[HowTo] Catchup IPTV a.k.a +1 hour TV (in work) ?

Dimitar Maznekov · 2018-03-27T15:18:29+00:00

I'm trying to make catchup for IPTV to have +1, +2 etc hours back timeshift for channels which are not recorded by provider. I've made that setups 1.Mux Sc...

Thom Asv

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask. What is the best config for pipe and bash script?

After watching about 5-7 minutes stream freeze. I am using this pipe syntax


pipe:///usr/bin/ffmpeg -live_start_index -99999 -i /home/lib/catch-up/hls_407_.m3u8 -c copy -f mpegts pipe:1

-live_start_index -99999 is this the only way how to "shift" back in broadcasting?

Dimitar Maznekov

Did you


And choose option "Use A/V library" to "Don't use"

I didn't have any freezes or interruption with that pipe.
And yes, the only way to start from the beginning of playlist is to set start index at -99999. That means actually to the oldest chunk. If you want another offset could use -XX ( number of chunk multiplied by XX )

Thom Asv

yes I option A/V library is se to "Don't use"

what is your pipe syntax?

And one more question. I was asking earlier about putting transparent logo in this shifted channels.
I have png icon logo.png in /home/pics/logo.png
If I want to identify the channel as +1 I would like to have there the icon. The right place to put it is tvheadend pipe or this in bash script which creates the playlist.m3u8? I am kinda stucked and don't know how to continue

Saen Acro

Overlaying with logo will transcode stream

remove from command line


-vcodec copy -acodec copy

and put on it's place


-i logo.png \
-filter_complex "[1:v][0:v]scale2ref=iw*0.05:-1[logo1][base]; \
 [base][logo1]overlay=0:0[v]" \
-map [v] -map 0:a -y -b:v 1600k -c:v libx264 -profile high -level 4.1 \
-c:a libfaac -b:a 128k

Thom Asv

thx for hints. Is there way how to check and restart script if it crash or stops working?

Saen Acro

test as live output without storage part play it on VLC for example.

replace on finish output

-f mpegts udp://236.0.0.1:2000

there is lot of service monitoring softwares, monit for example

Thom Asv

is there an optimal config. I mean how many chunks?

I had 360 chunks for 10 sec now I have 60 chunks for 60 sec. Or this doesn't matter actually

Saen Acro

When have more channels chunk size meter on I/O performance of storage controller and web server.
Size 2-10mb is best in my experience, smaller make hdd hard to processing read/write,

bigger make web server to use very big network consumption.

So need to make calculation based on bitrate of channels.
But for one channel no big difference but for one hour back if part are 10 min long not mean one hour back it can be 50 min back.

Dimitar Maznekov

saen acro wrote:
> Overlaying with logo will transcode stream
>
> remove from command line
> [...]
> and put on it's place

> [...]

Hm, that's remind me another hack I've made - to broadcast with TVH two channels with PiP and both audio interchangeable within Kodi with key.
Should I share it here ?

Saen Acro

This is MOSAIC scenario ;)
lets open new topic for this will share there my mosaic soft collection :P

Dimitar Maznekov

Sure I meant new topic :D

Thom Asv

Do you have idea what could help me with looping channel?

I am using above posted script to create +1 hour channel. It works good. So far tested and works best with FFmpeg 3.3

In tvheadend I am using pipe

pipe:///home/ffmpeg-3.3/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -live_start_index -359 -i http://localhost/playlist.m3u8 -i http://localhost/picon+1.png -qscale:v 1 -filter_complex "overlay=main_w-overlay_w-10:10" -f mpegts pipe:1

Unfortunately it ends with looping the channel. In tvh log I am getting this message


2019-03-21 15:57:48.471 tsfix: transport stream MPEG2AUDIO, DTS discontinuity. DTS = 62098, last = 1800898
....

Thom Asv

Thank you all for help.

I tried almost everything with the pipe syntax but the problem was still there. I tried to insert text so I knew its time shifted channel. There was no looping. I would like to share you with the pipe that did the trick for me


pipe:///home/ffmpeg-3.3/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -live_start_index -358 -i http://localhost/playlist.m3u8 -qscale:v 8 -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/path/to/the/font/picont.ttf:font=picon: text='1': fontsize=58: fontcolor=b4bab2: x=w-tw-30:y=95" -f mpegts pipe:1

This is really hobby for me so I have created logo as font. Looks great and it is identical. Maybe somebody could use this.

deganza 11

with some channels the cachtup-script is working like a charm but when I'm using rtp-signals I got always the following error message:

[h264

 0x556e39154140] non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period
[h264

0x556e39154140] SPS unavailable in decode_picture_timing
[h264

 0x556e39154140] non-existing PPS 0 referenced                                    
[h264

0x556e39154140] non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period
[h264

 0x556e39154140] SPS unavailable in decode_picture_timing                         
[h264

0x556e39154140] non-existing PPS 0 referenced
[h264

0x556e39154140] decode_slice_header error [h264

0x556e39154140] no frame!

I'm using the following which is working mostly on livestreams but not on channels with a rtp address.

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/ffmpeg -reconnect 1 -reconnect_at_eof 1 -reconnect_streamed 1 -reconnect_delay_max 2 -y -nostdin \
-i http://server:9981/stream/channelnumber/26 \
-vcodec copy -acodec copy -scodec copy \
-fflags +genpts -user_agent HLS_delayer \
-f hls -hls_flags delete_segments \
-hls_time 5 \
-hls_list_size 6 \
-hls_wrap 7 \

-hls_segment_filename /media/sdb1/timeshift/ARD/ard_%03d.ts /media/sdb1/timeshift/ARD/ard_hls.m3u8

here is the output for the original signal

Duration: N/A, start: 15725.842289, bitrate: N/A
Program 1
Metadata:
service_name : ORF1 HD
service_provider:
Stream #0:0[0x65]: Video: h264 (High) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 50 fps, 50 tbr, 90k tbn, 100 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x115](deu,deu): Subtitle: dvb_teletext ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006), 492x250
Stream #0:2[0x12d](deu): Audio: ac3 ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 448 kb/s (clean effects)
Stream #0:3[0x12e](aub): Audio: aac (HE-AAC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 95 kb/s

Thom Asv

I had similar problem with some channels. try to map the specific stream you want. e.g
-map 0:0 -map 0:2

Saen Acro

Try to remove teletext/teletext subs this is problematic part.

deganza 11

ok, thanks a lot!

as you said: the teletext subs where the problematic part.

with -map 0:0 -map 0:2 -map 0:3 it's working

Brad T

Hello, I've been trying to get this to work as a service to startup when my raspberry pi boots, but so far I've had no luck.

Any tips would be appreciated:

I'm trying to run a bash script on startup as a systemd service, I'm doing this on a Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspbian Buster Lite.

I'm able to execute the bash script if I run it manually ./hls.sh and I am able to also run the service if I do sudo service tv start but the tv.service does not appear to be able to execute the bash script hls.sh on start. I did give permissions chmod 777 for both the service and the bash file as well.

Bash Script
> #!/bin/bash
> /usr/bin/ffmpeg -reconnect 1 -reconnect_at_eof 1 -reconnect_streamed 1 -reconnect_delay_max 2 -y -nostdin \
> -hide_banner -loglevel fatal \
> -i http://10.0.0.11:9981/stream/channelnumber/2 \
> -vcodec copy -acodec copy -scodec copy -g 60 \
> -fflags +genpts -user_agent HLS_delayer \
> -metadata service_provider="TimeShift" \
> -metadata service_name="TV 1" \
> -f hls -hls_flags delete_segments \
> -hls_time 60 \
> -hls_list_size 480 \
> -hls_wrap 481 \

> -hls_segment_filename /home/pi/hls/1_%03d.ts /home/pi/hls/1_hls.m3u8

Service
> [Unit]
> Description=Timeshift TV
> After=tvheadend.service
> PartOf=tvheadend.service
> Restart=always
>
> [Service]
> ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /home/pi/hls/
> ExecStart=/home/pi/hls.sh 103 &
> ExecStop=/bin/rm -rf /home/pi/hls
>
> [Install]

> WantedBy=default.target

What I get when I boot and do a systemctl status
> ● tv.service - Timeshift TV
> Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/tv.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
> Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2020-05-18 05:36:40 BST; 45s ago
> Process: 465 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p -m777 /home/pi/hls/ (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
> Process: 472 ExecStart=/home/pi/hls.sh 103 & (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
> Main PID: 472 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>
> May 18 05:36:39 tv3 systemd[1]: Starting Timeshift TV...
> May 18 05:36:39 tv3 systemd[1]: Started Timeshift TV.
> May 18 05:36:40 tv3 systemd[1]: tv.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
> May 18 05:36:40 tv3 systemd[1]: tv.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Saen Acro


ExecStart=/home/pi/hls.sh 103 &

Where this 103 come from?

Dimitar Maznekov

saen acro wrote:
> [...]

> Where this 103 come from?

Number 103 is the number of the channel where we do like to have timeshift

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