Frndly TV for Channels

Errors on the frndly servers. As noted by others the same behavior is happening in their app.

Looks like FRIENDLY TV ad insertion is down.
Hopefully, they get it back up and operational.
Most channels on the service have insertion several times an hour.

@matthuisman
Matt, not sure how soon is soon, but
Movies! channel is coming soon to Frndly TV
tvc-guide-stationid="81275" seems to match their website schedule.

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thanks. ill put a note in but I can't add it until I know frndly-tvs channel id for it as I map that to the epg id. I suspect it will be 49 but will wait and see. Ping me once its live

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Hello @matthuisman, I've noticed that there are 3 new channels on Frndly,

Dove Channel - Kids
Dove Family Movies
Crime + Investigation

I don't know how hard it is to fix, but it sure would be great!

Thanks

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If you have the latest version, they should be showing up. But without guide data.
I'm using these 2 sources


That will get you titles for the 6 channels with no guide data.

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Hi there,
The new channels are showing up here with EPG data.
Great jobon the docker.

Since I keep getting interrupted recordings (seconds after the top of the hour) from Frndly TV,
last night I decided to manually start a recording before the top of the hour to see what happens.
Appears when the recording was interrupted at 21:00:13, it logged me out.

Both Channels DVR and frndlyTV for Channels docker logs

2022/07/04 20:52:00.460873 [DVR] Starting job 1656991800-ch9001 Perry Mason on ch=[9001]
2022-07-05T03:52:00.906826048Z 401
2022-07-05T03:52:00.907653879Z Unauthorized access
2022-07-05T03:52:00.907805282Z logging in....
2022-07-05T03:52:02.880584702Z Logged in!
2022-07-05T03:52:03.672383739Z 192.168.1.3 - - [05/Jul/2022 03:52:03] "GET /play/me_tv.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 302 -
2022/07/04 20:52:04.393771 [TNR] Opened connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/04 20:52:04.394372 [DVR] Recording for job 1656991800-ch9001 from M3U-frndlyTV ch9001 into "TV/Perry Mason/Perry Mason S07E09 1963-11-28 The Case of the Festive Felon 2022-07-04-2052.mpg" for 42m59.538803678s
2022/07/04 21:00:13.939406 [ERR] Error during stream M3U-frndlyTV ch9001 MeTV: Failed to download file: https://sr-live2-frndly.akamaized.net/v1/manifest/segment/...: 404 Not Found
2022/07/04 21:00:14.226156 [TNR] Closed connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/04 21:00:14.226275 [DVR] Job 1656991800-ch9001 Perry Mason ended prematurely: 34m45.773739474s
2022/07/04 21:00:14.322442 [DVR] Starting job 1656991800-ch9001 Perry Mason on ch=[9001]
2022-07-05T04:00:14.786650733Z 401
2022-07-05T04:00:14.787673747Z Unauthorized access
2022-07-05T04:00:14.787904989Z logging in....
2022-07-05T04:00:16.855460763Z Logged in!
2022-07-05T04:00:17.668838711Z 192.168.1.3 - - [05/Jul/2022 04:00:17] "GET /play/me_tv.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 302 -
2022/07/04 21:00:18.310681 [TNR] Opened connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/04 21:00:18.310828 [DVR] Recording for job 1656991800-ch9001 from M3U-frndlyTV ch9001 into "TV/Perry Mason/Perry Mason S07E09 1963-11-28 The Case of the Festive Felon 2022-07-04-2052.mpg" for 34m45.677065813s
2022/07/04 21:02:27.886449 [MTS] Statistics for "TV/Perry Mason/Perry Mason S07E09 1963-11-28 The Case of the Festive Felon 2022-07-04-2052.mpg": skipped=0 unhandled_packets=0 discontinuity_detected=0 transport_errors=0 invalid_pts=0 invalid_dts=0 saw_pcr=true saw_pmt=true highest_pts=1955.222933
2022/07/04 21:02:27.937347 [TNR] Closed connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/04 21:02:27.939883 [DVR] Job cancelled: 1656991800-ch9001 Perry Mason

Anyone else experiencing this where you get logged out?

Those are still the errors we discussed a couple of days ago. Frndly hasn't corrected things on their end. Got something to do with ad insertion. Go up the thread about 3 days.

I'm aware of that, but are others getting logged out when it happens?

Sorry about that, forgot you were part of that discussion. :no_mouth:

Starnge thing when I made that recording last night.
About 2 minutes after the recording started I went to the Frndly TV website in another browser and watched that channel while Channels DVR was recording it. I didn't see any glitches. In fact the timestamp for the interruption was after an ad break. I don't know if Channels DVR is caching or getting a delayed feed compared to what you see on the Frndly TV website. Guess I could watch live in both Channels and on the website to see. Looks like Channels DVR is 4-5 seconds behind the website.

I don't see what this has to do with ad insertion.
Just watched the Frndly MeTV channel in Channels DVR from 2 minutes before the hour to a couple seconds after. The show I was watching went to commercial break, returned with the ending credits and then when the next show started at the top of the hour it errored out and disconnected.

2022/07/05 09:58:01.958194 [TNR] Opened connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/05 09:58:01.959724 [HLS] Starting live stream for channel 9001 from 192.168.1.8 (bitrate=4512)
2022/07/05 09:58:02.293254 [HLS] Probed live stream in 333.216546ms: h264 1280x720 progressive 2606811bps
2022/07/05 09:58:02.305143 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8-remux:  [hls @ 0x75e3940] 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
2022/07/05 09:58:02.391242 [HLS] Session ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8 started in 2.025898597s
2022/07/05 10:00:15.832485 [ERR] Error during stream M3U-frndlyTV ch9001 MeTV: Failed to download file: https://sr-live2-frndly.akamaized.net/v1/manifest/segment/...: 404 Not Found
2022/07/05 10:00:15.947142 [TNR] Closed connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/05 10:00:16.010670 [HLS] Couldn't generate stream playlist for ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8: Stream stopped
2022/07/05 10:00:16.010796 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8 (out: 2m14.254667s, finished: true)
2022/07/05 10:00:18.513790 [TNR] Opened connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV
2022/07/05 10:00:18.515014 [HLS] Starting live stream for channel 9001 from 192.168.1.8 (bitrate=4512)
2022/07/05 10:00:18.854527 [HLS] Probed live stream in 338.959058ms: h264 1280x720 progressive 2380941bps
2022/07/05 10:00:18.865289 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8-remux:  [hls @ 0x6ad9940] 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
2022/07/05 10:00:18.921612 [HLS] Session ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8 started in 2.036956205s
2022/07/05 10:00:39.901858 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8 (out: 25.833344s, finished: false)
2022/07/05 10:00:39.903463 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch9001-dANY-ip192.168.1.8-remux:  [mpegts @ 0x6ad2780] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)
2022/07/05 10:00:39.918906 [TNR] Closed connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9001 MeTV```

I am getting the same type of logs I did from a couple of days ago. No log outs.
I am Not getting any of those ffmpeg errors in Channels logs like you show. I was on METV for a half hour. So that is something different to note.
I do not know if it matters but I am on the latest frndly docker. (and a keep_alive=10).

Yah, I don't think those matter. That was from watching Live in the DVR web UI, not recording.

Also latest version docker image version and KEEP_ALIVE=0

My point is the disconnection is not happening for me going into, during or coming out of a commercial break. They've all been a few seconds after the top of the hour on MeTV, Decades and H&I.

Not sure if the devs would want a debug recording log, because it sounds like they're convinced it's Frndly TV's ad insertion.

Yup can confirm that top of the hour Connection Lost for METV on Channels ( Apple TV) the last two hours on live. I also had the official authorized Frndly app (iPad) running at the same time . It also stopped and displayed Failed to Load Video at the exact same moment.

I do not think the devs are convinced that this problem has something to do with commercials (another member suggested that). I think that since it is happening on Frndly's own official app that the problem is a Frndly issue and not a Channels issue. If Frndly can't keep their own stuff connected, the Channels people really can't troubleshoot or attempt to correct the issue.

It was driving me nuts until I examined the recordings with my video editor.
It's interrupted during the station identification a few seconds before returning to the program.
I'll be keeping those interrupted recordings!
Capture

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I notified FRIENDLY that the ad server was down and they mentioned they would be looking to get a solution in place within 48 hours.

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Sweet. I sent something to them too but have not heard back.

I have been having the interrupted recordings as well. Another problem for me is in live viewing of Frndly channels. Nearly every time there is a commercial break, my live feed drops out to a black screen with status bar across the bottom. I have to exit to the guide and relaunch the channel to get it playing again. It has been driving me nuts for days, thinking it was something on my end.

Yeah it’s been happening several days now. Even on the official Frndly app. Hopefully @rpaulmerrell news of Frndly working on it will pan out and these drops will stop in the next day or two.