Live TV stopping with 2 clients on same channel

[BillOatman 575]

Crashes right out to the grid.  One client local (shield)  one client remote (strong windows laptop running Win10).  Either client watching the channel (308) was fine.  But with both clients on the same channel both clients would drop out to the guide grid after less than a minute.  We had this happen many times until I stopped watching and let the remote client watch the game.

 

Lots of exceptions in the log (attached). Started happening near the end of the log file. This is one of the exceptions:

 

2019-09-05 20:54:16.962 Error HttpServer: Error processing request

*** Error Report ***

Version: 4.2.1.0

Command line: C:\Users\woatm\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\EmbyServer.dll

Operating system: Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0

64-Bit OS: True

64-Bit Process: True

User Interactive: True

Runtime: file:///C:/Users/woatm/AppData/Roaming/Emby-Server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll

Processor count: 12

Program data path: C:\Users\woatm\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata

Application directory: C:\Users\woatm\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system

System.NullReferenceException: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

   at Emby.Server.Implementations.Library.MediaSourceManager.GetLiveStreamWithDirectStreamProvider(String id, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Api.BaseStreamingService.GetState(StreamRequest request, Boolean requiresOutputPath, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Api.Hls.BaseHlsService.ProcessRequest(StreamRequest request)

   at Emby.Server.Implementations.Services.ServiceController.GetTaskResult(Task task)

   at Emby.Server.Implementations.Services.ServiceHandler.ProcessRequestAsync(HttpListenerHost appHost, IRequest httpReq, IResponse httpRes, RestPath restPath, String responseContentType, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

   at Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.HttpListenerHost.RequestHandler(IRequest httpReq, ReadOnlyMemory`1 urlString, ReadOnlyMemory`1 host, ReadOnlyMemory`1 localPath, CancellationToken cancellationToken)

Source: Emby.Server.Implementations

TargetSite: Void MoveNext()

 

 

It was very very repeatable.  Also, I monitored the status on the web app after the first few times and the shield was direct playing while the server was transcoding for the remote client.

LiveTvCrash.log

Edited September 6, 2019 by BillOatman

[ebr 15664]

So there is no "crash" here - just playback stopping, correct?

[BillOatman 575]

Yes that would be technically correct.  The live TV stopped on both clients, and they both got dumped out to the tv grid.  But the clients still functioned afterwards.

Edited September 6, 2019 by BillOatman

[BillOatman 575]

Hi, tomorrow I'm expecting myself and 2 remote clients to be watching the same channels quite a bit.  

Is it known yet if that is the cause of the problem, and if there is anything I can do about it now (other than "don't do that" ) ?

[BillOatman 575]

Interestingly, I have these 2 clients on the same channel happening now, and it is working properly.  The shield is local and is the same as before., the Roku is remote at a different site than last time.  So it apparently is more complicated than just two clients on the same channel.  The type of client might come into play maybe.

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by BillOatman

[ebr 15664]

One was transcoding and one wasn't which means they weren't sharing the same stream.  I suspect that is the difference.

[BillOatman 575]

One was transcoding this time and one wasn't as well.  I looked at the remote connection the first time (when there was a problem) once I stopped the shield client, and it was transcoding for Emby theater as well.

So in both instances, the server was transcoding for one client but not the other.

[BillOatman 575]

So it happened again just now.  The same two clients that were working for a long while yesterday.  Different channel is the only difference (it's possible the shield connected to the channel first yesterday, versus the other way around tonight).

 

@@ebr may have called it right with transcoding.  This is the logged exception:

 

2019-09-09 20:02:15.243 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://127.0.0.1:8096/LiveTv/LiveStreamFiles/465c737db82e4554a8930953515796a0/stream.ts. UserAgent: VLC/3.0.1
2019-09-09 20:02:15.243 Error HttpServer: Error processing request
    *** Error Report ***
    Version: 4.2.1.0
    Command line: C:\Users\woatm\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\EmbyServer.dll
    Operating system: Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0
    64-Bit OS: True
    64-Bit Process: True
    User Interactive: True
    Runtime: file:///C:/Users/woatm/AppData/Roaming/Emby-Server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
    Processor count: 12
    Program data path: C:\Users\woatm\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata
    Application directory: C:\Users\woatm\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
    System.NullReferenceException: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
     at MediaBrowser.LiveTV.Api.ProgressiveFileCopier.WriteToAsync(Stream outputStream, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     at Emby.Server.Implementations.Services.ServiceHandler.ProcessRequestAsync(HttpListenerHost appHost, IRequest httpReq, IResponse httpRes, RestPath restPath, String responseContentType, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     at Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.HttpListenerHost.RequestHandler(IRequest httpReq, ReadOnlyMemory`1 urlString, ReadOnlyMemory`1 host, ReadOnlyMemory`1 localPath, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    Source: Emby.LiveTV
    TargetSite: Void MoveNext()
    
2019-09-09 20:02:15.243 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 500 to 127.0.0.1. Time: 1ms. http://127.0.0.1:8096/LiveTv/LiveStreamFiles/465c737db82e4554a8930953515796a0/stream.ts
2019-09-09 20:02:15.247 Info App: ProcessRun 'StreamTranscode 704603' Process exited with code 1
2019-09-09 20:02:15.247 Info App: FFMpeg exited with code 1

 

 

 

Full log attached. There were 3 ffmpeg logs in quick succession, so I grabbed them all and attached them as well.

It is fairly unusable as it is now.  Hopefully someone (@Luke) can have a look and figure it out soon.

 

 

 

EmbyLog.txt

ffmpegLog1.txt

ffmpegLog2.txt

ffmpegLog3.txt

[BillOatman 575]

@ebr  While I'm waiting, is there a way to configure the Emby server to not attempt to use the same stream when 2 clients request the same channel? 

I'm thinking that could be a stop gap until the problem is actually fixed.

[Luke 40072]

@ebr  While I'm waiting, is there a way to configure the Emby server to not attempt to use the same stream when 2 clients request the same channel? 

I'm thinking that could be a stop gap until the problem is actually fixed.

 

There isn't such a setting, sorry.

[BillOatman 575]

Thanks @@Luke, I took a shot   Any clues on this yet?

[BillOatman 575]

Any status or words of wisdom on this?  This weekend all 3 clients will be trying to watch the same channels frequently

[Luke 40072]

As a test, if you turn off hardware transcoding, does that have any impact?

[BillOatman 575]

I suspect I don't have it on unless it is on by default.  I have a pretty bare bones windows server with no special graphics cards. 

Plus, it's ffmpeg that's failing.  But I'll look tonight, thanks.  

Edited September 13, 2019 by BillOatman

[Luke 40072]

Let us know how that goes. Thanks.

[BillOatman 575]

It is on by default.  I turned it off so we'll see this weekend.

[blueray 0]

I have a similar problem. While watching a show, it suddenly stops and returns to the guide. I have to reconnect to the channel. Sometimes it says there is an error, but I go to another channel and then go back and it works. A short time later it stops and goes back to the guide. It happens on several channels.

[BillOatman 575]

@Luke  It did not happen today with hardware transcoding off.

I did notice it would stutter quite a bit if two were on the same channel though.

Edited September 16, 2019 by BillOatman

[Luke 40072]

@Luke  It did not happen today with hardware transcoding off.

I did notice it would stutter quite a bit if two were on the same channel though.

 

Ok, regarding hwa with quicksync, the next release will have an updated ffmpeg build, so we could see how that compares.

[BillOatman 575]

Sounds great!