756a4e5a0]
2022-09-04 12:09:24.171 [  DEBUG]:mpegts: jq2zy9wz89c556rdyxr5.m3u - UK-Alibi in TVLegends - close PID 0011 (17) [20/0x5627581ace40]

Not ure why it would't play. I made sure the new url in TVHeadend is all on one line when I copied it in. Is there a way to see the actual URL TVHeadend is using to open the mux?

Thanks.

Gerrit Gogel

Hey Bob,

Maybe try to open the channel a second time. I think many IPTV providers put channels to "sleep" if they aren't watched. The time to start them up exceeds the maximum timeout in FFmpeg. As you can see in your log the time from starting FFmpeg to closing is almost equal to `-reconnect_delay_max 4294`. Sadly, at the time of writing this parameter cannot be set higher. Also when I stream channels directly with VLC, I experience the same. The first attempt of opening some random channel almost every time fails.

By the way, the value 4294 comes from dividing the maximum value of an unsigned 32bit integer by 1000000. I don't know why FFmpeg devs decided to set this as a max value. Usually, the standard for timeouts is 30 s. 4294 ms just isn't enough.

Gerrit Gogel

I just tested it again and the value is actually seconds, as documented, and not milliseconds. But still for instance in this thread people also report that milliseconds are used instead of seconds: https://superuser.com/questions/1050481/ffmpeg-keep-connection-if-network-source-down

Maybe there is an issue related to specific builds of FFmpeg, where ms are used instead of seconds. No idea.

Gerrit Gogel

Did you maybe set the Data timeout parameter in Stream Profiles to 5s? I wouldn't recommend setting this to a low value. I set mine at 30 s. It means that the stream is closed if the data rate stays at 0 Bytes/s for x seconds. I saw values of 5-10s suggested here, which are too low. I noticed that some streams send data only about every 5-10s, so they would be terminated with this setting.

Bob Birch

I hadn't changed the Data Timeout. It is still at 0. But if I started the strem a second time....it worked!!!

How will that work when TVHeadend goes to record? Is it a VLC issue?

Thanks for the help. I'll see how it goes with doing some recordings.

Bob

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