Help with playback issues, maybe codec related.

Ant

Hi all, Started using this software a week or so ago. It's on an RPi 4b with 2gb ram & the Pi TV HAT. Setup went pretty smooth & I have it connected to Jellyfin via the TVHeadEnd plugin & recording goes onto a Synology NAS via NFS shares. This has all been straightforward to set up. My issues start when I try to watch any recordings or live TV. The files are all present & correct. If I download a file to my Windows PC it plays fine via WMP. IO can watch BBC channels through the TVHeadEnd player but ONLY if I manually select webtv-vp8-vorbis-webm as the codec. Other channels either stay blank or I get the error message that an unknown error has occurred. In Jellyfin none of the files will play at all & in that all I get is "Playback failed, playback failed due to a fatal player error". I am pretty tech savvy & have been searching online & trying to look through other posts on here, but so far not found anything similar. It doesn't seem to matter which codecs I load or fiddle around with, either on TVHeadEnd or Jellyfin, I just always seem to get the same messages. I can't seem to find a way to get a log of the issue to upload but that's probably just my poor addled brain. The old elastic band is nearly wound down 😂 Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Digard

Ant
No. Exactly the same here. I wrote about it elsewhere. I do get audio, though.
I was most astonished, that passthru didn't deliver. And likewise, trying all the different provided codecs, that webtv-vp8-whatever-vorbis is the only one that (mostly) plays. ("Mostly" means, in most trials. I couldn't make out any circumstances that definitly would or wouldn't. Lottery.)
Then I was told, it had to make with the hardware (thin client, here), though I wasn't convinced, because it records the same passthru splendidly with loads between 0.2 and 0.3.
I was also informed, that it could have to make with fledgling resources; but since the core engine of tvheadend works totally great, and I found the core of tvheadend doing a - AFAICS - amazing and reliable job, I just kind of gave up on the rest around that engine.

VLC plays splendidly, though, here.
I side with you on the 'tech savvy' on my river bank, too. It is sad to see that such a great core engine has so many flaws in its periphery.

DeltaMikeCharlie

@Ant - Some random thoughts...

Just in case you have not found it, you can get to the TVH WebUI via http://[TVH_IP]:9981.

From there, from the main configuration tab, set yourself to be 'Expert'.

If you go into the debugging tab, you can add trace/debug for various subsystems and nominate a log file name. You can also do this directly from the command line at startup.

https://docs.tvheadend.org/documentation/appendices/debugging

In the DVR profile, you can set your codec to 'Passthru'. This will do no transcoding at all. If you still cannot play something recorded with passthru, this could give you a hint as to what's going on.

A tool like FFMPEG or VLC can be used to see what codecs the broadcaster is using.

You also did not mention which version of TVH you are using.

Ant

DeltaMikeCharlie Thanks for the guidance. I was already logged into expert view on the WebUI. Recording & streaming profile set to pass, but oddly enough can still only get BBC to play in live view. That said on a personal note I am not too worried about live view as I can just watch TV normally, it's the recording & playback of prior that is important to me. Unsure if this will help anyone else, but I was having issues playing back recorded TV in Jellyfin, I am aware this isn't a Jellyfin forums, so thank-you for bearing with me, but I can now play recorded TV via Jellyfin. It looks like I somehow managed to enable hardware transcoding & after turning that off watching recorded programs seems to work. My Jellyfin server is running on an HP T730 TC with 16gb ram.

Apologies, your are right I didn't state TVH version numbers. In my about section it lists the following as build number: 4.3-2155~gfe4df311d. I am going to run a few tests this evening RE recording & playback & will post back tomorrow with the results.

Ant

Digard I understand the frustrations but it's hard to complain when the whole service is free & the good people of the forum etc put their time & effort into trying to help us. Considering that TVH runs (seemingly) flawlessly on an RPI 4b 2gb it's pretty amazing. Do you also run Jellyfin or another media server? If so see my response above about mistakenly having enabled hardware transcoding. May be that'll help for you too?

Digard

Ant
Thanks, no, no other media server. No transcoding. I hope, I mentioned the very helpful people; and especially the core functionality, that works flawlessly here, well thought through. Especially recording is fantastic. Playback, only via VLC (and others).
If the whole thing was nothing, I'd not be frustrated. My frustration rather stems from seeing a perfectly working core, though even for us 'tech-savvies' getting the 'environment' working, like logging in, initial scan, playback of a 'passthru' stream, only default recording profile, are just unfortunate complications.
Were I able to contribute, I'd happily do so. Unfortunately, I can only share my observations, hoping that someone in the know gets in idea on how to further improve this software.
So far I didn't see a bug reporting tool, therefore I report my troubles here.

Ant

Digard Sorry just looking at my reply, I wasn't having a dig 😏 I kinda just feel the need to hopefully show the community my appreciation. My main hobby is 3D printing & as such I used to be quite active on the help forums & it's amazing how your knowledge gets taken for granted & people constantly asking the same questions! I always try my best to search for the answers to the best of my ability & share the love 😂

Ant

Thank-you to those with suggestions. Using different ideas I found a work around that works for me. I can record & playback through Jellyfin & TVH plugin. For me that is good enough. Oddly though, if I try to record anything via the TVH web portal, within a few seconds the fail warning sign is displayed next to the name of the program. I have tried different channel & different codecs but no luck. Luckily I don't need that functionality through the TVH portal as I do have Jellyfin. Sorry to those with ongoing faults but I'm stumped.