Freezing often when streaming M3U live TV

[Micro8Me 1]

Emby Version 4.7.14.0
Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.0-89-generic x86_64) headless
16gb RAM, NVMe
Intel Jasper Lake N5105
iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics - 23.2.4
Local Only, 1gbps+ LAN

All other media I have tried (including 4k at 150+ Mbps) streams great no matter the player (FireTV, Firefox/Windows, Android, etc) or quality settings. The driver for the Jasper Lake GPU was a PITA to install but I got it figured out and got QuickSync working great.

The problem comes when I attempt to stream from a Live TV M3U which then freezes/buffers every 5-10 seconds consistently. If I pause it and wait a few minutes, it will fill the buffer and then play smoothly until the buffer runs out again. This exact problem happens no matter the player or the player's settings, and either transcoding or directplay.

I have ruled out the M3U source as the problem because all other ways I stream the same M3U source, it works like normal; including on the old Emby server.

Logs and relevant info attached. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

 

ryan@server:/mnt/md0$ vainfo
Trying display: wayland
Trying display: x11
error: can't connect to X server!
Trying display: drm
libva info: VA-API version 1.19.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_19
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.19 (libva 2.19.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel iHD driver for Intel(R) Gen Graphics - 23.2.4 ()
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointStats
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointEncPicture
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileVP9Profile1            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile1            : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileVP9Profile3            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile3            : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileHEVCMain422_10         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444            : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP
      VAProfileHEVCMain444_10         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444_10         : VAEntrypointEncSliceLP

 

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-directstream-0a4343ca-9674-48c5-84d3-e448bde41c77_1.txt hardware_detection-63836363076.txt

Edited November 24, 2023 by Micro8Me

[Luke 37191]

Hi, the packaging on the server is just not happening quickly enough:

19:05:21.345 elapsed=00:00:18.09 frame=  369 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:07.63 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.422x    
19:05:21.845 elapsed=00:00:18.59 frame=  378 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:07.98 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.429x    
19:05:22.247 elapsed=00:00:19.09 frame=  388 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:08.30 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.435x    
19:05:22.749 elapsed=00:00:19.60 frame=  394 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:08.53 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.435x    
19:05:23.249 elapsed=00:00:20.10 frame=  401 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:08.76 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.436x    
19:05:23.848 elapsed=00:00:20.69 frame=  408 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:08.98 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.434x    
19:05:24.549 elapsed=00:00:21.30 frame=  417 fps= 20 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:09.28 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.436x    
19:05:25.150 elapsed=00:00:21.90 frame=  423 fps= 19 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:09.45 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.432x    
19:05:25.549 elapsed=00:00:22.40 frame=  426 fps= 19 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:09.60 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.429x    
19:05:26.150 elapsed=00:00:23.00 frame=  430 fps= 19 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:09.70 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.422x    
19:05:26.653 elapsed=00:00:23.50 frame=  438 fps= 19 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:09.94 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.423x    
19:05:27.255 elapsed=00:00:24.00 frame=  447 fps= 19 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:10.24 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.427x    
19:05:27.956 elapsed=00:00:24.70 frame=  457 fps= 18 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:10.58 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.428x    
19:05:28.757 elapsed=00:00:25.40 frame=  466 fps= 18 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:10.86 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.427x    
19:05:29.157 elapsed=00:00:25.90 frame=  469 fps= 18 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:00:10.98 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=0.424x 

Notice how it says fps= 18. 18fps is not fast enough to be playable.

So now the question is,  is this caused by the performance of your server machine, or connection to the remote server hosting your m3u.

[Micro8Me 1]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

So now the question is,  is this caused by the performance of your server machine, or connection to the remote server hosting your m3u.

Ah, not enough frames, makes sense. While I investigate if there could be any impediment to the connection to the M3U source, where would you recommend I start looking for performance issues? Maybe FFMPEG CPU usage? I've had Glances running a few times while streaming the M3U and haven't seen anything too out of the ordinary. Is there anything specific I should be looking for?

I greatly appreciate the help Luke and all the help from your past posts on this forum. You made the last few years with Emby a breeze to configure and use.

[Micro8Me 1]

16 hours ago, Luke said:

So now the question is,  is this caused by the performance of your server machine, or connection to the remote server hosting your m3u.

@LukeTurns out the problem was my connection to the source (but not the source itself). This new Emby server was behind a 2nd NAT, and when I put it directly facing the WAN I started seeing 80-100 fps in the logs and it played perfectly. Then I put it behind just the first NAT and those numbers dropped to 50-70 fps on the same M3U stream, but it still played fine. The problem was the second NAT (which unfortunately is necessary for my home network) that really made the reported fps drop to the unusable range.

So I know this is probably completely unrelated to Emby, and I'm sorry if this is wasting your time, but, how would I go about diagnosing this issue? Nothing else behind the 2nd NAT has any issues with latency or throughput or dropped connections. So why is this M3U source being such a PITA behind a few simple NATs? I'm confounded. Could modifying the HTTP Header or referrer header in the Live TV source options help with any of this?

[Luke 37191]

Quote

Could modifying the HTTP Header or referrer header in the Live TV source options help with any of this?

It's possible that depending on these values the provider may allow different amounts of bandwidth. I would say it's unlikely but it is technically possible.

You could try taking some of the urls in the m3u and downloading them with a browser, and seeing how fast that goes.