Live TV Issues with multiple streams

[ryspencer]

Hello,

I'm experiencing live tv issues since upgrading.  I'm on version 6.1.4.230625 running on a Pi4 with multiple pi4 Kodi clients connecting.  Live TV plays for a few seconds, buffers and then plays - which has been the same behavior in previous versions.  However, I am now getting further buffering - seems to be centered around when a recording starts or stops, or when another Kodi client connects and is streaming live TV.  

In addition to this, I am now getting audio / video sync issues once the buffering clears.  I did a "stress" test of the system and had multiple clients connected, while recording a few different channels.  This is not the normal use case, but maybe a recording here or there with 2 Kodi clients watching live TV is the norm.  It resulted in everything playing and recording fine for a while, but then a long freeze, followed by a recovery, but all clients streaming showed the audio / video sync issues.  Video seemed ahead of the audio.

I have the nextpvr server live TV directory set to the SD on the pi4.  I have the recording directory set to a usb mounted drive.  In the past versions I didn't have these issues.

The nextpvr logs are attached.  I'm hoping I have a simple setup issue.  

Any help is appreciated,

Ryan


v plays for a few secddddonds6.1.4.23062 5

[mvallevand]

On a RPi and most ARM clients thumbnails and timing generation need to be disabled. They should probably also be disabled when Kodi is the primary client. After that the stress test will probably be on the storage not the CPU

Martin

[ryspencer]

Thanks Martin, I'll give that a try and redo my test.

[ryspencer]

I was able to make the settings changes to remove the thumbnail and timing generation.  Rebooted both server and clients.  Redid the test.  Unfortunately the same behavior occurred.  Unless something is obvious, maybe I'm just hitting the limit of the setup that I have.  Log file attached. 

PS - is there a setting in the setup for timing generation?  I manually changed it in the config.xml file.  Thumbnail is a choice but I did not see the timing generation setting.

Thanks again

[mvallevand]

Do you have the same issue when you try different encoding settings on your device I assume you are using an Extend

[ryspencer]

I changed all the Kodi NPVR clients to utilize the real-time setting instead of timeshift. Timeshift always worked in the past - albeit with some buffering every now and then. The third option - transcoded seems to be worse but now asks for ffmpeg to be installed - which I chose not to do based upon other posts.

Real-time seems to be an improvement. During my stress test, it did suffer some buffering at about every 60 secs under my extreme load. Removing many of the simultaneous recordings and streams, the buffering is very minimal - almost gone. The audio/video sync is completely gone - so that's good. I lose the ability to timeshift the livestream, but am willing to live without it as it was rarely used.

I will keep playing with different things to try to isolate a combination that works while I wait for the pi5 to be available. Hopefully that will give the necessary horsepower to run without the buffering at all.

Thanks again Martin, I'll post again if I make any further headway.

[ryspencer]

Ok, after quite a bit of testing, my above setup did not work as I initially thought. The buffering returned, although it was in longer increments ~2-3 min intervals. I changed the Kodi client side setting multiple times and changed the chunk size settings, etc. All changes resulted in various intervals of buffering, but still consistent buffering in every combination.

I then decided I would focus on the buffer drive location. The setup had the live tv buffer set to the SD card of the Pi where NextPVR was running. The recording location was set to a mounted USB drive. This seemed to me to be the logical and most optimal setting. I decided I would try to move the live tv buffer location to the USB drive. That single change fixed the issue completely. I have multiple streaming clients and recordings all going at the same time with NO buffering whatsoever. I changed the Kodi clients back to the timeshift setting and now I see a buffer right at the beginning of the stream(as I always have) but nothing after. I've lived with buffering for so long, it feels like a whole new world!

I'm not sure why the SD card has less performance than the mounted USB drive. Maybe the speed of the SD is not right. Regardless, the mounted usb is working flawlessly.

I hope this can help others that are trying to do an all pi setup and are suffering with buffering.

Thanks again Martin - your clues helped me find the problem.