Regarding the loading of M3U files and the loading of guide data

[hbabyl 1]

Hello Developer, I am using version 4.9.0.30 and have encountered the following issues with the live TV component:

1. M3U Loading Issue: After adding multiple M3U lists, only channels from the first list are loaded. Subsequent lists don't seem to take effect even after refreshing. Is there a way to load all lists simultaneously? (Multiple M3U sources are needed as backup since channels often become unavailable.)

2. EPG Data Aggregation: Similar to the first issue, only the first added EPG source is loaded. There's no way to merge or prioritize EPG data from multiple sources. The current workaround requires manually assigning EPG sources to individual channels, which contradicts the purpose of adding multiple EPGs. Ideally, the system should sequentially match EPG data across all added sources (e.g., check EPG A first, then fall back to EPG B if no match is found, etc.).

3. Time-Shift/Catch-Up Functionality: Does the live TV component support time-shifting for live streams? Some IPTV sources provide catch-up content (e.g., in APTV, I can rewind within a certain timeframe), but this feature doesn't seem available in Emby.

4. Web Playback Stuttering: During web playback, streams often freeze after a few seconds. Manually skipping ahead briefly resumes playback for ~10 seconds before freezing again. What might be causing this?

5. Forced Transcoding in Official Clients: While third-party clients allow "Direct Play" (bypassing transcoding), the official client always transcodes live streams (visible in playback stats). Could an option for direct playback be added to improve efficiency?

6. EPG/Channel List Refresh Issues: The "Refresh Guide Data" button in settings doesn't appear to update channel data from M3U files. This might be a translation issue (I'm a non-native English speaker), but the refresh behavior seems inconsistent.

Let me know if further clarification is needed!

[Carlo 4560]

Hi @hbabyl

Please upload your current Emby server log file for us to take a look at.

Carlo

[Luke 42077]

Hi, you can learn how to provide that here:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

[hbabyl 1]

After adding a new m3u link last night, I observed again. The EPG data does match multiple EPG links separately. I might have made an incorrect observation earlier due to insufficient attention - my apologies. Currently, the first issue still exists: it remains unclear why the channels in the m3u file don't seem to be fully loaded.

I've attached three m3u files corresponding to the first, second, and third m3u links shown in the initial screenshot. These are all local projects deployed via Docker on my NAS, which is why you'll see local network IPs as playback addresses. For reference, I've also included screenshots of me directly opening these m3u files with PotPlayer on my local computer - most channels in these lists can play normally.

If you open these three files (though playback won't work), you should notice the channel counts don't match up. The three lists combined should contain at least 800-900 channels, but Emby only loaded about 500. I can't determine why this discrepancy exists. Additionally, as shown in the screenshots, many channels fail to play (error details can be checked in the logs and screenshots), yet these same channels work perfectly when played locally on my computer (comparison screenshots attached).

For your reference, the Docker project for tv3 is as follows: [tv3 project details here]

 

docker image pull: docker pull doubebly/doube-ofiii:1.0.5

docker image run: docker run -d --name=doube-ofiii -p 50002:5000 -v /home/users.json:/app/config/users.json --restart=always doubebly/doube-ofiii:1.0.5

Among them, /home/users.json requires you to create a users.json file in the home directory of the VPS and configure the following json content. Of course, you can also customize the path.
json:

{
"Double001": "20250220235900",
"Double002": "20250210235900"
}

Double001 is the token, and 20250220235900 is the expiration time.
20250220235900 means February 20, 2025, 23:59:00. The time must follow this format. Remember to restart the container after editing the file.

The subscription address is: http://ip:port/Sub?type=m3u&token=Double001

The Double001 and Double002 above are two different tokens, and the following time is the expiration time of the token. 20250220235900 is valid for the token on February 20, and 20250210235900 is for February 10, which was yesterday, so all tokens are invalid. Using expired tokens for subscription is invalid.

 

tv1.m3u tv2.m3u tv3.m3u embyserver (2).txt

[Carlo 4560]

Hi,

The problem is duplicate data in the tvg-id & tvg-name fields.

Carlo

[hbabyl 1]

Thank you for your reply.

1. Perhaps the tag IDs have some overlap, but they actually represent different video sources. Is it possible to display them independently? Or, similar to how different resolution versions of movies and TV shows are handled, could a secondary menu be provided to manually select which source to play? (This is how some professional live stream playback software handles it.)

2. The tv2 m3u file provided above offers 24-hour playback. Can Emby provide a playback menu based on the EPG file? (The iOS app APTV supports this, and there are also some Android apps that support it.)

3. What causes the playback failures shown in the screenshots? Can this be optimized in future versions? These channels that fail to play work perfectly fine when I directly play the m3u file using the local player PotPlayer, so it shouldn't be due to network issues.

[Carlo 4560]

I tried to find an example of the iOS app APTV menu you mentioned in #2 but wasn't able to find an example. Could you provide a picture or two of the menu based on the EPG you're referring to?

For #1 & #3, I can tell you the next Emby Server version is going to have a new Live TV subsystem in it that will allow better control of streams with the ability to have stacked streams of a channel with different sources. Playback will work a bit differently as well which may help the issue you see in #3.

[hbabyl 1]

Hello, I have recorded a usage video for reference. The green text "直播" indicates that the channel is a live stream. "回看" means the channel supports playback of programs within a certain time frame (the specific number of days available for replay depends on the video source provider). After clicking in, "正在直播" indicates the current live program. By scrolling through the EPG list to earlier time slots, you will see the blue text "回看" button. Clicking on the corresponding program menu will play the video stream for that specific time slot. In other words, 1) the current program source must inherently support replay, and 2) the EPG file must also be able to retrieve earlier time slots, not just the current day and beyond.

 

Edited February 13, 2025 by hbabyl

[Carlo 4560]

Thank you for the explanation. What you're referring to is generally referred to as "Replay TV".
This isn't something currently supported by Emby but could possibly be added in a future version.

This would be a good request to add here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/forum/98-feature-requests/

Carlo