IPTV stops often

[SysAdminZ]

Hello,

I am starting to be a big fan of your software and appreciate your support.

I am having some issues with live IPTV playback.  Playback stops on most channels within a few minutes and requires to start playing stream over again.  Are there any settings for adjusting re-buffer or timeout as it seems like there may be an issue when the stream is temporarily interrupted?  I have tried adjusting timeshift properties to test if length is a factor but it does not seem to make a difference (tested different times ranging from 1 minute, default 20 minutes, 120 minutes, 360 minutes..)

Recording channels seems to be a bit more stable but there have still been issues noticed.  Not sure if there are more settings for timeout or recovery from an interrupted steam during recording vs live streaming but it seems that way from my testing.  I have tried setting <M3U8DownloadTimeout>30000</M3U8DownloadTimeout> which seems like too much for timeout of the channel loading but not sure if this also applies for re-buffer.

NextPVR Version: 7.0.1.241229  
M3U playlist import, not XC.
Ubuntu server 24.04.2 LTS
Kodi client w/ NextPVR addon using Timeshift

Full set of log files if anyone can take a look and let me know what you think.  I do not have this issue playing channels or VOD titles from whatever VPN server choice I use and an IPTV client so I do not believe the issue is with my VPN provider or IPTV provider.
logs-20250401-1536 .zip 

Please let me know if you need other information provided.

[mvallevand]

It's not the timeshift buffer, if the download timeout fails the recording will stop and can't restart. 30000 isn't too bad because the m3u8 file is segmented and yours has 10 seconds segments so that is just 3 segments and your provider sends 6 segments. If anything I'd try increasing it

You might also have an issue with load balancing though and if that is the case set this to true in config.xml

<UseFinalM3U8>true</UseFinalM3U8>

Code:

2025-04-01 15:34:31.461 [VERBOSE][175]  downloading [URL#-152:0] took 272.2037ms
2025-04-01 15:34:39.693 [VERBOSE][108]  downloading [URL#-153:0] took 222.2207ms
2025-04-01 15:34:50.208 [VERBOSE][175]  downloading [URL#-154:0] took 282.4271ms
2025-04-01 15:35:02.260 [VERBOSE][72]   downloading [URL#-155:0] took 264.5843mss
2025-04-01 15:35:32.267    [ERROR][175]    Unexpected error processing m3u8 url
... Kodi stops playing much later so you have a lot of room to buffer on the server.
2025-04-01 15:36:25.531    [DEBUG][156]    Got request [192.168.0.107]: /service (channel.stream.stop)

Martin

[SysAdminZ]

Thank you for the suggestions. I increased the m3u8 timeout to 60000 and set the usefinalm3u8 to true but the playback still stops randomly.

[mvallevand]

I didn't expect it would help, it seems like a source issue. Even during a program break on the half hour it was 5 times slower to transfer a segment. How are recordings?

Martin

[SysAdminZ]

I have only tested a few so far since the adjustment but it does seem to have made an improvement with recording.

Do you know of anything I can do to improve the timeshift mode performance? Are there other options I can test with <TimeshiftMode>Time Based</TimeshiftMode> (instead of 'Time Based')?

[mvallevand]

Nothing can avoid your provider not responding unless perhaps it is caused by using the same m3u file outside of NextPVR and your limit being hit

Martin

[SysAdminZ]

I do not think the limit is being hit. M3U list is not being accessed outside of NextPVR at time of interruption. NextPVR is able to play the live stream right after playing stops if selected. I am unable to reproduce this issue outside of NextPVR.

Since the last settings adjustment recording live IPTV channels seems to be more stable without interruption compared to watching the same channel live. This is why I was thinking the timeshift function may need some tweaking of settings.

[mvallevand]

Sub would need to comment on logic differences on the live TV and recording but check the logs to see if the m3u timeout is occurring it might be a different issue altogether. Maybe Kodi can't handle a long interruption that recordings can deal with and triggers the stop.

Martin

[SysAdminZ]

There is a good chance Kodi is the fault here. I am going through some settings that may only be available with an "advancedsettings.xml" file created and have some more testing to do. Thank you for the help.

[SysAdminZ]

The timeshift works much better using the UIDROID client. Almost perfect if it were not for the behavior of randomly skipping backwards 20 minutes or so requiring skipping back to the live point. The UIDROID client does not crash the timeshift mapping on the nextpvr server however and seems to be much less of an interruption.

There does seem to be an issue with the nextpvr Kodi addon versions tested in Kodi 19, 20, 21, 22. It is either an issue with the addon itself, Kodi or dependencies. I am still testing but those are my findings so far. UIDROID may be the less glitchy alternative for timeshift compared to Kodi.