IPTV Streams strange problems

[RealTeej]

Hi all

I utilise Kodi with the NextPVR backend on a Windows 10 Pro machine. It is connected directly to the TV via HDMI using a RTX3050

I am having some strange issues which I've been able to re-create on multiple machines in my house.

When playing an IPTV stream, if the content of the stream changes (for instance a commercial or another episode of a show starts to play) this causes a couple of different results:

* Screen goes completely black (No indication of what is happening). To resolve I have to stop watching the channel then go back into the same channel and it will start working again however you can see that it has either gone onto a different show playing or It'll be on some screen saying "We will be back soon" or something like that.

* Stream successfully transitions to the next video however no audio is playing. Stopping the channel then starting again fixes this.
At the end of a video I've also observed it popping up with "Timeshift" up the top and then it suddenly starts to play back the last video that was playing. It is as if it rewound itself to when I first started watching the channel and started playing the same stuff again.. talk about groundhog day huh!

The IPTV streams I've noticed this occuring on is PlutoTV, SamsungLiveIPTV streams. Also I utilised VLC to create my own stream where it loops through different animation shows just for my internal use. This also has the same problems as Pluto, SamsungLive streams.

I have noticed in some testing using my own stream from VLC playing videos of the same format (as in running my own IPTV stream where it goes through multiple .mp4 videos in a row) it appears to work fine... chuck another format like mkv or avi into the mix and it starts displaying similar outcomes as the two points above.

So far I have tried:

• Reinstall of the whole computer (Tried windows 11 initially but found it was incompatible with other software I needed)
  
• Fiddling with NextPVR backend settings like padding, livetv buffer etc.
  
• Turning "Use direct stream" on/off but no change
  

I have used some people suggest different decoders like LAVFilters? However I couldn't find any way to change the decoders in Kodi (albeit I am new to the software still).

Any suggestions would be super helpful! Happy to provide logs and all just might need guidance where to grab them from please.

TJ

[RealTeej]

Have uploaded logs for this issue

Kodi Log: https://mega.nz/file/p0YXwJZB#Zy0IHo5ePW...TzMx5gfD30
NextPVR Log: https://mega.nz/file/lwh0SL4I#AnTIT46_St...ywUQGHqp74

The IPTV stream went to a black screen, I waited about 10-15seconds then proceeded to manually stop it so I could go back into the channel.. This time however it actually crashed Kodi
Approx time occured 2022-04-15 11:34


EDIT: Not sure if it is related but Kodi completely crashed whilst watching one of the streams that does have the odd issues
https://mega.nz/file/08xElCaA#YhauRI9BTb...W-W4UOPbyI

[bizzerk212]

I am having the same problem.  Was there ever any resolution?

I am using this .m3u8 file https://i.mjh.nz/PlutoTV/us.m3u8

I had a similar issue on kodi when using IPTV Simple Client with this .m3u8 file, however I was able to fix it in IPTV Simple Client by going to the advanced settings and changing the MIME Type to application/vnd.apple.mpegurl
I don't see a way to do the same thing in NextPVR though.

[mvallevand]

Typically Pluto streams are not designed for viewing with a URL so I don't support using them. Any changes would need to be made by sub. Problems typically occur when Pluto and other FAST providers insert commercials in the m3u8 file. I did create a Pluto addon for NextPVR that uses streamlink that plays these files better, but I lost interest in the Pluto content and no longer plan on keeping it current.

@RealTeej I was out of the country i was out of country for you original post an missed it. Looking at your NextPVR logs it is also something sub would need to address.

Martin

[RealTeej]

I am having the same problem.  Was there ever any resolution?

I am using this .m3u8 file https://i.mjh.nz/PlutoTV/us.m3u8

I had a similar issue on kodi when using IPTV Simple Client with this .m3u8 file, however I was able to fix it in IPTV Simple Client by going to the advanced settings and changing the MIME Type to application/vnd.apple.mpegurl
I don't see a way to do the same thing in NextPVR though.

I ended up transitioning back to tvheadend.. despite it being incredibly complex it allows a lot more ways to configure and set different options.
Overall though the problem is well known about on different forums and such, @mvallevand is correct it is an issue with how commercials are added into the m3u8 playlists by the sub. ffmpeg (which manages the playback of the stream in the backend) doesn't support PTS DISCONTINUITY which is required when dealing with subs that insert commercials into their stream.
Using the likes of this ffmpeg build - https://github.com/jjustman/ffmpeg-hls-p...ty-reclock seems to be the best solution until someone in the ffmpeg community commits a proper patch to the main branch of the program. Disclaimer I am not by any means an expert in how streams work but thought I'd share my findings.

Typically Pluto streams are not designed for viewing with a URL so I don't support using them. Any changes would need to be made by sub. Problems typically occur when Pluto and other FAST providers insert commercials in the m3u8 file. I did create a Pluto addon for NextPVR that uses streamlink that plays these files better, but I lost interest in the Pluto content and no longer plan on keeping it current.

@RealTeej I was out of the country i was out of country for you original post an missed it. Looking at your NextPVR logs it is also something sub would need to address.

Martin

No worries

[meccano]

Out of curiosity I setup PlutoTV for recording under NextPVR using Streamlink, using the instructions provided.
Recording shows works well, but the video needs to be post-processed using ffmpeg before it can be played back.
In PostProcessing.bat I used these ffmpeg.exe options:

ffmpeg.exe -y -i %infile% -fps_mode drop -map 0:v -vcodec copy -map 0:a -acodec aac %outfile%

This fixes most recordings, apart from Southpark episodes.

[meccano]

I also meant to say that the input file is .ts and the output file is .mp4
The output file still contains Pluto TV test patterns but these are easily detected by comskip.