M3U quality

#1

I've searched but haven't found anything that answers a question I have about using an M3U from one channels dvr to another.

For background, I've setup a Tailscale vpn from my dvr to my MILs dvr so I can watch a couple of OTA channels that I can't get in my location. It works, but the streams buffer and are choppy to watch.

Is there an option to request a lower quality stream from the remote dvr similar to the web player? I expect it's trying to send full quality over a rather small pipe from one site to another.

#2

You would use /channels.m3u?vcodec=h264&bitrate=4000 for a 4mbps stream

#3

Thanks! I've tried what you've recommended but on the client side I end up with the screen indicating "Weak Signal". In the logs on the sending DVR side I see:

2022/08/16 16:31:48.939107 [TNR] Opened connection to 10493EAB/0 for ch50.1 WRAZ HD
2022/08/16 16:31:48.939745 [HLS] Starting live stream for channel 50.1 from XX.XX.XX.XX (bitrate=0)
2022/08/16 16:31:49.704437 [HLS] Probed live stream in 764.63208ms: mpeg2video 1280x720 progressive 2863149bps
2022/08/16 16:31:51.185811 [HLS] Session ch50.1-d10493EAB-ip100.101.54.40 started in 2.527160617s
2022/08/16 16:31:51.187515 [ENC] Starting encoder for ch50.1 in /media/channels-dvr/Streaming/ch50.1-d10493EAB-ipXX.XX.XX.XX-1846856178/encoder-1-359519252 at 1 (1.049400) (encoder=h264_vaapi, resolution=720, deinterlacer=hardware, bitrate=3616, segment_size=0.01)
2022/08/16 16:32:23.621563 [HLS] Stopping inactive session ch50.1-d10493EAB-ipXX.XX.XX.XX
2022/08/16 16:32:23.621599 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch50.1-d10493EAB-ipXX.XX.XX.XX (out: 34.332656s, finished: false)
2022/08/16 16:32:23.666372 [ENC] Stopped encoder for ch50.1 in /media/channels-dvr/Streaming/ch50.1-d10493EAB-ipXX.XX.XX.XX-1846856178/encoder-1-359519252 after encoding 1 to 32
2022/08/16 16:32:23.668855 [TNR] Closed connection to 10493EAB/0 for ch50.1 WRAZ HD
2022/08/16 16:32:23.670268 [SNR] Statistics for ch50.1 WRAZ HD: ss=77%-78% snq=98%-100% seq=100% bps=6436589,598592-7822304 pps=611,57-743
2022/08/16 16:32:23.670293 [SNR] Buffer statistics for ch50.1 WRAZ HD: buf=0% drop=0%

And, on the receiving DVR:

2022/08/16 16:31:51.207195 [TNR] Opened connection to M3U-HDHomeRunConnect10493EAB for ch50.1 FOX
2022/08/16 16:31:51.207382 [TNR] Closed connection to M3U-HDHomeRunConnect10493EAB for ch50.1 FOX
2022/08/16 16:31:51.207593 [SNR] Buffer statistics for 192.168.1.100 (John’s MacMini) for ch50.1 FOX: buf=0% drop=-9223372036854775808%

#4

I'm not sure what's going on. Is the Custom Channel set to HLS?

#5

It's set MPEG-TS

#6

You need HLS for streaming over the internet

#7

Thanks! I changed to HLS and set the bit rate down to 720 and this seems to work with the remote hardware and bandwidth limitations. I also set transcoding to software on the remote side which seemed to help a lot with the stream quality once the bit rate was lowered.