New Windows App - Live TV Error recovery

[Chillout 101]

My new Windows Emby app has been experiencing more frequent live TV (IPTV) faults where the broadcast immediately ends and kicks me back to the guide than when I was using the Theater App over the past couple years. 

Not sure if its the new app, i started watching the live tv channel on the Emby app while watching the same channel using the web app. 

The new Emby Windows app stops but the Web app keeps playing, so I'm thinking maybe its an issue with the WIndows app?   

Anyone else experiencing more issues with live tv and the new app?  

 

[d00zah 141]

Seeing the same thing. Had it happen to a number of different streams & finally switched back to Theater. Was planning to recreate the situation tomorrow & report. Glad it's not just me.

Edited December 24, 2024 by d00zah

[generiq 245]

What settings are you using for video?

[d00zah 141]

Defaults. It was a clean install this afternoon. Don't recall changing anything video-related.

Edit: All 'aborted' streams were direct playing.

Edited December 24, 2024 by d00zah

[generiq 245]

Try setting it to energy efficient. And maybe post a screenshot of the stats while playing. 

[Chillout 101]

My HTPC has an i9-12900, I wouldnt think its a performance issue..  The Emby Windows app runs locally on the HTPC server so its not a network issue either.

[generiq 245]

3 minutes ago, Chillout said:

My HTPC has an i9-12900, I wouldnt think its a performance issue..  The Emby Windows app runs locally on the HTPC server so its not a network issue either.

Not about performance. There are other variables I'm trying to rule out.

[d00zah 141]

Video set to 'energy efficient'. Failed same... dropped back to guide. Will recreate w/ logs tomorrow.

 

[generiq 245]

That looks good. The mpv log should provide more information. 

[d00zah 141]

10 minutes ago, generiq said:

That looks good. The mpv log should provide more information. 

Where might that be found? Server logs are easy... assuming new app has it's own?

ffmpeg-directstream-35f32603-8401-489b-9168-47ec2d438ce5_1.txt

Edited December 24, 2024 by d00zah

[softworkz 4463]

ffmpeg logs from the server for both cases (legacy + new app), and mpv log from the app (under Settings >> About >> Logfiles 

[Chillout 101]

Emby Windows stopped playback at around 9:22 mark while the Roku kept playing.  

(note, host server website address is included in the EmbyClient.txt log   -- I edited it out but it should be sanitized IMO)

2024-12-23 20:28:42.583 Info ConnectionManager: [ApiClient] Successfully reached server at https://hostip.com

 

 

mpv-20241223T210554721.txt EmbyClient.txt

Edited December 24, 2024 by Chillout

[generiq 245]

The mpv log ends before playback is started. So you'll need the corresponding server logs that softworkz asked for. It looks like right as the vo was selected, it ends, but no errors are shown. Maybe a hiccup between server and player?

[Chillout 101]

Any update to M3U Live TV not being reliable on the new Windows App?

I'd really like to use the WIndows App but live tv playback fails so often I have resorted to just using the web app.

Attached are my recent logs.

 

EmbyClient.txt mpv-20250117T181621280.txt

[softworkz 4463]

Could you please do the following?

• In the client, enable Debug Logging
  (same place where the logs are)
• Restart the client
• On the server, clear the transcoding-temp folder in case it's not empty
• Run scheduled task "Log Rotate"
• Start playback and keep playing until the error occurs
• In this moment, copy the complete transcoding-temp content to another place
  • Should it get deleted before you can copy it, you can install the Diagnostics plugin on the server
  • Go to Diagnostic Optoins on the server dashboard and at the bottom checkl "Analyze HLS Segment Output" and "Analyze Source Videos".
    This should buy you enough time to copy the transcoding-temp contents
• Collect the EmbyClient, mpv player, server and ffmpeg logs
• Zip them up, together with the transcoding-temp folder
• Updload the zip via the upload link I've sent you

Thanks!

[softworkz 4463]

Thanks a lot for the logs.

It turns out that this is caused due to a change in ffmpeg which causes HLS playlists to be reloaded only 3 times after which MPV ends playback.

The M3U source provides segmetns of 15s length, while Emby server retranscodes them to 3/6s segments. This causes segments in our playlist to be added "in waves", i.e. 5 segments are added all at the same time (not exactly, but approximately) and then no more segments are added for the next 15s. The HLS demuxer in ffmpeg reloads the playlist in intervals of the segment length, so it can easily happen that  it needs to reload the playlist more than 3 times until a new segment appears in the playlist.

Fixed for the next update.

Thanks

 

 

[Chillout 101]

Thanks for figuring it out softworkz!    I'll report back if I still have issues.

[Chillout 101]

The change has improved reliability by a factor of 5x, so instead of failing after 5 min it typically lasts 25 min before stopping.  The webapp keeps playing without issues when watching Live tv on the same channel at the same time.

With my other IPTV source there are no issues using the Windows app so it must use segment lengths that are more compatible with the Windows app.

I'll take the partial win with the improved reliability and one of my sources works fine. TY

 

 

[softworkz 4463]

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you try whether the following makes a differece (for the non-working prov):

• After live tv playback start, wait a minute or a half
• Then pause for a minute
• Resume playback and see whether it's still stopping at some time

Thanks

[Chillout 101]

That doesnt seem to help... I paused live TV the entire time while watching the transcoding folder add the .ts files until they all disappeared after about 100 segments.  I'm assuming thats when it stopped and cleaned itself up.

I dont know if its any significance, but the M3U that works has larger .ts files than the one that doesnt.

Edited January 30 by Chillout

[softworkz 4463]

21 minutes ago, Chillout said:

That doesnt seem to help... I paused live TV the entire time while watching the transcoding folder add the .ts files until they all disappeared after about 100 segments.

This doesn't sound like what I've been asking for...

[Chillout 101]

Sorry,  the first time I played, paused for 60 sec, then resumed playback. It stopped and returned me back to the guide after 10min.