Is there best/preferred IPTV setup?

[Carlo 4330]

On 12/19/2022 at 5:42 AM, EODCrafter said:

I don't think I understand your explanation at all perhaps because this statement is not what is being used. It is using the same channels from Multiple Providers, not different resolutions or Versions of the same stream. He spelled it out pretty clear in his "mock" m3u.

Let me try again to make it easier to understand.

You input a feed in Emby that will be the tuner.  Let's call it tuner.m3u

tuner.m3 contains 2 lines per channel with the first being the metadata and the second being the URL.

If a "duplicate" channel is in tuner.m3u only one will show up in Emby.

If the channel stream itself is a m3u link (manifest) Emby will pull that at play time.
That channel based m3u can have multiple streams in it all for the same channel.
If it fails here it should roll over which is what Samsung2100 is saying.

FYI
It's pretty common when streaming in general to get a manifest file containing multiple streams.
These are typically used to have streams with different bitrates (resolution as well).  This allows players to adapt to bandwidth conditions that change so the client can drop down to keep the buffer filled vs pausing until the buffer filles, playing a bit and pausing again.walking to 

[EODCrafter 180]

14 hours ago, cayars said:

If a "duplicate" channel is in tuner.m3u only one will show up in Emby.

It's not necessarily a "duplicate" op is describing, but a different stream from a different Provider. (same channel, ie cnn)

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 CNN

http://cnn.link.1

http://cnn.link.2

http://cnn.link.3

http://cnn.link.4

He was trying to say for instance, cnn.link.1 goes down, Emby will automatically switch to cnn.link.2, ect. This will not happen but it would be nice if it did  

VLC Will automatically try the next link, but Emby will not.

Edited December 21, 2022 by EODCrafter

[emveepee 112]

Isn't VLC dumb?  Most m3u links are not in a truly structured order so VLC would just go from channel 101 to channel 102 and not try and find an alternative on say channel 501 after 101 fails.

Martin

[Carlo 4330]

7 hours ago, EODCrafter said:

It's not necessarily a "duplicate" op is describing, but a different stream from a different Provider. (same channel, ie cnn)

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1 CNN

http://cnn.link.1

http://cnn.link.2

http://cnn.link.3

http://cnn.link.4

He was trying to say for instance, cnn.link.1 goes down, Emby will automatically switch to cnn.link.2, ect. This will not happen but it would be nice if it did  

VLC Will automatically try the next link, but Emby will not.

I understand and it works as the Op and I described. It will rollover at the manifest level for the station but not in the "master" m3u because it will be seen as a "dupe".

[Carlo 4330]

2 hours ago, emveepee said:

Isn't VLC dumb?  Most m3u links are not in a truly structured order so VLC would just go from channel 101 to channel 102 and not try and find an alternative on say channel 501 after 101 fails.

Martin

Yes, vlc just goes down the list until it finds a stream that works regardless of stream content or channel.

[EODCrafter 180]

2 hours ago, cayars said:

I understand and it works as the Op and I described. It will rollover at the manifest level for the station but not in the "master" m3u because it will be seen as a "dupe".

Then all Emby needs to do is automate this process so we can input Multiple m3u's from different providers and not have duplicate channels and that will solve an open post that has been open for 4+ years! @pir8radio

Edited December 21, 2022 by EODCrafter

[Carlo 4330]

Not sure if you understand how this works. The "master.m3u" file you add to Emby would have the streams listed for each channel, similar to: https://...cbs-3.m3u8, https://...nbc-6.m3u, https://...abc-10.m3u8, https://...whyy-12.m3u8, https://...wtxf-19.m3u8, etc

You have no idea what the contents of those 3u8 files are until playback starts. Inside the m3u8 manifest is the URL of multiple stream segments which could be as many as a dozen or more, but all for the same feed, just different bitrates. The provider sends this back in real-time as the media is played.

The above is how this normally works.  What you're suggesting is using this method to have different versions of the same channel which could be from the same or different providers as well as cable and ota tuners. This isn't doable for a couple reasons.  First you would have to create the specific channel m3u8 file adding the different provider/tuner streams to it and then self host this on your own webserver so Emby Server could access it.  Emby opens your m3u8, chooses a stream from provider 3 which was the best.  Emby requests the stream from the provider which is working fine for 10 minutes but then has issues and you want to switch streams.

The original set of streams from the different providers no longer exist because that came from your webserver but you've been following the manifest from provider 3 for 10 minutes. All we've done is create a lot of work that does nothing for us at all.

It would need to be done similar to what was mentioned earlier in the thread.

[Spaceboy 2498]

or emby could just implement the already coded 2.5 years ago tvnext functionality....

[EODCrafter 180]

8 hours ago, cayars said:

Not sure if you understand how this works.

Not really interested in the "How" but the fact that it "Doesn't"

[samsung2100 21]

On 23/12/2022 at 16:38, EODCrafter said:

Not really interested in the "How" but the fact that it "Doesn't"

My as you say Mock setup works great!

[EODCrafter 180]

9 hours ago, samsung2100 said:

My as you say Mock setup works great!

Not practical like that.