Getting Pluto extra to work

[bouilliabai]

Understood. Although I didn't follow how one could update the icon for a series, since clicking on it in the VOD pull-down menu only brings up the episodes, and clicking on an episode starts the player. There is a channel icon update item in the settings, but VOD series aren't listed as channels. No matter, it's not downloaded with the the .ts file and wasn't for my benefit anyway. Function over form....

Any thoughts regarding the Streamlink piping tests with this setup?

[mvallevand]

Once the VOD is a recording in NextPVR you can change the icon on the recordings screen. Your girl friend will see the good icon in Kodi.

You can't use my Canadian ID in the US, the slug is portable though. Your tests don't show anything new, I have little doubt that a simple remux can help most files, even from digital tuners. You are still aren't really explaining what that remux is stripping out. It is not changing the PTS, just rejecting packets and potentially adjusting the PMT. There is also a potential that if it lands on a commercial it will keep just the commercial. Feel free to modify the extra to remux though once you figure out the syntax and be prepared for all clients including Kodi to continue to fail as they all have issues with Live TV. Live TV time skipping is wall time based not file time. A user would have to keep track of all the gaps in the file to skip back based on file time and there is not way to know that. In general it is better to remux in post processing.

Martin

[bouilliabai]

Once the VOD is a recording in NextPVR you can change the icon on the recordings screen. Your girl friend will see the good icon in Kodi.

Tried using the CTRL key on the recordings and details page as noted in the settings, but no luck. I probably messed something up.

Girlfriend. Heh. Where did that confounded time machine run off to?

It's not the slug or IP, but rather the piping operation that is causing problems. I was wondering if it might have something to do with the version of Streamlink and FFmpeg. It's really just barking up a tree without something to keep the NextPVR buffer alive and from underflowing during discontinuities, but it's just aggravating not being able to get the same results you did.

[mvallevand]

The time machine is you thinking you have to make things easy for her, it is 2024.

The reason the id failed for you in a previous post was the _id in Canada is different with our PlutoTV.

In any case to put an end to this part of the discussion since I have a rule about not supporting extras or ffmpeg (which I will break here) try this.

- edit extra-pluto.xml and globally change streamlink to streamlink.bat
- create streamlink.bat in your NextPVR program folder or global path as follow

Code:

@echo off
streamlink.exe %1 best -O | pathto\ffmpeg -v panic -i pipe: -c copy -f mpegts -

- from the extra tuner, delete the channels with the trashcan, rescan and remap XMLTV

Output should now be using remuxed stream. I tried with ffmpeg 6, 7 and the old one with NextPVR.

Martin

[bouilliabai]

The time machine is years of compromise in order to keep the peace. While the goods may suffer with its passage, the ability to make you feel like you did something wrong knows no bounds.

I used a valid _id for the US, demonstrated that it worked, and in the last step even got a recording off of it. NextPVR was not in the picture. The commands were being run from a console, calling Streamlink.

Granted, there was nothing in the chain to intercept stdout, but when the output was changed to a file, no file was written.

I'll try the latest suggestion, and agree, without something to keep the NextPVR buffer alive during pauses in Streamlink's output, it's a moot point and not worth wasting more time over. The best way to watch Pluto live TV without interruptions is to record it, and possibly run PostProcessing afterward if it's to be watched later.

[mvallevand]

I tested a ST:TNG VOD download and it looks good as I thought but then I remembered that I use NextTool to rename them and that correct the metadata so meta art is available.  Otherwise you are correct the search for art won't work.

Martin

[bouilliabai]

It occurred to me at some point that perhaps the piping problems were due to using batch syntax in POSH, and that there was nothing wrong with the command.

All working now, using the extras-npvr.xml/bat method of initiating the remuxing, however, in live TV, the problem remains. Streamlink sees a discontinuity in the stream, pauses its output for a time, at some threshold, NextPVR ceases recording and buffering to the tempfile, the icon in the system tray turns from red to green, then during playback, when the time-shifted period has expired, playback ceases and the tempfile is deleted.

These tests were run on the PBR RidePass channel, streaming the 2024 Kid Rock 'n Rodeo. Which, incidentally, was at Jerryworld. Ha ha. All in.

Until this behavior is changed, there really isn't much if any benefit to remuxing live Pluto streams. Normalizing the PTS values actually does more harm than good, since the wall times are lost, as indicated earlier in this thread. In recordings, however, there is considerable value added in rewriting the timestamps.

One potential fix involves the Pluto plugin for Streamlink detecting a discontinuity and instead of pausing output, directing FFmpeg to stitch a dummy segment as a sort of keep-alive signal so that NextPVR continues to buffer around the discontinuity. This could lead to other problems, especially if the keep-alive period isn't sufficiently limited. Another possibility is to allow NextPVR to continue buffering around these pauses, but the author certainly has a very good reason for setting it up as is.

It's a shame, because in every test run, Streamlink with the Pluto plugin edited out the commercials while retaining time-shifting capability, which is the main point of watching Pluto live TV via NextPVR instead of the app.

Even thus, it doesn't require that much extra effort to make this work. @ballfam will be pleased. Before or while watching a live TV program, set it to record. In the NextPVR web client, the recording has to be set up first, but using the Kodi addon, it can be done while watching in the Live TV player. Then it's a matter of remembering to delete the recording after watching, or clean out the recordings folder regularly. The main drawback is that with commercials edited out, the reported duration, derived from the metadata xml start and end time in the case of completed recordings and possibly the map file for in progress recordings, will be off by approximately the cumulative time of the ads removed. Attempts to seek past the actual recording can lead to playback terminating.

Using the npvr-extras.xml/bat method is not recommended, because again, by forcing a remux while watching, the wall timer data is lost along with visual feedback of the time-shifted period, and furthermore, at least in Kodi Nexus with the AeonNox:Silvo skin, the scrub bar completely disappears. For recordings that are to be watched later, however, remuxing recordings via PostProcessing for programs and channels with discontinuities can make for a much more pleasant viewing experience. In post #56, I've given an example of such a script for Windows systems, that only operates on Pluto recordings and channels as defined by the user. It's quite raw though, and could certainly stand some modifications.

No doubt, there will still be glitches in the process. Time will tell if it's an acceptable solution or not, but it's something I'll implement directly and see if the better half finds it workable.

[sub]

All working now, using the extras-npvr.xml/bat method of initiating the remuxing, however, in live TV, the problem remains. Streamlink sees a discontinuity in the stream, pauses its output for a time, at some threshold, NextPVR ceases recording and buffering to the tempfile, the icon in the system tray turns from red to green, then during playback, when the time-shifted period has expired, playback ceases and the tempfile is deleted.

It was never really designed with the idea that a device (an Extra in this case) might just stop delivering data for an extended period of time.

How long are these breaks?

[sub]

@mvallevand, does this extra use stdout to feed the transport stream to NextPVR? This shouldn't have a timeout.

[bouilliabai]

How long are these breaks?

The length of the commercial breaks, it seems. In the tests reported in post #78, they were right around 2 minutes.