Some Channels showing black screen when using Web interface

[Acidice]

hi,
I have a new installation of NextPVR running on a Windows 11 machine.
When accessing channels via the Web interface, I can see the channel loads, but no image is displayed and no sound is present.
I have noted that switching to another channel that does display an image on the same provider, and then switching back sometimes fixes the issue and an image is displayed and sound is present.
Sometimes this does not work and then the Desktop app needs to be run and only after running the channel via the desktop app does the Web app corresponding channel work - this issue works both ways.

I also have some channels that fails to retrieve a stream (transcoder failed) - but when I open the stream via VLC it works fine.

See attached logs for further details.

[sub]

When it comes to the web app, it assumes IPTV content is going to be H264 video + AAC audio. That is nearly always the case for IPTV content. There some rare cases where IPTV providers have used something else for some channels (like MPEG2 video etc).

The web app has no way to know this until you've viewed the channel for a first time. It then remembers the stream types after that first time it's connected, so if this is your problem, hopefully after the first time you attempted to view the channel, it should be fine from then on (because it'll know to appropriately handle whatever types of streams it's using).

[Acidice]

When it comes to the web app, it assumes IPTV content is going to be H264 video + AAC audio. That is nearly always the case for IPTV content. There some rare cases where IPTV providers have used something else for some channels (like MPEG2 video etc).

The web app has no way to know this until you've viewed the channel for a first time. It then remembers the stream types after that first time it's connected, so if this is your problem, hopefully after the first time you attempted to view the channel, it should be fine from then on (because it'll know to appropriately handle whatever types of streams it's using).

I initially thought this was the case, but unfortionatly it does not seem to be.
Eventhough I can get the channels to eventually stream, it will stream for that session only, next time, I will have this same issue again.

[mvallevand]

You have two IPTV devices that have different case names for the same m3u file which might be confusing things on Windows.

Perhaps delete the duplicate and make sure the first one allows enough instances.

Martin

[Acidice]

Hi,
Thank you for the reply. I modified the existing M3U to include channels only I want to watch and removed the second IPTV device.
I do however still have an issue where I get a blank screen when streaming from a remote device (on the same network) or directly from the Hosting server.
I have noticed one thing though - if I Remote Desktop to the Server and then play a stream via RDP, it will open properly. Once I have done this, the Remote device and local server will work for a couple of hours on that one channel.
The same happens when I use the Desktop App on the local machine, open the channel there first and then via Web Remote, it will work, although not always and some channels will still fail. The current best method is RDP, open channel, stop and then play local or via remote device.

I have also noticed that if I manually add an additional channel to my M3U list and do a channel rescan, it will loose my EPG and I have to manually re-add every channel.
Is there a way I can export that channel list with EPG, add the channel I want and only add a new EPG to that one channel, instead of all of them, or a File I can edit and just manually add the channel I need without re-doing all the EPGs.

My last request is if I can change the C:\Public\ folder for the Cache to another path on another drive which has more space and which file can I edit to achieve this.

[sub]

I do however still have an issue where I get a blank screen when streaming from a remote device (on the same network) or directly from the Hosting server.
I have noticed one thing though - if I Remote Desktop to the Server and then play a stream via RDP, it will open properly. Once I have done this, the Remote device and local server will work for a couple of hours on that one channel.
The same happens when I use the Desktop App on the local machine, open the channel there first and then via Web Remote, it will work, although not always and some channels will still fail. The current best method is RDP, open channel, stop and then play local or via remote device.

I can't really imagine any reason why that'd help. Post another set of logs showing a failed attempt, and I'll see if I can find the cause

I have also noticed that if I manually add an additional channel to my M3U list and do a channel rescan, it will loose my EPG and I have to manually re-add every channel.
Is there a way I can export that channel list with EPG, add the channel I want and only add a new EPG to that one channel, instead of all of them, or a File I can edit and just manually add the channel I need without re-doing all the EPGs.

There is no manual text file you can edit to achieve this. You should be able to do it in the UI though.

Usually if you want to add an additional channel from an IPTV source, like they've added an additional channel you want, or you forgot one of whatever, you'd hit 'update channels', then use the check box at the top of the list to untick all the channels, then only tick the channel you want to add, then click save. It'll only add the new one, and the existing channels will be unchanged. (I'm guessing you left them all ticked, which effectively reimports them)

My last request is if I can change the C:\Public\ folder for the Cache to another path on another drive which has more space and which file can I edit to achieve this.

You can set the recording or live tv buffer directory in the web app to wherever you want. These are the only significantly large files.

[mvallevand]

Sub, he is doing a lot of rescanning, does that reset the stored parameters? I can understand the transcoding (HE-AAC) but not the black screen.

Martin

[sub]

Sub, he is doing a lot of rescanning, does that reset the stored parameters?

He's using IPTV. By 'rescan' I assume he means clicking the 'update channels' button. I think if he updates all the channels from the IPTV source, it probably resets the EPG mapping to the defaults as-per the m3u. As suggested above, he can untick all the channels other than those he wants to add, and the others will be left unchanged.

[Acidice]

Hi,
Thank you for all the responses.
I have confirmed adding a channel by un-checking the other channels works, that was an oversight from my side.

The issue with the blank screen when doing playback still remains. I have however noted that if I do recordings, the recordings are 100% and all is well. It is just when doing normal playback when I have the blank screen issue.

You can set the recording or live tv buffer directory in the web app to wherever you want. These are the only significantly large files.
I have done this, and recordings are stored in my new location. The cache files while recording or doing playback goes to the C:\Users\Public\NPVR-data\web\temp folder and this is what I want to change, yes after the playback the cache files are deleted, but this goes to a very limited sized SSD and its an SSD with limited read/writes. I want this folder changed to another location with more space.

I have set the Live TV Buffer Directory to the new location and although new files gets created in the new folder - the actual streaming cache is still at the C:\Users\Public\NPVR-data\web\temp and the files created in the new location shows 0KB and 8KB and only changes its size if the channel is stopped and all the chache in C:\Users\Public\NPVR-data\web\temp is moved to that folder, instead of directly just writing the cache to that folder to begin with.

I have tried to attach another log, even deleting the old log, but for some reason it does not upload with the post

[sub]

Sorry no, you can't easily move the web temp folder.

Log files need to be zipped, and less than 2.5MB, otherwise you have to host them yourself (usually somewhere like onedrive or googledrive)