Hitting PAUSE on VLC on a live stream closes the stream

virtual dj

Hi, I'm able to watch a live stream of a channel in VLC correctly by opening for example the URL @http://192.168.1.2:9981/playlist/channelid//2@. However, if anytime Ihit the PAUSE button on VLC, after about 8 secondsTVHeadend closes the stream with this message on the log:

[ERROR]:mkv: Live stream: Write failed -- Resource temporarily unavailable
[WARNING]:webui: Stop streaming /stream/channelid/2?ticket=******, muxer reported errors
[INFO]:subscription: "HTTP" unsubscribing from "Channel"

Then when hitting PLAY on VLC it plays a couple of seconds and stops (with "EOF" warning message on the VLC log).

If I remember well, some months agowith an old version of TVHeadend (now I'm using the latest git 3.3.341~ga1461fb)it was possible to pause a Live stream (for example if the phone rings) and then resume the playback without missed parts.

I used it to watch a Formula 1 Grand Prix in this way.

Has any timeout been introduced recently? Is it possible to overcome this limitation in any way?
I also tried an old version of VLC (v1.1) just to be sure that it wasn't due to it, and in fact it isn't.

Adam Sutton

Yes changes have been made here. The problem is that the HTTP streaming has no concept of pausing, it's fine if VLC simply pauses the stream client side and buffers in client memory. But if it stops receiving content from the stream the TCP buffers will fill and TVH will stop writing, at which point it will assume something has gone wrong.

This is done for a very good reason, i.e. that this is (from the server's point of view) the same as if the connection was having problems (had unexpectedly dropped) and would otherwise cause TVH to buffer (indefinitely) in its local memory and for users installing TVH on limited devices that can very quickly turn into a crash.

If you want to be able to pause live tv you really need to use something that actually supports the new timeshift feature, why not ask on #hts, there is a guy on there (BtBN) who has actually written an HTSP VLC plugin. I'm not sure if this yet supports the timeshift functions, but I'm sure it could be added relatively easily.

Adam