It seems like the remuxer/transcoder is generating broken output for some reason. Can you try playing remuxed stream from the SHIELD to see if it plays or chokes similarly? That would definitely isolate to either the web player or the server side transcoder.
I just tried to play the same recording on the Sheild without issue. I changed the home streaming from original to 1080p as requested.
I don’t think I’ve ever had an issue playing live tv or a recording on the sheild.
Okay. I guess your PC doesn’t like the format of the HLS segments. I think some systems/drivers expect the segments to start with a video keyframe, and our transcoder is not doing that currently because the native clients don’t need it.
If you play OTA recordings/live tv is the web player more reliable?
Yes, playing OTA recordings seem to be more reliable. I have my extend set to heavy transcode and there are no errors in the log files and no issues playing it via the webplayer.
FWIW, I can use the web player in Chrome on my iMac and it plays all the premium channels just fine. I’ll try it on a Windows PC next week.
What’s your CPU load balance? I’d randomly have really high CPU load on my Shield that was messing up my transcoding attempts.
further testing on my Android phone yields the same results. Viewing Live TV OTA shows play fine but Premium TV shows are stuck at “remux starting” or "“transcoder starting”, depending on if I set quality to 1080p @ 10mbps or force to a lower res in order to transcode.
I assume this has to do with the codec the Premium TV channels are recorded in.
I can’t believe I’m the only one experiencing these issues with the web player. Here’s the log output:
2018/09/01 11:42:49 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 1111 from 192.168.1.75 (encoder=remux, resolution=1080, deinterlacer=, bitrate=10000)
[mpegts @ 0x310b540] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0)
Last message repeated 212 times
[mpegts @ 0x310b540] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: h264 ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), none): unspecified size
Consider increasing the value for the ‘analyzeduration’ and ‘probesize’ options
[mpegts @ 0x310b540] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0)
With mobile safari I have the same problem and my server’s on a Mac:
2018/09/01 13:05:45 [TNR] Opened connection to 10485D1E for ch1111 2018/09/01 13:05:45 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 1111 from 192.168.1.24 (encoder=remux, resolution=1080, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=10000) [mpegts @ 0x7fa682812e00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0) Last message repeated 211 times [mpegts @ 0x7fa682812e00] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: h264 ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), none): unspecified size Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options [mpegts @ 0x7fa682812e00] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0) 2018/09/01 13:06:29 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch1111-dANY-ip192.168.1.24 @ 36.501334s 2018/09/01 13:06:29 [TNR] Closed connection to 10485D1E for ch1111
tim are you having similar problems or is it playing OK on mobile safari?
Same problem. I can’t transcode to the Channels app either when I set the Home Streaming to something. Same error you’re seeing:
2018/09/01 13:10:23 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 1111 from 192.168.1.12 (encoder=h264_videotoolbox, resolution=720, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=6000) [mpegts @ 0x7fbfbc008000] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 0) Last message repeated 210 times [mpegts @ 0x7fbfbc008000] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: h264 ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), none): unspecified size Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options Too many packets buffered for output stream 0:1. [aac @ 0x7fbfbb003a00] 2 frames left in the queue on closing 2018/09/01 13:10:56 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch1111-dANY-ip192.168.1.12 @ 0s
Looks like a different error now. SD has been rolling out some encoder changes to their Premium TV channels today.
I can remote view my premium shows that were recorded on Friday but every show recorded on Sunday are now not accessible. So looks like encoding changed…as you have said. Also now cannot remote view the premium channels but OTA mpeg2 channels are fine…which points to the same issue.
Try pre-release build v2018.09.02.2253
Hold SHIFT and click Check For Updates on the DVR web settings UI
Looks like you never sleep 
Thanks for the great support. That fixed everything.
@tmm1 thanks for the update. If you get a chance can you test the web player on a Windows PC? I updated to 2253 this morning and it seems to work most of the time while watching live TV. What I’m noticing is that it’s transcoding every Premium channel now. They play fine but now notice about 40% CPU utilization from ffmpeg on my Xeon server (no hardware transcoding). This happens, regardless of the transcoder quality setting (currently set at 1080p@10mbps). Once in a while a stream will start out as a remux but fails after a few seconds while it shows “Remux running”.
@ctalbot are you seeing that behavior trying to join a tuner sharing stream only, or also on new live streams and recording playback?
Just tested on live streams, no tuner sharing stream.
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A new build (v2018.09.05.0007) is available with improvements to Premium TV playback in the web player.
Much better tmm1! Thanks for the quick response.
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I was seeing this same problem, found this thread looking for discussion. FYI the 2018.09.05.0007 completely fixed the problem for me too on the HD Premium channels streamed outside of my home. HDHomeRun Duo + Mac Mini DVR + iOS Channels App + Chrome & Safari (Mac & Windows).
Excellent work by the Channels DVR team. THANKS!!
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