Streaming video: StartTimeTicks issue.

[chef 3808]

Hi,

I am using this url in order to get an mp4 stream from my server:

http://192.168.1.104:8096/Videos/48258/stream.mp4?StartTimeTicks=280000000000&Container=mp4&static=true

I figured that by setting the "StartTimeTicks" to a value, My stream would start there, however my stream starts from the beginning.

My stream will only play in the browser if I set "static" to true.

Is it the Static param that is causing this behavior with StartTimeTicks?

Am I missing a necessary value to get StartTimeTicks to work?

 

Thank you for your time

Ben 

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by chef

[chef 3808]

Upon further testing it looks like this url will work:

http://localhost:8096/emby/videos/48258/stream.mp4?StartTimeTicks=2754166090&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=mp3,aac&VideoBitrate=139616000&AudioBitrate=384000&AudioStreamIndex=1&SubtitleStreamIndex=12&SubtitleMethod=Hls&TranscodingMaxAudioChannels=2&SegmentContainer=m4s,ts&MinSegments=1&BreakOnNonKeyFrames=True&ManifestSubtitles=vtt&h264-profile=high,main,baseline,constrainedbaseline,high10&h264-level=52&TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported,DirectPlayError&allowVideoStreamCopy=false

 

[pünktchen 1350]

12 minutes ago, chef said:

Is it the Static param that is causing this behavior with StartTimeTicks?

Yes.

12 minutes ago, chef said:

Am I missing a necessary value to get StartTimeTicks to work?

The stream needs to be stream copied. So instead of "Static", use something like this:

EnableAutoStreamCopy=true&VideoCodec=h264,h265,hevc&AudioCodec=aac,mp3

or just

VideoCodec=copy&AudioCodec=copy

Real media players are seeking to the start/resume position by requesting a http range value.

 

Edit: just a second too late.

[chef 3808]

22 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

Yes.

The stream needs to be stream copied. So instead of "Static", use something like this:

EnableAutoStreamCopy=true&VideoCodec=h264,h265,hevc&AudioCodec=aac,mp3

or just

VideoCodec=copy&AudioCodec=copy

Real media players are seeking to the start/resume position by requesting a http range value.

 

Edit: just a second too late.

Thank you for the reply. Yes. That got everything working wonderfully.

I really appreciate the time. Thank you

[rbjtech 4996]

Hi @chef i'm away from my pc xfor a few days but I did this via the api directly .. ie jump directly to a time on a new play.   I think i had to use playnext instead of play .. i'll ping when i'm back infront of a pc lol ... 

 

[chef 3808]

@pünktchen do you have any idea why a request to start a stream would be throwing a 401 error from the browser?

this is the url I am using:

var url = ApiClient.getUrl("Videos/" + item.InternalId + "/stream.mp4?StartTimeTicks=" + startTime +
"&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=mp3,aac&VideoBitrate=139616000&AudioBitrate=384000&AudioStreamIndex=1" + 
"&SubtitleStreamIndex=12&SubtitleMethod=Hls&TranscodingMaxAudioChannels=2&SegmentContainer=m4s,ts" + 
"&MinSegments=1&BreakOnNonKeyFrames=True&ManifestSubtitles=vtt" + 
"&h264-profile=high,main,baseline,constrainedbaseline,high10&h264-level=52&TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported,DirectPlayError&allowVideoStreamCopy=false" + 
"&api_key=" + ApiClient._serverInfo.AccessToken + "&n=" + Date.now());

 

• I'm using the Date.now to invalidate the browser url,
•  I have also forced the AccessToken into the url as the api_key because of the 401 error (unsure if this is correct)

and yet there is at least one person who is experiencing the 401.

Any suggestions?

 

For example the url resolves to this:

"http://localhost:8096/emby/Videos/48489/stream.mp4?StartTimeTicks=621355970040000000&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=mp3,aac&VideoBitrate=139616000&AudioBitrate=384000&AudioStreamIndex=1&SubtitleStreamIndex=12&SubtitleMethod=Hls&TranscodingMaxAudioChannels=2&SegmentContainer=m4s,ts&MinSegments=1&BreakOnNonKeyFrames=True&ManifestSubtitles=vtt&h264-profile=high,main,baseline,constrainedbaseline,high10&h264-level=52&TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported,DirectPlayError&allowVideoStreamCopy=false&api_key=####################&n=1640270279665"

 

[pünktchen 1350]

You cannot request hls segments and hls subtitles with a mp4 file.

[pünktchen 1350]

For hls there's another api endpoint where you requesting a master.m3u8.

[chef 3808]

Ah... Okay. I am trying to learn and understand. Thank you.

[Luke 40079]

In most cases you're going to seek client-side using the video player, rather than via server-side transcoding.

[chef 3808]

26 minutes ago, Luke said:

In most cases you're going to seek client-side using the video player, rather than via server-side transcoding.

Yes. It is definitely unorthodox.

In this case I just wanted to start a stream at a specific point in a dialogue. It allowed the user to see where a plugin had set a timestamp.

Incase they wanted to edit a few seconds forward or back.

It was an extra feature which may or may not be nesessary.