Possible to watch a file that's streaming to a library?

[Nodecam 0]

I have a video source that streams to the filesystem, and I want to watch it in Emby while it's streaming.  Right now I'm manually refreshing the library to get Emby to recognize the "new" length of the video file, but the player isn't aware of the increased length unless I exit playback and restart it.  This is pretty annoying - the closer to "live" I'm watching, the more often I have to stop the playback and refresh the client.

I wasn't sure exactly what to search for, so I couldn't figure it out on my own, but it seems like it should be pretty trivial.  Is there some obvious solution that I'm missing here?

Edited April 16, 2021 by Nodecam

[Luke 42085]

Hi, is there a URL for it? Then you could use strm files.

[Carlo 4561]

What do you mean the source is streamed to the file system?

Is this another program recording something and storing it in an Emby library? Sort of like a 3rd party DVR/PVR app?

If so you will see exactly what you see.  Emby will only see a partial file and can only play up to what it knew (duration wise) at the start of playback.  You can always exit, refresh the media and continue but that gets old.

If this is another PVR/DVR program which one are you using?  Maybe we would have an idea for you.

Edited April 16, 2021 by cayars

[Nodecam 0]

It's a custom program that's capturing an authenticated stream to the filesystem via StreamLink.  I could manually extract the URLs out and stream them, but that's more work than the hack-y approach I'm taking right now.  Sounds like no easy solutions - I was hoping there was some switch I could flip somewhere or a plugin I could add

[Nodecam 0]

I will dig into a possible strm file solution though, thanks Luke, I wouldn't have thought of that on my own.

[Carlo 4561]

What program is writing this info to your disc?

[Nodecam 0]

StreamLink

[Nodecam 0]

I created a .strm file with the URL as "file://path/to/file.mp4" and it let me play it back - I have to test what happens when I catch up to live and report back.  Very very promising though!

[Carlo 4561]

27 minutes ago, Nodecam said:

StreamLink

Mind if I ask what the source of this content is?

I ask because you may be able to set these steams up directly in Emby with the IPTV plugin.  Have you tried that?

[Nodecam 0]

Unfortunately the IPTV plugin isn't a clean option for this one - there's a whole workflow (that's hidden inside proprietary software) building the links that get sent to streamlink.  I'm being a little cagey because dumping the stream to disk is likely a TOS violation, so it's a little bit of a grey area, and I don't want to get anyone in trouble.

Looks like a "file://path/to/file.mp4" strm has the same challenges as just having the file in a library.

I suspected it would either be a simple thing, or not possible.  No worries, I'll see if I can figure something else out.

[Carlo 4561]

Possible for streamlink to feed iptv plugin vs dumping to file?