Will Direct Playback of live tv ever come back?

[pünktchen 1259]

Since maybe a half year, probably since forcing transcoding/remuxing of *.ts recordings, the best you can get with "Direct Streaming" option enabled is a remuxed live tv stream. Even with vlc enabled. In the past i was able to direct play the http stream without any server side impact. This was of course so much faster! Will this ever come back? What's the reason that the stream has to be copied by ffmpeg?

[Luke 37132]

Hmm, I don't believe that should be causing live tv to transcode. I think it is probably happening for another reason. Can we look at an example? thanks !

[pünktchen 1259]

I didn't said they are transcoding. They are streamcopied were they direct played in the past.

[Jdiesel 1114]

Isn't there a setting to not direct stream? Of course you don't get PVR features when you disable it.

[Luke 37132]

have you configured an internet bitrate limit for either your emby user or for the server globally? i wonder if it is incorrectly detecting the MP url as a remote url. The transcoding reason says bitrate limit was the reason but the bitrate is fine.

[pünktchen 1259]

have you configured an internet bitrate limit for either your emby user or for the server globally? i wonder if it is incorrectly detecting the MP url as a remote url. The transcoding reason says bitrate limit was the reason but the bitrate is fine.

Yes, i have a global limit, but it doesn't make any difference if i clear this out.

Also if the bitrate was to high, shouldn't the stream get transcoded instead of streamcopied?

Anyway this is working perfectly in the mobile app. The problem is only with the Android TV app.

[pir8radio 1292]

Yes, i have a global limit, but it doesn't make any difference if i clear this out.

Also if the bitrate was to high, shouldn't the stream get transcoded instead of streamcopied?

Anyway this is working perfectly in the mobile app. The problem is only with the Android TV app.

 

Like @@Jdiesel said, is it possible your issue is the same as this: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/52023-transcoding-video-when-there-is-no-need-on-my-shieldtv/?p=501970

Read through that and the next 4 posts after that one.  It's possible I misunderstood your original post.   

Edited November 6, 2017 by pir8radio

[pünktchen 1259]

Like @@Jdiesel said, is it possible your issue is the same as this: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/52023-transcoding-video-when-there-is-no-need-on-my-shieldtv/?p=501970

Read through that and the next 4 posts after that one. It's possible I misunderstood your original post.

Yes, you misunderstood! I know that option, but i want it to direct play from source, not direct streaming through the server.

[Spaceboy 2500]

@@ebr deliberately forced this because of this inconsistent seek problems also encountered with .ts. The biggest downside imo is that fact that you can’t watch a complete in progress recording

[pünktchen 1259]

@@ebr deliberately forced this because of this inconsistent seek problems also encountered with .ts. The biggest downside imo is that fact that you can’t watch a complete in progress recording

But with a correct implementation it should only be forced for recordings, not live tv. Because in a live tv stream one cannot seek anyway.

[pir8radio 1292]

But with a correct implementation it should only be forced for recordings, not live tv. Because in a live tv stream one cannot seek anyway.

 

You can pause a live tv stream, go get something to eat, and come back and seek......  This is a basic feature of almost any cable/sat box now-a-days. 

Edited November 7, 2017 by pir8radio

[Luke 37132]

We have different rules for files vs live streams, so just because it is happening for a static files doesn't mean we're doing it for a live stream. It's like I said earlier, it's happening for some other reason. I'm sure @@ebr can give you an answer. Thanks.

[Spaceboy 2500]

You can pause a live tv stream, go get something to eat, and come back and seek...... This is a basic feature of almost any cable/sat box now-a-days.

thats not live tv in this scenario. As soon as you press pause it goes from direct play to direct stream Edited November 7, 2017 by Spaceboy

[pünktchen 1259]

You can pause a live tv stream, go get something to eat, and come back and seek......  This is a basic feature of almost any cable/sat box now-a-days. 

You cannot seek in a live stream!

Guess what these settop boxes are doing?! They are creating a tempory recording in the background. Some do this on demand when you press pause, some do this always automatically after tuning a channel.

The Emby app does the second right now. But in contrast to the settop boxes, Emby takes a really long time for this. That's why i would prefer the first approach with faster channel changing.

[ebr 14939]

@@ebr deliberately forced this because of this inconsistent seek problems also encountered with .ts. The biggest downside imo is that fact that you can’t watch a complete in progress recording

 

This is not correct in this instance.  If you don't have seek mode enabled, we do not force this to remux.

 

The Android TV app will direct stream without any sort of remuxing on the server if all conditions are correct for it.  I just tested this and my channel started playing in 3 seconds.  This is with our internal TV implementation, however.

 

Even when direct streaming, we do run through the server but I believe this is to support stream sharing on the tuner.

[pünktchen 1259]

This is not correct in this instance.  If you don't have seek mode enabled, we do not force this to remux.

There's no setting anymore to enable/disable seek mode. I guess you mean "Direct Streaming" disabled does enable "Seek mode"?

 

 

The Android TV app will direct stream without any sort of remuxing on the server if all conditions are correct for it.  I just tested this and my channel started playing in 3 seconds.  This is with our internal TV implementation, however.

 

Even when direct streaming, we do run through the server but I believe this is to support stream sharing on the tuner.

So what's the problem here? Does my ffmpeg log tell you something? Is only my app brocken? I will reinstall the app, but i'm pretty sure it won't change anything

[ebr 14939]

The log says it was because the bitrate was exceeded but then it stream copies.  Possibly related to this:

Input #0, mpegts, from 'http://192.168.0.2:4322/MPExtended/StreamingService/stream/DoStream?type=TV&provider=0&itemId=2&clientDescription=TV-2-20171105230112&profileName=Direct&startPosition=0&idleTimeout=30&identifier=TV-2-20171105230112':
  Duration: N/A, start: 1.027456, bitrate: N/A

Bitrate is unknown at that point - although we appear to be assuming 20Mb and that is within the limit the app requested.  This could be related to the external service somehow as I can statically stream using our internal implementation.

[pünktchen 1259]

The log says it was because the bitrate was exceeded but then it stream copies.  Possibly related to this:

Input #0, mpegts, from 'http://192.168.0.2:4322/MPExtended/StreamingService/stream/DoStream?type=TV&provider=0&itemId=2&clientDescription=TV-2-20171105230112&profileName=Direct&startPosition=0&idleTimeout=30&identifier=TV-2-20171105230112':
  Duration: N/A, start: 1.027456, bitrate: N/A

Bitrate is unknown at that point - although we appear to be assuming 20Mb and that is within the limit the app requested.  This could be related to the external service somehow as I can statically stream using our internal implementation.

The unknown bitrate is no problem for the Android mobile app. There it direct plays just fine.

[Spaceboy 2500]

The log says it was because the bitrate was exceeded but then it stream copies.  Possibly related to this:

Input #0, mpegts, from 'http://192.168.0.2:4322/MPExtended/StreamingService/stream/DoStream?type=TV&provider=0&itemId=2&clientDescription=TV-2-20171105230112&profileName=Direct&startPosition=0&idleTimeout=30&identifier=TV-2-20171105230112':
  Duration: N/A, start: 1.027456, bitrate: N/A

Bitrate is unknown at that point - although we appear to be assuming 20Mb and that is within the limit the app requested.  This could be related to the external service somehow as I can statically stream using our internal implementation.

 

this is also exactly the same as i have been reporting and it has been this way since you made the changes to help with seeking .ts. perhaps you didn't intend to force play through the server of recorded tv but that is what has happened

[Spaceboy 2500]

Is there any possibility to look at this further please?

[theniteow1 25]

Is there any possibility to look at this further please?

 

I agree, there used to be an option where you could literally just watch the stream and not have it muxed/transcoded on the server.  I miss this, as some TVs I don't care about about pausing fast forwarding, etc.  Rather just use the direct URL stream, and get to watching.

[ebr 14939]

I agree, there used to be an option where you could literally just watch the stream and not have it muxed/transcoded on the server.  I miss this, as some TVs I don't care about about pausing fast forwarding, etc.  Rather just use the direct URL stream, and get to watching.

 

The other thing you give up is stream sharing...

[theniteow1 25]

The other thing you give up is stream sharing...

 

So each stream will take up a tuner I assume you are saying?

[Luke 37132]

I didn't said they are transcoding. They are streamcopied were they direct played in the past.

 

We should be able to get this figured out.

[Luke 37132]

@@pünktchen, can you please repeat the test and provide both the ffmpeg and server log? thanks !