DVB radio streams stopping

[JP23]

Hi,

I often stream DVB radio channes by opening them in VLC - ie open http://10.0.0.9/live?channel=707

Almost always, the stream just stops after around 7 minutes. Occasionally it continues indefinitely.

In the nrecord  log I see 'reached end of rolling file. Dropping connection...'

I'm seeing the same behaviour when streaming to a Kodi client using the NextPVR client addon.

Is there a setting I can change to avoid this, or a different method of getting the stream that will work better?

Logs attached.

Version: 6.1.5.231022 on Windows 10

[mvallevand]

Looks like the data is very bursty and allows little buffering

2024-08-21 09:32:00.702 [DEBUG][15] Waiting for more data (pos: 10229268, len: 10229456, avail: 188, need:1316
...
2024-08-21 09:32:23.049 [DEBUG][15] Waiting for more data (pos: 10229268, len: 10229456, avail: 188, need:1316

and no data was delivered for 23 seconds during the swap of the live TV rolling file. I suspect you can reduce the problem by allowing a very large Live TV buffer.

BBC 6 has some good m3u8 stream you can listen to directly or add to NextPVR as IPTV.

Martin

[JP23]

Regarding the Live TV buffer - I can see in the GUI that it's set to 20 minutes, however, the buffer files are never actually getting to more than about 6 minutes 50 seconds before a new file is created, so it seems like that setting isn't having any effect. (This is for TV, radio and IPTV)

Regarding the stream stopping - I can stream TV channels to VLC from the same tuner without the streams ever dropping out.
I've also tested playing the same radio station using the Windows NPVR client, and it carries on playing, albeit with a slight stutter, when the buffer file changes to a new one.

[mvallevand]

The 20 minutes gets split into 3 segments so you need to divide by 3.

VLC buffers the stream and can deal the bursts with 25 seconds and no data. NextPVR would need a longer wait.

In Kodi are you using timeshift? That is closer to the NextPVR client and it does buffer a little differently.

Martin

[JP23]

The Kodi client I tested with was using 'realtime' streaming.

I'm not really concerned about Kodi, but I would really like this streaming to work reliably in VLC.

Is there any possible fix for this issue?

Is there perhaps a different method of calling the stream where it might behave differently - perhaps with some minimal level of transcoding?

[mvallevand]

I thought you might want Kodi for the EPG. Not sure why you can't just use normal AAC streams in VLC since you can get 320bit rate audio streams in the UK.

Its not a transcoding issue it is the bursty delivery, based on the log you could potentially have silence with no data for 20+ seconds at the beginning which would be pretty annoying. In any case sub would need to command on the technical aspects.

Martin

[JP23]

Hi - I don't really believe that this issue is caused by gaps in the transmission. Recordings work fine and the NPVR windows client is consistently able to play radio without failure.
The failure when streaming to VLC is always where the buffer file rolls over - if there were 20 second gaps in the transmission wouldn't I get pauses and failures at other times?

@Sub - can you offer any insight into this please?

[mvallevand]

Apples and oranges.  I don't expect that VLC can even play any in-progress recording video or radio beyond the time where you started playback using the http interface.  http://ip:8866/live?recording_id=### 

You also didn't want to test Kodi with the timeshift mode but that is how NextPVR.exe works and VLC can't use that mode.  If NextPVR.exe works I think that you might get around the issue with Kodi timeshifting too.

As I posted there does look to be an issue related to direct play of low bitrate audio stream when it gets to the rolling file split that sub will need to look at.  In theory a 20 minute live TV buffer will roll after 400000 ms stream_duration. If you look at this snippet the map is growing without rolling https://pastebin.com/8QawWci7 but if you look at this snippet https://pastebin.com/rMuPWTTe some logic looks stalled there.  Given the link to rolling file and the fact you say it is always like this that is too strong to be a coincidence.

I am only offering you suggestions to get this working until sub has time to look at it. 

Martin