Hardware Transcoding on Base Raspbian Image

Channels DVR Server Raspberry Pi
#16

Any update on this? Any chance the "Old Streaming System" can remain between restarts? I tried to watch a show yesterday when I wasn't home and forgot about this setting.

Thanks!

2 Likes
#17

Wanted to +1 this. The only thing I would add is that viewing transcoded streams in browser is fine; it’s only on iOS clients that I get green-screen transcodes. Not a huge deal since I do most of my watching at home without transcoding but would still be nice if everything worked. Please let me know if logs or other info would be helpful. Thanks!

#18

+1 here too, same symptoms and same workaround by using the "Old Streaming System" option.

1 Like
#19

Are you using the Channels DVR image or something else?

We're trying to reproduce the issues using the Channels DVR image and are having trouble reproducing the issue.

#20

We've isolated this issue to the 5.15 PI kernel upgrade and are looking for a fix.

#21

Please try this build:

#22

After updating to v2023.01.07.1206, I still have to enable "Old Streaming System" for it to work on the iPhone Channels app using the hardware transcoder. Without Old Streaming System, the video stream never starts (it used to play audio with a green screen.) The software transcoder does work without enabling Old Streaming System.

I also get the same results using the Channels web viewer.

Pi 4 is running this kernel:

> uname -r
5.15.84-v8+
#23

My initial test using the web viewer seems to be working! ( 5.15.32-v8+). I'll try again tomorrow when I'm outside my home network over my VPN.

Thanks!

#24

Thanks. What's vcgencmd version say?

#25 
> vcgencmd version
Jan  5 2023 10:46:54
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 8ba17717fbcedd4c3b6d4bce7e50c7af4155cba9 (clean) (release) (start)
3 Likes
#26

Okay we are tracking an issue in the rpi firmware that started in Oct. Will post when we find a solution.

#27

Please try this:

sudo rpi-update 1e2374e9de5a16ef7f1a3ea2267dd6abafb6c4e8

#28

Did more testing today and things are looking good. I connect over a WireGuard VPN and with 1 Mbps streaming quality it works well.

I’m running an older firmware apparently on my Pi.

Mar 24 2022 13:19:26 
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version e5a963efa66a1974127860b42e913d2374139ff5 (clean) (release) (start)
1 Like
#29

Looks like the hash is invalid...

> sudo rpi-update 1e2374e9de5a16ef7f1a3ea2267dd6abafb6c4e8
 *** Raspberry Pi firmware updater by Hexxeh, enhanced by AndrewS and Dom
 *** Performing self-update
 *** Relaunching after update
 *** Raspberry Pi firmware updater by Hexxeh, enhanced by AndrewS and Dom
 *** Invalid hash given
#30

I am going to try a54fe46c85fd4a2155f2282454bee3c2a3d5b5eb

I think this might be close to the version @sgruby is running.

1 Like
#31

Updating to a54fe46c85fd4a2155f2282454bee3c2a3d5b5eb works great on both iOS and the webplayer using hardware transcoding with "Old Streaming System" disabled.

sudo rpi-update a54fe46c85fd4a2155f2282454bee3c2a3d5b5eb

Thank you @sgruby for posting the versions that worked for you.

@tmm1, if there is another version you want me to try, I can. The hash you provided before just was not found. Thanks.

1 Like
#32

Oops. This is the buggy version: firmware: isp: Run ISP without hi-res output buffer · raspberrypi/rpi-firmware@516eaa0 · GitHub

So anything older than that is fine.

#33

Thanks, I confirmed the commit before that also works:
532b694485d0fdaf6a853890ab8a13926ce3cdc7

> uname -r
5.15.73-v8+

> vcgencmd version
Oct 11 2022 17:48:47
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 5da7b38ef2434a6d18a3f6054ba239f1e4a52594 (clean) (release) (start)
2 Likes
#34

Great, thanks. We have reported the issue: ISP downscaling not working after Oct 2022 firmware · Issue #1770 · raspberrypi/firmware · GitHub

2 Likes
#35

My experience is slightly different:

With hardware transcoding enabled and "Old Streaming System" disabled:

Current stable release (I don't recall version number)
uname -r = 5.15.61-v8+
Web player = Green screen, audio only

Pre-release 2023.01.14.2318
uname -r = 5.15.61-v8+
Web player = Won't start the video or audio

Pre-release 2023.01.14.2318
uname -r = 5.15.73-v8+ (532b694485d0fdaf6a853890ab8a13926ce3cdc7)
Web player = Won't start the video or audio

Pre-release 2023.01.14.2318
uname -r = 5.15.32-v8+ (a54fe46c85fd4a2155f2282454bee3c2a3d5b5eb)
Web player = Video and audio stream, but distorted to 4:3 ratio

The same distortion to 4:3 also happens whenever I select "Old Streaming System".
When selecting Software transcoding however, the video is no distorted.