IPTV Channel Looping/Playback Issues

[NND]

If skips in a program are caused by missing packets (you mentioned elsewhere packets arriving in bursts every 5-10 seconds or so), is it possible for NPVR to be coded to look for gaps in sequentially numbered packets, and then to explicitly request those packets that do not arrive to be resent?

[sub]

If skips in a program are caused by missing packets (you mentioned elsewhere packets arriving in bursts every 5-10 seconds or so), is it possible for NPVR to be coded to look for gaps in sequentially numbered packets, and then to explicitly request those packets that do not arrive to be resent?

You're using TS streams, so there is no missing packets - you have what has been made available. ie, we open a http stream to the server, and they send data, and we write the data to disk as it arrives. You'll end up with exactly what they sent us. It's over TCP, which has guaranteed deliver of packet data. It's basically like a pipe, and anything they send down it, we get at the other end.

If you have missing sections, it's likely your IPTV provider's server dropped the connection for some reason. When this happens, NextPVR tries to reconnect, and continues to write to the file. If you're missing like a minute of content, NextPVR was probably continuously trying to reconnect to your IPTV provider, but it was likely down for a minute or so. When it did eventually manage to reconnect, there would have been some period of missing content. We have no way to ask for the missing content - we can only open the stream, and accept what they give us.

(m3u8 works differently, and does arrive in bursts every 5-10 seconds, and doesn't use a long live connection. It uses lots of little connections downloading small files)

[mvallevand]

I usually watch recorded programs in Kodi, but I just verified that the skips are the same in both Kodi and when played directly in NextPVR.  I hadn't noticed before, but a program I recorded yesterday shows as being 21:30:54 long in Kodi, but the correct 1:04:58 in NextPVR.

There's something weird going on, though, with the file sizes of recorded programs.  Yesterday I recorded that same 1 hour program with 5 minutes of padding twice, three hours apart, on the same channel.  (I do that in case one of the recordings is not good.)  The first recording, which does have some skips in it, shows as the correct length in both Kodi and NextPVR, and is 361 MB.  The second recording, which shows as being 21:30:54 in Kodi, is 2.6 GB (over 7 times the size, but not 21 times the size).

361MB sounds like a crappy bitrate or is missing a lot of data.  2.6 sounds correct.  There are two timelines, one from the database and one from the file.  I would need your database and your file to see what might be the issue.

Martin

[sub]

It's not uncommon for streams from IPTV providers to be very shonky/crappy. You'll often notice when you do a quick check in a player like VLC - you'll see a couple of minutes of stream and think 'yeah that stream is absolutely fine', but if you were actually relying on it giving you a couple of hours of uninterrupted perfect streams...you often get problems.

If your IPTV provider is delivering perfect streams, I'd expect perfect recordings in NextPVR.

At the end of the day, NextPVR can't work miracles on crappy streams.

[sub]

There is registry settings we can set in NextPVR v4, which will show you information about disconnections etc.

[sub]

In NextPVR v5, I'm considering adding some information to recordings, so it's obvious to the user if their IPTV provider is having issues. Like a status saying something like "IPTV stream drop 6 times during recording"

[sub]

There's something weird going on, though, with the file sizes of recorded programs.  Yesterday I recorded that same 1 hour program with 5 minutes of padding twice, three hours apart, on the same channel.  (I do that in case one of the recordings is not good.)  The first recording, which does have some skips in it, shows as the correct length in both Kodi and NextPVR, and is 361 MB.  The second recording, which shows as being 21:30:54 in Kodi, is 2.6 GB (over 7 times the size, but not 21 times the size).

If you wanted to put those files somewhere, like dropbox or onedrive, and let me know the download link, I'm happy to download the files to take a closer look at them.

[NND]

Thanks, Sub. Since one of the files is over 2GB, finding a good platform to share them on wasn't easy. However, you can now download the two recordings from these links:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/oqxqskc5bp...00.ts/file

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zwvdjl04xy...00.ts/file

[mvallevand]

I download the big file and the ts file timeline wraps at packet 13661563. If I had to guess that is when the next show starts. You might need to remux it for proper playback on Kodi. Do your really need the padding into the next show that might be causing this?

Martin

[NND]

Hi, Martin. The reason I add the padding is because with Internet latency, I often find shows actually start about 1-2 minutes later than the EPG says. Sometimes the shows run over (especially annoying when the news gets cut short!), but on commercial channels shows often end after 58-59 minutes, so, no, the padding isn't really necessary on those. I'm not sure what you mean by "remux" it, but I'm currently running that large file through Handbrake to convert it to mp4, to see if that plays any differently. I'll let you know the result.