Lost ATSC 3.0 channels converting DVR to Linux

Channels DVR Server
#1

Hi there! so I thought I would get cutsie today and convert my Channels DVR over from Windows 10 to Ubuntu. Windows 10 was working fine, but I hate Windows. I got the Channels DVR for Linux installed fine, super easy, but my ATSC 3.0 streams won't play now. Is there anything I can check before I go through the process of tracking down a Windows 10 USB installer? Have I shot myself in the foot here?

I sent support an email. They suggested I try changing the de-interlacer, on the settings, but that didn't do anything.

any help is appreciated!

#2

On what? The web ui, client? I can assure you atsc3 works on Ubuntu 20.04

If you are trying to watch on the web player some setups won’t transcode atsc3. The web player does not have playback at original so it must be transcoded. However atsc3 will play on client apps.

Here is a snippet of logs of the web player failing with atsc3

2022/03/03 15:57:51.178263 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch104.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.191-10-----10000-0--0-0---false-false-0.01:  Error initializing output stream 0:0 -- Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
2022/03/03 15:57:51.295524 [ENC] Encoder stopped for ch104.1 in /home/rice/DVR/Streaming/ch104.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.191-844932464/encoder-11-2138153509 after starting from 11 without encoding any segments
2022/03/03 15:57:51.296504 [ENC] Starting encoder for ch104.1 in /home/rice/DVR/Streaming/ch104.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.191-844932464/encoder-11-3059043382 at 11 (9.059033) (encoder=h264_vaapi, resolution=, deinterlacer=hardware, bitrate=10000 segment_size=0.01)
2022/03/03 15:57:51.419997 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch104.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.191-10-----10000-0--0-0---false-false-0.01:  [h264_vaapi @ 0x647c080] No usable encoding profile found.
2022/03/03 15:57:51.420038 [HLS] ffmpeg: ch104.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.191-10-----10000-0--0-0---false-false-0.01:  Error initializing output stream 0:0 -- Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
2022/03/03 15:57:51.495465 [ENC] Encoder stopped for ch104.1 in /home/rice/DVR/Streaming/ch104.1-dANY-ip192.168.1.191-844932464/encoder-11-3059043382 after starting from 11 without encoding any segments. Marked segment as
#3

both! I installed the DVR beta server and its playing now, but the performance is horrible. ugh! I'm going to run the DVR server on my Macbook for now until I get this figured out.

#4

I edited my above post. What is you client device?

#5

I tried the web client, my Galaxy Note 9, and my Android TV app. None of them worked. Now that I have the DVR server running on the macbook, they are all working. My error was that there was no hevc codec.

#6

My server is running Ubuntu Server and I can play ATSC 3.0 fine on my Apple TV's as well as my Galaxy S21. I don't use the web player at all so I couldn't help you there.

#7

Disable this on web UI

#8

After I got your email, I tried both of the other deinterlacer settings. Neither made a difference. All seems strange since the Windows server was acceptable.

What version of Ubuntu is everyone running? I grabbed the latest desktop version.

#9

changing deinterlacer under web player settings to linear solved transcoding playback failure on both web player and remote playback of hevc

#10

20.04 desktop version.
I’m wondering if your win10 and Mac are transcoding to your tablet and android tv. Are your playback settings in those clients set to original?

#11

Right now, all my clients transcode down to 4mb. If I don't do that, it drops frames like crazy.

#12

Try in your client settings changing to original on playback and changing decode from software to hardware or vise versa.

On a side note on the machine you had Ubuntu running on, is it an intel or AMD cpu?

#13

@wesmckean I'm running Ubuntu server 20.04. I don't want the overhead of a gui and I can treat the server as truly headless. It's the cleanest way to run channels IMHO.

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#14

I tried all that. I probably need to play with it some more.

I am running this on a Dell Optiplex 7010 (10 years hold) with an Intel I5 processor with 8 GB of memory. I picked it up off of eBay for cheap.

#15

I'm going to try that today, I think. won't hurt anything if I end up having to re-install Windoze.

#16

Let me know if you get stuck. I would be happy to help.

#17

ok. I got Ubuntu server installed. no problem there. of 500G hard drive, only 100G is available to Channels DVR. not sure what I did there since I just picked defaults during the install. The current stable release still wouldn't work, no matter what transcoder/deinterlacer settings I chose. On a whim, I decided to re-install the beta DVR server and voila, it started working.

I played with transcoder and playback settings on my Android TV box. At "Original" and "Software", I get a black screen with sound. With transcoder set to "Hardware" I get 20 dropped frames per second. With quality set to 6mbps and transcoder set to "Hardware", I get a decent picture and smooth playback.

I guess I'll run with this for a while. not sure why the beta server works and the stable server does not. The disk space is an issue I'll probably need to address, either by reconfiguring it or adding the USB hard drive currently connected to the HDHomerun I'm not using. It'd be nice to have a resolution on the dropped frames as well eventually.

Thanks for all the help!

#18

You could try to find the missing 400gb by opening a terminal and run:
df -h

Use that info to set dvr storage location

There should be no reason to transcode on LAN. Do you have any problems with atsc1 channels running original quality hardware/software decode with tuner sharing disabled? Awhile back there was some work done on frame drops on android. You could try installing the beta app on the android box and test original again. It will be a different app so make sure you are in the right one

#19

Agreed. Transcoding is the enemy. You don't want it. If you have to do it on the Lan then you have bigger issues that need solving :blush:.
When you installed Ubuntu server did you chnage the partition sizes? That's the only thing I could thing of that would cause an issue. You might want to add a large drive for recordings anyway though. If you do and the drive is usb I have little tip. Mount the drive with the uuid method and not the actual name. Sometimes Linux will rename the device and then you lose it until you remap it

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#20

I rebuilt the server without the LVM disk partition. I now have 493 GB of free disk space, and I no longer get the sputtering due to disk activity. The ATSC 3.0 channels are playing fine. Interestingly enough, I get about 17 frames per second dropped when using the english audio channel. when I switch it to the spanish audio channel, which is in english BTW, I get about 3 frames dropped per second. Much easier on my eyes. This is with the Channels DVR Beta BTW.