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Emby Live TV Working with Pluto m3u! (Unraid)


lmsemby

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So many topics on this subject so starting fresh with success so far, to help those looking for a simple solution! I've got a working simple setup, no issues with transitions between commercials and show. Which is the biggest issue I've encountered as well as others from the posts I've read due to the discontinuity flags. I've got one small issue left to fix. Do get audio and video out of sync between the breaks. Restarting the stream does correct it. But who wants to do that every time. This setup is working at the time of this post. Playback does not lag or freeze so far and video quality is good.

Here is my setup:

You will need to install two dockers: pluto-for-channels (search dockerhub through community apps) and Xteve_zap

Pluto for channels: This is a manual setup, follow his docker page. It will pull the M3U and epg data from Pluto TV. Once it's up and running you can access the gui to copy the link address for the m3u and epg to add into xteve.

Xteve setup: Base setup

Complete the initial setup of xteve

Go to settings and change the following: Streaming Buffer>VLC  Buffer Size>0.5 leave all other values at their defaults.

Xteve will not map the channels here is my workaround, Go to mapping>Click Bulk Edit>Check All or the channels that you want to activate>Click on one of the channels and set XMLTV File to xteve dummy and XMLTV Channel to 120 min. You will add the epg directly into Emby later.

Emby Setup: You will use M3U as your tuner

For your tuner setup select M3U and paste the M3U url provided in Xteve

For your Guide Data Source copy the epg address link from pluto-for-channels and setup your guide using the url

Perform a guide refresh and test playback

So far my testing and playback is working well minus the small issue with the audio and video sync between the breaks. I'm trying some different vlc/cvlc options configurations in the xteve buffer to see if that will correct the problem. Be careful making these changes.Through trying different configs it made my playback in Emby poor and playback would stop when going to or from commercial. I'd had to blow out my Xteve docker config and reconfigure everything from scratch to fix it.

I'm not well versed in VLC. Hopefully someone reading this post can provide more insight on the options.

Thank you to @Lukeand @cayarsfor their amazing support!!! Do either of you have any thoughts on this issue?

 

 

 

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Yea I've tried this same type of setup in different forms many ways but have not solved the sync issues.

The Pluto for channels docker is put out by one of the devs at Channels DVR.  It itself is doing nothing special in regard to helping with the issues but is good to use as it gives you unique IDs that aren't shared by any other users unlike using public lists you can find.  The xml guide also has some extended tags.

If you use CDVR to add Pluto or Stirr channels and then export the m3u and xml it's essentially the same thing.

The main problems with Pluto is the very small guide they give you.  It's only a few hours worth of data so you have to refresh often in Emby but that's doable.  The second issue is the way they inject commercials into the stream and that's the killer that's hard to overcome to not get sync type issues.

You see these same sync issues using CDVR at times as well so it doesn't look like they've solved the issue either. Same goes with Stirr.

I was kind of excited with Pluto, Stirr and other like services for a while but for me the novelty has kind of worn off as I find there really isn't any channels I'd actually really watch.
It's a lot easier to get channels other ways that just work. :)

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Thanks @cayars that's why I like the pluto for channels and by using the links it provides my lists in xteve and emby stay up-to-date automatically.

A buddy of mine has had luck with the lastest NPVR and emby plugin for NPVR. It's quite a complicated setup, but he says he has not had issues with commercials or a/v sync. Only problem he has is that he is unable to run more than 1 stream simultaneously. Haven't troubleshooted it yet so not sure if it's a limitation of NPVR or streamlink. We are gonna put our heads together in the near future and see if we can get our setups to work together and see if it solves both our problems.

FYI. Checked my setup today and playback and transitions are still working great, but still got the sync issue, which I expected.

Will update..........

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emveepee
5 hours ago, lmsemby said:

Haven't troubleshooted it yet so not sure if it's a limitation of NPVR or streamlink.

Neither, it is a configuration issue. You need to install multiple "Extra" devices and merge them, sub hasn't implemented a tuner count on this type of device yet.

Martin

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david0161
6 hours ago, emveepee said:

Neither, it is a configuration issue. You need to install multiple "Extra" devices and merge them, sub hasn't implemented a tuner count on this type of device yet.

Martin

@emveepee  I can get multiple streams through your plugin in emby but they appear to timeout after a bit (assuming it is the workaround above). 

@cayars I believe at one point you had mentioned that the new Emby TV features would not use ffmpeg on a m3u unless required by the client. @Luke - is this still planned?

We have pluto streams working very good in our testing but it has been a mess to get there to say the least. 

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emveepee

The streamlink solution isn't perfect, there are still issues with some channels with bad playlists with  discontinuity that NextPVR m3u8 downloader doesn't handle.  Also I never test this with Emby combination but all these hoops for live TV could also be a potential for problems.

streamlink python -> m3u8 https ffmpeg -> streamlink stdout->extPVR  -> http -> Emby

I'd just recommend recordings or Pluto VOD in NextPVR then you can skip over all the commercials.  Sadly the files aren't great for comskip either.

Martin

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I guess I've just gotten lucky with the Docker setup for Pluto since I haven't seen the sync issues crop up. I run CDVR on a separate PC from my Emby server and Docker on a raspberry pi (the CDVR PC is old and doesn't have hyper-v capabilites). The pi pulls the M3u and xml, CDVR uses that as a source, then Emby uses the CDVR info as a tuner and epg source.

The CDVR setup allows for an update of the guide every hour, but I still only can get about 12 hours of shows each day even though I have Emby refreshing the guide every 2 hours. I don't watch it a lot, but some of the old westerns and other movies come in handy sometimes.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey all,

Sorry. Been busy. Getting back to this. We have a working alpha build for docker. Testing has been great so far. Playback has been excellent and transitions between commercials and show have been flawless. We will be opening the repo on dockerhub very soon for anyone who wants to test. We also have a windows setup guide for those who wish to use windows (not tested on windows 11). 

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Hey Cayars,

We focused on xteve and pluto-for-channels. We are currently running some updates in the docker and testing. Once functionality is verified we will open the repo.

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If you need any additional help testing without questions of setup and the like, let me know.  I could set this up to help test on one of my dev machines.

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Jason'sEmby

Same, if you need someone to be a tester! I'm great at watching TV, not super technical though. Just would love to mix this in with my hdhomerun Primes! 

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Unfortunately after updating the docker, testing results are not what I expected. I went back to my Windows setup ran updates and got the same results. Only issue I've encountered is playback will freeze at random. Sorry to those of you looking forward to this, but I just do not have the free time to continue working on this anymore. @cayars if you or anyone else would like to run with this here is where I'm leaving off. I would start with a fresh docker build.

Running Ubuntu base image

Streamlink for Ubuntu

Xteve for Ubuntu: Configure VLC Buffer to use Streamlink

vlc options: --stdout [URL] --default-stream best

Pluto-for-Channels docker: pulling the playlist into Xteve to serve to Emby: load PFC epg directly into emby and mapping to xteve m3u tuner.

Note: The key for me on the alpha docker build was to use the pip command to install streamlink. Once I did that I had flawless playback. Just follow streamlink install instructions for Ubuntu. Now that I've updated currently installed Ubuntu packages, I currently have the random freezing issue. I have not had time to troubleshoot it so not sure what has changed. The windows config and setup produces the same results. I pulled and tested the original alpha build that was working flawlessly and it also freezes at random. I'm beginning to think that Pluto has changed something.

If anyone decides to work this, please continue to post your progress here so that others can either help or test!

 

Good Luck!!!

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I've looked at Pluto a few different ways and really don't see how the stream issues can be properly fixed. The streams are OK if you just want to display them in a traditional way but cause ffmpeg issues. I do remember being able to sort of work around this using a different tool then ffmpeg but stopped working on this when I found that every single channel I was interested in was available via a different provider similar to Pluto.  Turns out many of the channels Pluto uses can be had from other services that don't have the problem, so for me getting Pluto to work became moot.

 

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kanipek
23 minutes ago, cayars said:

different provider similar to Pluto

Can you elaborate?

I am using PlutoTV via CDVR export I can't say I have run into issues as mentioned here. But am always interested in different ways to do things.

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jkramer

You all realize there is no need to set up Docker to get Pluto channels anymore, right?

A smarter-than-me fella over at the Channels DVR forum set up a PHP version that does the same thing as the Docker container does. I see no reason why it wouldn't work here (I'll test it on turkey day).

The forum thread

His page

 

 

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It's the same thing.  If you notice it's using the same code from Maddox (Channels DVR) repo.
This person is just using PHP to pull it.

Not sure how that would fix any issues in the stream itself.

 

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jkramer

I'm set up and recording... the biggest issue is you need to refresh Pluto's listings every 3-6 hours since they only let you have 8 hrs out. Playback seemed fine for the few minutes I tested it, then I set up some overnight recordings to see how they look tomorrow. (2am-ish here, gotta sleep)

 

The shortest refresh in the Emby interface is 1 day, anyway they could change that for M3U sources? Channels looks like the attached pic.

 

 

FireShot Capture 139 - Channels - Settings - 192.168.0.100.png

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  • 4 months later...
OurfamilySpot

Just curious what the current state of this is?    Can I do this on a WD NAS without a docker?

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22 minutes ago, OurfamilySpot said:

Just curious what the current state of this is?    Can I do this on a WD NAS without a docker?

Hi, no reason it shouldn't, but I would try it out and report your experience. Thanks.

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lmsemby
On 4/4/2022 at 7:28 PM, OurfamilySpot said:

Just curious what the current state of this is?    Can I do this on a WD NAS without a docker?

I agree with Luke. I was just building it in docker as that is what a lot of self hosters use, that and windows, when it's the only option. Our focus was primarily on unraid as that is the platform we use for everything docker and VM, and this would give folks an option who didn't want to use channels software. I've been extremely busy with work and personal life that I've not continued work on this project. By all means if you want to give it try refer to the quote below. This is where I left off in my alpha build that worked flawlessly before updating components and modules within the docker that broke the playback. I didn't have the time to troubleshoot the issue so I'm not sure which update broke it. Thinking about it now it may have been that I was using ubuntu as the base image. Maybe try Alpine.

 

Good Luck!!!

 

On 11/24/2021 at 3:07 AM, lmsemby said:

Unfortunately after updating the docker, testing results are not what I expected. I went back to my Windows setup ran updates and got the same results. Only issue I've encountered is playback will freeze at random. Sorry to those of you looking forward to this, but I just do not have the free time to continue working on this anymore. @cayars if you or anyone else would like to run with this here is where I'm leaving off. I would start with a fresh docker build.

Running Ubuntu base image

Streamlink for Ubuntu

Xteve for Ubuntu: Configure VLC Buffer to use Streamlink

vlc options: --stdout [URL] --default-stream best

Pluto-for-Channels docker: pulling the playlist into Xteve to serve to Emby: load PFC epg directly into emby and mapping to xteve m3u tuner.

Note: The key for me on the alpha docker build was to use the pip command to install streamlink. Once I did that I had flawless playback. Just follow streamlink install instructions for Ubuntu. Now that I've updated currently installed Ubuntu packages, I currently have the random freezing issue. I have not had time to troubleshoot it so not sure what has changed. The windows config and setup produces the same results. I pulled and tested the original alpha build that was working flawlessly and it also freezes at random. I'm beginning to think that Pluto has changed something.

If anyone decides to work this, please continue to post your progress here so that others can either help or test!

 

Good Luck!!!

 

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