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NextPVR for Live TV only


kanipek
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kanipek

I currently have NextPVR installed/configured for use with Kodi - mostly for doing one off recording(s) also for Live TV. It works very well for me.

 

I am a long time Kodi user, love it but it can be a difficult beast to tame for those not used to it. So I am chomping at the bit to make the switch to Emby for all TV's in the house. The only thing stopping me from doing that is - and this is not a slam in any way - Live TV for me from Emby is crazy slow for channel changing and way to temperamental, just quits working randomly. I think that the problem lies with my provider and how they are encoding the channels (MP4 with AC3 audio instead of AAC audio) which means that Emby trans-codes everything instead of direct playing.

 

So I was wondering if I can use the NextPVR plugin for just Live TV and let Emby handle the recording (which it does exceptionally well)?

 

Thanks for reading and any help you can provide!

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kanipek

This is our local CATV company here. It is clear QAM digital cable. I am not sure what their thinking is on how they encode the channels. It may have something to do with compatibility among the various brands of TV? We don't need a decoder unless subscribing to premium content so a lot of there customer base, myself included are plugging straight into the TV (or in my case tuners).

 

I don't suppose Emby could be made to except MP4 with AC3 audio for direct playing?

 

Anyways that is why I was wondering about using NextPVR for Live TV only.

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kanipek

Yes several HDHR Connects and 2 HDHR Primes 1 with cable card

Edited by kanipek
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  • Solution

There is no way that adding an extra layer in between will be better or faster, so instead we should look at whatever issue you're having with playing live tv.

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kanipek

I am all for that.

 

Original post here:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/49853-android-tv-live-tv-no-audiono-video-just-a-spinning-circle/

 

Should we continue there or here?

 

Should Emby be able to direct play channels with h.264 video and AC3 audio?

 

Thanks for the assistance!

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Should Emby be able to direct play channels with h.264 video and AC3 audio?

 

If the device you're playing from supports those within the mpegts container, then yes.

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kanipek

I just tried Emby Theater (on windows 7) and it is direct playing. So that is good. Not sure where to go from here.

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PrincessClevage

I just tried Emby Theater (on windows 7) and it is direct playing. So that is good. Not sure where to go from here.

All my channels presented from nextpvr and played on ET desktop (windows 10) are transcoding. Should they be direct play?
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arrbee99

All my channels presented from nextpvr and played on ET desktop (windows 10) are transcoding. Should they be direct play?

 

It would certainly be nice.

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Smok@zz

I have noticed that when playing live tv from EMBY when its in control of the tuner will transcode every single channel.  This is consistent for my TV clients (Nexus Player and Sony XBR w/ AndroidTV) except for PC and Galaxy Phones which is not affected and it will direct play.  This behavior is true regardless of using the NextPVR plugin or Native functionality.  

 

However, if i use the NextPVR plugin directly from Kodi - it direct plays within a few seconds and there is no transcoding what so ever.  This piece is what keeps me from using the Emby apps because transcoding is flaky on my setup for some reason.  FFMPEG always takes a dump (which i have brought up before in another thread) and because of that I have been dependent on Kodi for Live TV and use the Emby plugin for my DVR/Movies/Photos etc.  

 

I dont know what makes the Kodi plugin different than the Emby one (other than author) but the Kodi one has it figured out that it just goes directly to NextPVR and streams the channel without transcoding.  If the Emby team can figure that out, that would go a long way into converting users from needing to use these 3rd party apps.  Or at least it would convert me :)

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arrbee99

So, if anyone's interested, tried playing, in succession -

 

a channel via the PC's DVB-S card in Chrome and got transcoding

same channel via IPTV in Chrome and got transcoding

same channel via the PC's DVB-S card in ET and got transcoding

same channel via IPTV in ET and got transcoding

same channel via the PC's DVB-S card in Ember for Emby and got Direct Playing

same channel via IPTV in Ember for Emby and got Direct Playing

 

This is all on the same Windows 10 PC, using NextPVR which is also used for the IPTV bit.

 

EDIT: Think the server log that ends in 9648.TXT is the useful one, the other doesn't matter

 

EDIT Again: something to do with this ?

 

2017-08-18 10:41:51.5993 Info App: [NextPvr] Start GetTimer Async, retrieve the 'Pending' recordings
2017-08-18 10:41:51.6466 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 200 to ::1. Time: 55ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/Users/3077cb58b5c74e939e52c5d5cdb70270/Items/1d24d7201e823b6327e30a438478df9e 
2017-08-18 10:41:51.6466 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/Items/1d24d7201e823b6327e30a438478df9e/PlaybackInfo?UserId=3077cb58b5c74e939e52c5d5cdb70270&StartTimeTicks=0&AutoOpenLiveStream=true&MaxStreamingBitrate=140000000. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/60.0.3112.90 Safari/537.36
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7353 Info App: User policy for Family. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7514 Info App: Cannot DirectPlay due to unknown content bitrate
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7514 Info App: Cannot DirectStream due to unknown content bitrate
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7514 Info App: Profile: Unknown Profile, Path: http://192.168.1.240:8096, isEligibleForDirectPlay: False, isEligibleForDirectStream: False
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7663 Info App: Cannot DirectPlay due to unknown content bitrate
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7663 Info App: Cannot DirectStream due to unknown content bitrate
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7663 Info App: Profile: Unknown Profile, Path: http://192.168.1.240:8096, isEligibleForDirectPlay: False, isEligibleForDirectStream: False
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7984 Info App: Opening channel stream from Next Pvr, external channel Id: 7168
2017-08-18 10:41:51.7984 Info App: [NextPvr] Start ChannelStream

server-63638647411.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-8007e3a6-37c3-4b60-8c3d-d0b734d68902.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-75706883-8d9d-4500-b5a2-059dc1d10eb3.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-f145664c-675c-4afb-99d8-3a8689478ffc.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-e0edf69c-c2fd-4d6b-b351-39e3c94ff187.txt

server-63638649648.txt

Edited by arrbee99
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haroldmchugh

Would like to piggy back on this topic.  Trying to Direct Play Live TV from NextPVR.  My Nexus 6P is my only device that does not force a transcode or directstream.  Can anyone suggest a resource to find a streamer that can direct play this darn mpeg2 acc ts format/container.  Trying to elimante server CPU loading.  We watch up to 4 channels at a time.  Have tried M-boxes, Matcicom Q2, Mi Box, Firestick, etc...  So frustrated.  Don't want to buy more hardware without knowing what would work.  Perfer Android TV over Android.  I know limited options on the Android TV, but just wishing.

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kanipek

Would like to piggy back on this topic.  Trying to Direct Play Live TV from NextPVR.  My Nexus 6P is my only device that does not force a transcode or directstream.  Can anyone suggest a resource to find a streamer that can direct play this darn mpeg2 acc ts format/container.  Trying to elimante server CPU loading.  We watch up to 4 channels at a time.  Have tried M-boxes, Matcicom Q2, Mi Box, Firestick, etc...  So frustrated.  Don't want to buy more hardware without knowing what would work.  Perfer Android TV over Android.  I know limited options on the Android TV, but just wishing.

 

The Nvidia Shield does Direct Play live TV. It is a little tricky figuring it out. Some of the things that I did may help solve your issue too.

 

1 - If you are using hardware transcoding I recommend disabling that on Emby Server - http://localhost:8096/web/encodingsettings.html

     I have Nvidia hardware - others might work better?

2 - I would recommend for whatever device you are using - for the Audio settings in the device turn Surround sound off.

3 - Update your Android TV device to the Beta version of Emby Go here to sign up ->  https://play.google.com/apps/testing/tv.emby.embyatv

4 - Install VLC

5 - In Options for Emby - Set Max streaming rate to Auto, Audio Output to Direct, check "Direct stream Live TV", check "Attempt to use VLC for Live TV"

 

This is what fixed Live TV on my shield. Turning surround sound off will fix audio going out of sync issue - a VLC problem hopefully will be fixed in the future.

Using these settings allows Direct Play of any of my channels, channel tuning time is still a bit long 5-6 seconds but much improved over 15-20 seconds.

 

Have a mix of mpeg2/AC3 channels and mp4/AC3 channels from my CATV provider these steps work well with all of those, a couple have slightly longer tuning times.

 

Be aware that Direct Play will not allow you pause the stream your watching it is Direct from the tuner, if you do desire to pause the stream hitting pause will give you a prompt to switch to Direct Streaming/transcoding - which works a bit spotty, at least for me.

 

Disabling/Enabling Hardware acceleration has very little effect on my server when Emby is transcoding it's around 0-2% CPU utilization disabled around 0-1% when enabled. My server is an I7 x980, Win 7 x64 Pro, 12GB RAM (circa 2009) - high end? less capable servers will of course see higher utilization of resources.

 

Hopefully these steps will help you out, let us know how it works out for you.

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haroldmchugh

The Nvidia Shield does Direct Play live TV. It is a little tricky figuring it out. Some of the things that I did may help solve your issue too.

 

1 - If you are using hardware transcoding I recommend disabling that on Emby Server - http://localhost:8096/web/encodingsettings.html

     I have Nvidia hardware - others might work better?

2 - I would recommend for whatever device you are using - for the Audio settings in the device turn Surround sound off.

3 - Update your Android TV device to the Beta version of Emby Go here to sign up ->  https://play.google.com/apps/testing/tv.emby.embyatv

4 - Install VLC

5 - In Options for Emby - Set Max streaming rate to Auto, Audio Output to Direct, check "Direct stream Live TV", check "Attempt to use VLC for Live TV"

 

This is what fixed Live TV on my shield. Turning surround sound off will fix audio going out of sync issue - a VLC problem hopefully will be fixed in the future.

Using these settings allows Direct Play of any of my channels, channel tuning time is still a bit long 5-6 seconds but much improved over 15-20 seconds.

 

Have a mix of mpeg2/AC3 channels and mp4/AC3 channels from my CATV provider these steps work well with all of those, a couple have slightly longer tuning times.

 

Be aware that Direct Play will not allow you pause the stream your watching it is Direct from the tuner, if you do desire to pause the stream hitting pause will give you a prompt to switch to Direct Streaming/transcoding - which works a bit spotty, at least for me.

 

Disabling/Enabling Hardware acceleration has very little effect on my server when Emby is transcoding it's around 0-2% CPU utilization disabled around 0-1% when enabled. My server is an I7 x980, Win 7 x64 Pro, 12GB RAM (circa 2009) - high end? less capable servers will of course see higher utilization of resources.

 

Hopefully these steps will help you out, let us know how it works out for you.

Thanks for the info.  I have tried every combination of settings and found that the streaming device always seems to be the problem.  Unfortunately I cannot afford a shield for all of my family's TV's.  I will give the Emby Go beta a try.  Still interested if anyone else has found a more economical streamer which works well.  Cheers kanipek!

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arrbee99

Would anyone know if anything is happening regarding NextPVR transcoding in general, regardless of player ? Any settings we can try ?

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Would anyone know if anything is happening regarding NextPVR transcoding in general, regardless of player ? Any settings we can try ?

 

Can you please be more specific? if you would like to use next pvr for live tv only, you can now do that here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50144-32282-new-next-pvr-option/

 

Thanks.

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