What should I see on an ATSC 3.0 channel?

[arlingtoner]

A couple of weeks ago, several channels in the Boston, Massachusetts, USA area started broadcasting ATSC 3.0, so I bought an HDHomeRun FLEX tuner to replace the EXTEND that I had been using for several years. Things have gone pretty well with it. I get video and sound from both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 channels when I use the HDHomeRun app (my Windows 11 system has the Microsoft HEVC decoder installed and the app plays a game with an online server to make the audio happen). I get only video from ATSC 3.0 channels using VLC (it has an H.265 decoder but nothing to handle the AC-4 audio). I expected to get something similar with the NextPVR Web app, but, while everything is fine for an ATSC 1.0 channel, I get nothing from an ATSC 3.0 channel. For example, channel 2.1 is fine but channel 102.1 (the FLEX differentiates ATSC 3.0 from 1.0 by adding 100 to the 1.0 channel number) says "Starting device. Please wait..." and after a bit "Streaming Failed (transcoder exited)".

I've attached my logs. At 15:39 I watched a few seconds of channel 2.1. At 15:40, I attempted to watch channel 102.1. This is the first time I've looked at NextPVR logs, but I'm wondering why for 102.1 NextPVR seems to be trying to stream from HDHomeRun 10A5CDA9-3 (which only supports ASTC 1.0), which is 192.168.217.145 on my LAN, rather than from HDHomeRun 10A5CDA9-0 (which supports both ASTC 1.0 and 3.0), which is 192.168.217.148 on my LAN.

Any insights are most welcome.

[mvallevand]

I have noted that sub has not yet updated NextPVR the HDHR 4K yet so when you copied tuner 0 to tuner 2 and 3 channels 100+ should have been excluded. You need to manually remove the from tuners 2 and 3 on the devices page.

There is a bit of hack in a new NShared.dll that will fail over to a working tuner but cleaning those out would be best.

Martin

[arlingtoner]

Oops, I forgot to mention that I'm using the LAV decoders 0.77.1.

[arlingtoner]

I think that I've made that change, as Devices shows 84 channels for 10A5CDA9-0 and -1 and 73 channels for -2 and -3. When I now view a few seconds on channel 2.1 at 19:46, everything is still okay. But when I try to view a few seconds on 102.1 at 19:47 things have changed (now see Starting Device... as before, but now multiple "Receiving Data..."), which unfortunately still ends in "Streaming Failed (transcoded exited)". My naive interpretation of the logs (attached) is that 192.168.217.145 is still the target at 19:46 (rather than .147 or .148).

Is the error near the end of 19:47 a red herring, as the successful 2.1 attempt also had a problem, even though it was "successful" from a user's point of view?

As before, I've attached logs.

[mvallevand]

Yep that's another thing that sub is technically missing, default transcoding assumes there will be audio that ffmpeg understands. As it stands there is no reason to play these files in the browser

2023-02-11 19:47:25.254 [DEBUG][81] [FFMPEG]: To ignore this, add a trailing '?' to the map.

If you want download Emby https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Rel....7.11.0.7z and extract their their ffmpeg it might work, but back up sub's ffmpeg just in case. It is in "C:\Program Files\NextPVR\Other\"

Currently the only client for NextPVR that supports AC-4 is the uidroid Android client but I do have another client in development for Windows that can transcode AC-4 too. Since you are new to NextPVR I won't ask you to help test it.

Martin

[arlingtoner]

Okay, I think that I understand. To "clarify," I'm not trying to make this work, just surprised that what I expected didn't seem to happen. and was "wondering" why, as my expectations seemed pretty straightforward and inline with how VLC "handed" the situation. Bottom line is that I'll stop worrying about this for a while.

As for being new to NextPVR, I've used it for about four years, but have never delved into its workings, so you're sort of right. My background is decades of programming, although nothing to do with decoders or TV. If you think that I might be able to help test, don't hesitate to give me a "call" to see if I might be able to help. I've been a beta tester for lots of things.