Changing audio channel in AppleTV app

[g0141]

Hi. Apologise if this has already been mentioned but couldn't find in a search.

Using Apple TV app, I'm sure I used to be able to select and change the audio channel on recordings and live TV by pressing and holding the track pad. This resulted in a drop down menu and ability to choose which audio channel. This no longer happens, long press now simply pauses. Am I doing something wrong?

Apple tv app 3.5 (build 25)
tvos.15.3

Cheers

[Lanhydrock]

Same here, unfortunately:

AppleTV 4K 2G (A2169) on tvOS 15.6.
NextPVR app 3.5 (25)
NextPVR server 5.2.7.220410

Is this feature (obviously introduced in 3.1) maybe depending on the remote device connected to the AppleTV?

We are using the silver "Siri remote 2G" and a long press on the click pad doesn't bring up a menu to select the audio track (the recording definitely has more than one).

Thank you for your help.

[sub]

If you can supply an example recording, I'll check what's happening.

[Lanhydrock]

We would like to come back to that issue as we have recently returned to NextPVR and started to reevaluate whether the issues with the audio streams still exist.

AppleTV 4K (A2737) on tvOS 18.2.1
AppleTV remote (silver) A2854
NextPVR app 3.5 (25)
NextPVR server 7.0.1.241229 

Please find a link to a 25MB sample recording with 2 audio streams, the file being stored on a free file upload service.
https://ufile.io/5l3b1tds
The link expires March 1, 2025.

NextPVR reports:
0:Audio Desc English AC-3 (AC-3) [5501]
0:Audio Bitrate 192kbps 2 chs
1:Audio Desc nar MPEG Audio (MPEG Audio) [5502]
1:Audio Bitrate 256kbps 2 chs

A long press on any of the following AppleTV remote buttons/ areas does not bring up an audio stream selection box on our TV screen:
- center of touchpad
- play button
- up button on touchpad
- down button on touchpa

If we use a Safari browser window on a Macbook and select the recording in the NextPVT webUI

by opening:

Code:

http://10.20.10.236:8866/player.html?recording_id=3928&title=Monty%20Don%27s%20British%20Gardens

we can see and click on the cogwheel icon under the video frame and are able to select the relevant audio stream in the popup window.

However, for example after selecting stream 0 (English), a click on APPLY&RESTART results in the onscreen error message: Failed to start the requested stream.

We checked the logs and came across a negative audio mapping for ffmepg:

Please note the 
- audio_stream: 0 
and
- -map 0:a:-1

Code:

2025-02-01 10:51:13.971    [DEBUG][70]    Got request [10.10.10.170]: /temp/Monty Don's British Gardens-adcc77efa20e46b5bce0bbc3b930d4fa4.ts
2025-02-01 10:51:15.725    [DEBUG][58]    Got request [10.10.10.170]: /services/service (recording.transcode.initiate)
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]    parameters:
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       method: recording.transcode.initiate
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       recording_id: 3928
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       profile: 144p
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       audio_stream: 0
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       format: json
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       sid: a16c0594-0127-4cb4-abdb-0c170830bd3d
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       client_ip: 10.10.10.170
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       client_local: true
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       user_agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/18.3 Safari/605.1.15
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]       host_callback: ...
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [VERBOSE][58]    removeMissingRecordings=True
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [VERBOSE][58]    checkForRenamedRecordings=True
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [VERBOSE][58]    noRemoveWhenTreeMissing=False
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [VERBOSE][58]    Recording exists on disk: /media/T9/NextPVR/recordings/beelink/Monty Dons British Gardens/Season 01/Monty.Dons.British.Gardens.S01E04-2.ts
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]    Looking for /media/T9/NextPVR/recordings/beelink/Monty Dons British Gardens/Season 01/Monty.Dons.British.Gardens.S01E04-2.timing
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [WARN][58]    clock jump of 2243.7782 seconds
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]    InitiateTranscode
2025-02-01 10:51:15.726    [DEBUG][58]    InitiateTranscode@2..
2025-02-01 10:51:15.788    [DEBUG][58]    False
2025-02-01 10:51:15.851    [DEBUG][58]    source VideoCodec: avc (1920x1080)
2025-02-01 10:51:15.851    [DEBUG][58]    source AudioCodec: ac-3
2025-02-01 10:51:15.851    [DEBUG][58]    Default transcoder args: -y [ANALYZE_DURATION] [SEEK] -i [SOURCE] -map_metadata -1 -threads [THREADS] -ignore_unknown  -map 0:v:0? [PREFERRED_LANGUAGE] -map 0:a:[AUDIO_STREAM] -map -0:s -codec:v:0 libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset superfast -crf 23 [DEINTERLACING] -b:v [BITRATE] -maxrate [BITRATE] -bufsize [BUFSIZE] -vsync vfr -profile:v high -level 41 -force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)" -s [RESOLUTION] [SCALE] [SUBTITLES] -flags -global_header -sc_threshold 0 -codec:a:0 [AUDIO_CODEC] -strict experimental -ac [AUDIO_CHANNELS] -ab [AUDIO_BITRATE] -hls_time [SEGMENT_DURATION] -start_number 0 -hls_list_size [SEGMENT_COUNT] -y [TARGET]
2025-02-01 10:51:15.851    [DEBUG][58]    InitiateTranscode@3
...
2025-02-01 10:51:15.851    [DEBUG][58]    Executing: ffmpeg -y   -i http://127.0.0.1:8866/live?recording=3928&sid=a16c0594-0127-4cb4-abdb-0c170830bd3d&throttle=true -map_metadata -1 -threads 0 -ignore_unknown  -map 0:v:0?  -map 0:a:-1 -map -0:s -codec:v:0 libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset superfast -crf 23 -vf yadif=0:-1:0 -b:v 100000 -maxrate 100000 -bufsize 200000 -vsync vfr -profile:v high -level 41 -force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)" -s 256x144  -c:s dvbsub -flags -global_header -sc_threshold 0 -codec:a:0 aac -strict experimental -ac 2 -ab 128000 -hls_time 5 -start_number 0 -hls_list_size 0 -y "/var/opt/nextpvr/web/temp/Monty Don's British Gardens-d564aacc144542049c010e2de0cacd5b.m3u8"
2025-02-01 10:51:15.856    [DEBUG][120]    SegmenterThread starting

Stream 1 (nar eng) is working fine.

Please note the 
- audio_stream: 1 
and
- -map 0:a:0

Code:

2025-02-01 10:51:03.353 [DEBUG][24] Got request [10.10.10.170]: /temp/Monty Don's British Gardens-b4a6094bf7b543319314aec9167048bc1.ts
2025-02-01 10:51:03.422 [DEBUG][24] [FFMPEG]: frame=  332 fps=104 q=24.0 size=N/A time=00:00:14.84 bitrate=N/A speed=4.64x   
2025-02-01 10:51:03.917 [DEBUG][24] [FFMPEG]: frame=  381 fps=103 q=31.0 size=N/A time=00:00:16.80 bitrate=N/A speed=4.54x   
2025-02-01 10:51:03.921 [DEBUG][70] Reached end of in-progress recording. Dropping connection.
2025-02-01 10:51:03.942 [DEBUG][70] Sent total of 25197452 bytes
2025-02-01 10:51:03.942 [VERBOSE][70] RollingFile.Close()
2025-02-01 10:51:03.994 [DEBUG][70] [FFMPEG]: [hls @ 0x5bf0c5dce2c0] Opening '/var/opt/nextpvr/web/temp/Monty Don's British Gardens-b4a6094bf7b543319314aec9167048bc2.ts' for writing
2025-02-01 10:51:03.995 [DEBUG][70] [FFMPEG]: [hls @ 0x5bf0c5dce2c0] Opening '/var/opt/nextpvr/web/temp/Monty Don's British Gardens-b4a6094bf7b543319314aec9167048bc.m3u8.tmp' for writing
2025-02-01 10:51:04.433 [DEBUG][70] [FFMPEG]: frame=  434 fps=103 q=30.0 size=N/A time=00:00:18.92 bitrate=N/A speed= 4.5x   
2025-02-01 10:51:04.933 [DEBUG][70] [FFMPEG]: frame=  485 fps=103 q=30.0 size=N/A time=00:00:20.96 bitrate=N/A speed=4.45x   
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70] Got request [10.10.10.170]: /services/service (recording.transcode.initiate)
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70] parameters:
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   method: recording.transcode.initiate
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   recording_id: 3928
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   profile: 144p
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   audio_stream: 1
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   format: json
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   sid: a16c0594-0127-4cb4-abdb-0c170830bd3d
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   client_ip: 10.10.10.170
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   client_local: true
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   user_agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/18.3 Safari/605.1.15
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70]   host_callback: ...
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [VERBOSE][70] removeMissingRecordings=True
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [VERBOSE][70] checkForRenamedRecordings=True
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [VERBOSE][70] noRemoveWhenTreeMissing=False
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [VERBOSE][70] Recording exists on disk: /media/T9/NextPVR/recordings/beelink/Monty Dons British Gardens/Season 01/Monty.Dons.British.Gardens.S01E04-2.ts
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70] Looking for /media/T9/NextPVR/recordings/beelink/Monty Dons British Gardens/Season 01/Monty.Dons.British.Gardens.S01E04-2.timing
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [WARN][70] clock jump of 2243.7782 seconds
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70] InitiateTranscode
2025-02-01 10:51:05.141 [DEBUG][70] InitiateTranscode@2..
2025-02-01 10:51:05.210 [DEBUG][70] False
2025-02-01 10:51:05.275 [DEBUG][70] source VideoCodec: avc (1920x1080)
2025-02-01 10:51:05.275 [DEBUG][70] source AudioCodec: ac-3
2025-02-01 10:51:05.275 [DEBUG][70] Default transcoder args: -y [ANALYZE_DURATION] [SEEK] -i [SOURCE] -map_metadata -1 -threads [THREADS] -ignore_unknown  -map 0:v:0? [PREFERRED_LANGUAGE] -map 0:a:[AUDIO_STREAM] -map -0:s -codec:v:0 libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset superfast -crf 23 [DEINTERLACING] -b:v [BITRATE] -maxrate [BITRATE] -bufsize [BUFSIZE] -vsync vfr -profile:v high -level 41 -force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)" -s [RESOLUTION] [SCALE] [SUBTITLES] -flags -global_header -sc_threshold 0 -codec:a:0 [AUDIO_CODEC] -strict experimental -ac [AUDIO_CHANNELS] -ab [AUDIO_BITRATE] -hls_time [SEGMENT_DURATION] -start_number 0 -hls_list_size [SEGMENT_COUNT] -y [TARGET]
2025-02-01 10:51:05.275 [DEBUG][70] InitiateTranscode@3
...
2025-02-01 10:51:05.275 [DEBUG][70] Executing: ffmpeg -y  -i http://127.0.0.1:8866/live?recording=3928&sid=a16c0594-0127-4cb4-abdb-0c170830bd3d&throttle=true -map_metadata -1 -threads 0 -ignore_unknown  -map 0:v:0?  -map 0:a:0 -map -0:s -codec:v:0 libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset superfast -crf 23 -vf yadif=0:-1:0 -b:v 100000 -maxrate 100000 -bufsize 200000 -vsync vfr -profile:v high -level 41 -force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)" -s 256x144  -c:s dvbsub -flags -global_header -sc_threshold 0 -codec:a:0 aac -strict experimental -ac 2 -ab 128000 -hls_time 5 -start_number 0 -hls_list_size 0 -y "/var/opt/nextpvr/web/temp/Monty Don's British Gardens-adcc77efa20e46b5bce0bbc3b930d4fa.m3u8"
2025-02-01 10:51:05.279 [DEBUG][62] SegmenterThread starting

[Lanhydrock]

@sub: Can we please ask whether there is a chance for you to look into our issue with the audio streams on an AppleTV device? Thank you.

Are there others with similar infrastructure/ requirements who do not have issues with Astra 2E (28.2E) satellite recordings from the BBC?

[Lanhydrock]

Btw, we can meanwhile confirm in our environment that the following suggested advanced settings in the config.xml file solve the issue for the web player, but not while watching the recordings in the AppleTV client...

Code:

root@nextpvr:/var/opt/nextpvr# cat config.xml | grep LanguagePreference
    <LanguagePreferenceEIT>default</LanguagePreferenceEIT>
    <LanguagePreference1>eng</LanguagePreference1>
    <LanguagePreference2>qaa</LanguagePreference2>

[sub]

Sorry, I hadn't found a chance to look at it yet. I'll try to take a look at where the problem is today

Honestly though: If it's server side it can generally be a quick turn-around. If it's anything needing Apple client changes, it's typically going to be a slow turn around. Any time I do a release for these devices, Apple make it incredibly difficult for me...that can't seem to get their head around how a client application might be streaming video without an expensive monthly subscription, and how they're not getting a cut...as result they assume I'm doing something illegal, or without permission from copyright holders, and try to remove from the app store...resulting in days of back and forth messages debating it. As a result, these apps very rarely see updates.

[sub]

Could you please provide a longer sample recording? Ideally at least a few minutes.

[Lanhydrock]

Kindly excuse the content... ;-) 
These are just two random recordings from the last hour - as all our existing ones are over 60 mins long...

This one is 2.5 min and  137.5 MB.
https://limewire.com/d/ee74bf97-25c8-4d8...zOPXqO-wBo
2 audio streams (nar, eng)
Stream nar has narrative audio commentary at 0:01, 0:43, 1:15, 1:24...

This one is 5 min and  298 MB.
https://limewire.com/d/707b0011-20b2-4a4...7wo-7g0zgI
2 audio streams (nar, eng)
Stream nar has narrative audio commentary at 0:01, 1:01, 1:12, 1:43, ...

[sub]

Were those recordings made in NextPVR? They're kind of odd looking files, with some stuff I wouldn't normally expect to see in the files. (specifically, headers for all the other channels carried on the same frequency as this channel)