Playing M3U Direct From Source

[olijo 1]

Is there anyway to play the m3u links direct from the source rather than play it via the emby server?

 

Thanks

[Luke 37186]

Hi, we try to direct play whenever possible. The best thing to do is please provide the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[olijo 1]

Hi 

 

I'm not sure you understood what I asked.

 

At the minute when I play something on my device the chain of events is this 

 

m3u source -> emby server -> users device.

 

Plex does 

 

M3u source -> users device

 

saving on emby server upload and bandwith.

 

Hope that makes sense....

[Luke 37186]

I understand, but what I'm looking to do is go over a specific example so that we can learn why.

[olijo 1]

Is this expected behaviour?

 

Thats the only question I have or is it possibly a setting I have missed somewhere?

[Luke 37186]

It's not necessarily expected. The best thing to do is please provide the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[Jdiesel 1114]

I believe this is necessary for live TV features like recording, pausing, and rewinding. Emby does not direct play but rather direct streams Live TV meaning it will copy the audio and video streams but repackage it into its own container that is supported by the playback client. I personally like these features and have plenty of bandwidth so it isn't an issue passing everything through the server.

 

You didn't mention which playback clients you use. One option is to use Kodi with the Kodi for Emby addon for your Emby content and the Simple IPTV addon to view your m3u streams directly. I've done it this way will good success and everything is nicely integrated, however you of course loose all of the Live TV management through Emby.

[horstepipe 356]

I believe this is necessary for live TV features like recording, pausing, and rewinding. Emby does not direct play but rather direct streams Live TV meaning it will copy the audio and video streams but repackage it into its own container that is supported by the playback client. I personally like these features and have plenty of bandwidth so it isn't an issue passing everything through the server.

@@Luke any chance to add an option to direct play those content (so that the links are being passed directly to the clients). I'm aware that this will disable features like recording, pausing etc.

[Luke 37186]

Depends. We can't do that from app store apps, so that would only leave a few left over anyway.

[samuelqwe 313]

any chance to add an option to direct play those content (so that the links are being passed directly to the clients). I'm aware that this will disable features like recording, pausing etc.

I think it does if the format is .ts but not if it’s an HLS stream (.m3u8). It easy to add &format=ts at the end of a url to switch the format, and make it direct play.

 

You could try it and report back

Edited September 23, 2018 by samuelqwe

[horstepipe 356]

I think it does if the format is .ts but not if it’s an HLS stream (.m3u8). It easy to add &format=ts at the end of a url to switch the format, and make it direct play.

 

You could try it and report back

Thanks for the hint

at the end of my url is &output=ts

is it the same as &format=ts?

 

Worth to mention that there're credentials (username=xxx&password=xxx)in my url, maybe that's why it is not direct playing?

[ebr 14949]

I think it does if the format is .ts but not if it’s an HLS stream (.m3u8). It easy to add &format=ts at the end of a url to switch the format, and make it direct play.

 

You could try it and report back

 

That isn't going to make a difference.  As Luke mentioned, this isn't viable from any of the app store apps so that really limits its usability.

[samuelqwe 313]

Thanks for the hint

at the end of my url is &output=ts

is it the same as &format=ts?

 

Worth to mention that there're credentials (username=xxx&password=xxx)in my url, maybe that's why it is not direct playing?

 

Yeah, it's the same. In my experience these streams could be direct played, but that may not work with every IPTV provider. I have only seen direct playing from my iPhone, otherwise it seemed to direct stream.

Edited September 23, 2018 by samuelqwe

[EODCrafter 180]

@@Luke any chance to add an option to direct play those content (so that the links are being passed directly to the clients). I'm aware that this will disable features like recording, pausing etc.

I'm not very experienced but won't VLC or OBS very simply achieve this with Stream Network stream...If you don't want to use any of Emby's cool as hell features?

Edited September 24, 2018 by EODCrafter

[Carlo 4331]

That's what I was wondering.  Why would you NOT want Emby to handle the stream for you.  In general you will get more usefulness out of it this way. IE.One stream can be shared with many people. Can be recorded, can be transcoded so the client will always be able to play it.

 

Depending on your stream provider they may limit you to your home IP for all streams making the ability to play back direct impossible if not on your home network.  Many providers limit the number of streams you can use at the same time, thus you always want to be able to share the stream if possible and allow Emby to monitor the count.

 

There are a ton of apps that can play back from m3u files including VLC.  In VLC you can just open the M3U file and have all channels as a playlist to pick from.

So there are already numerous GOOD tools to do what you ask for.  Why change Emby functionality for this?

[samuelqwe 313]

That's what I was wondering.  Why would you NOT want Emby to handle the stream for you.  In general you will get more usefulness out of it this way. IE.One stream can be shared with many people. Can be recorded, can be transcoded so the client will always be able to play it.

 

Depending on your stream provider they may limit you to your home IP for all streams making the ability to play back direct impossible if not on your home network.  Many providers limit the number of streams you can use at the same time, thus you always want to be able to share the stream if possible and allow Emby to monitor the count.

 

There are a ton of apps that can play back from m3u files including VLC.  In VLC you can just open the M3U file and have all channels as a playlist to pick from.

So there are already numerous GOOD tools to do what you ask for.  Why change Emby functionality for this?

 

I agree with cayars. I personally prefer that Emby handles the streams because then everything is centralized and controlled by one app. I don't know if Emby actually shares the streams if two users are playing the same channel, but it probably should (or will eventually?). It also helps that my server is hardwired, while some of my clients are on WiFi, so the server can build up a buffer, and then send it to my device.

Edited September 27, 2018 by samuelqwe

[Carlo 4331]

It does share the stream.

[horstepipe 356]

I did not ask to replace the current solution, but to add an optional setting to make the streams direct play.

I’m aware that I’d lose the DVR functionality.

But the big advantage would be that you won’t be limited to the (primarily) upstream bandwidth of your emby server.

For sure this makes only sense to people who give access only to persons they trust (friends and family), as direct playing would also mean passing the credentials from the IPTV provider to the clients.

I am also aware that this would only work for non App Store client apps :-)

So I didn’t have much hope that this feature will be implemented, but worth to ask.

[samuelqwe 313]

It does share the stream.

Couldn’t tell in my testing, but good to know!

[horstepipe 356]

It does share the stream.

This indeed is an interesting information, thank you!