Ffmpeg New video stream crashes tvOS/iPadOS client

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

Hi there,

I've been troubleshooting an issue with a custom stream of a freeview channel in Australia (provided via AU Freeview for Channels).

If I open this stream on iPadOS or tvOS, and then also open the same stream via the admin web UI, when a commercial break begins on this particular stream, I notice the logs show that ffmpeg receives a new audio/video stream (presumably commercials are feed from a different CDN?).

The web client seems to deal with this without any issues, but the client on tvOS/iPadOS both lock up and do not resume playback. Closing the stream and rejoining it appears to work.

I am running Channels DVR on a Windows Server 2016 VM.

2023/06/07 22:32:36.685722 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch10-dANY-ip192.168.0.110-remux:  [hls @ 0000000001cb6f00] Timestamps are unset in a packet for stream 1. This is deprecated and will stop working in the future. Fix your code to set the timestamps properly
2023/06/07 22:32:36.924720 [HLS] Probed live stream in 4.0411253s: h264 1280x720 progressive 2975253bps
2023/06/07 22:33:10.410191 [TNR] Sharing existing connection to M3U-MelbourneFreeview for ch10 10 (clients=2, len=0)
2023/06/07 22:36:54.459716 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch10-dANY-ip192.168.0.110-remux:  [mpegts @ 00000000011fc180] New audio stream 0:4 at pos:96187380 and DTS:277.135s
2023/06/07 22:36:54.459716 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch10-dANY-ip192.168.0.110-remux:  [mpegts @ 00000000011fc180] New video stream 0:5 at pos:96187756 and DTS:277.135s
2023/06/07 22:37:15.568214 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch10-dANY-ip192.168.0.110: Playlist has not been updated in 23.0979473s
2023/06/07 22:37:15.568214 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch10-dANY-ip192.168.0.110 (out: 4m35.758667s, finished: false)

I am unsure if this is a bug, as I couldn't find any exact threads reporting these specific symptoms, so forgive me if this has been answered before.

Is there anything I can do server-side to prevent this behaviour? If this sounds like a bug, I can raise a report with more specific details.

#2

Please submit diagnostics after it happens

Does enabling experimental mpegts rewriter help?

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#3

Yeah, if you could post the diags that'd be great, @liambest . Not much I can do from my end unfortunately.

FWIW I've been using the Sydney feeds and from my experience they don't seem to have targeted/hyperlocal ad inserts, it's just a straight up continuous source feed. I watched Channel 10 for a couple of hours a couple of weeks ago without any issues. I'd be really interested to see if other markets like Melbourne are being trialled/had them all along re: targeted inserts.

I've had a similar issue before with Pluto but eventually rectified itself either with a new DVR release and/or me enabling MPEG-TS rewriting.

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#4

Sorry about the slow reply - had a late work day.

Logs have been submitted as 06d519ba-e83c-4351-b451-26bd66e64c63.

However, mpegts rewriter has fixed it so far, so I will mark this as solved.

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