Can you tell us what firewall you’re using? It appears that it isn’t passing along the source IP of the requests.
We do not return the X-Channels-Dvr-Identifier: header for requests coming from routable IPs. Nothing is exposed unless it’s behind a proxy or other such thing.
Linux iptables on Ubiquiti gear. Not an uncommon setup.
Did you execute custom iptables rules or use the unifi port forwarding?
Just Unifi port forwarding. Port 8089-> internal server running Channels DVR.
…and just so we’re on the same page: you’re able to go to an incognito browser window and go to your DVR hostname from a device outside your network and connect without authenticating?
I never said I could get to my Channels DVR server page without authenticating. I do get the page to authenticate.
What I'm saying is that it exposes the let's encrypt public key which allows Shodan to record the IP address as running a service on that port and gets added to their catalog. Am I making any sense?
The whole point of this topic was my support for Tailscale. No ports are exposed to the outside world which is GOOD.
Got it. Yes, it will expose the CN, but not the X-Channels-DVR-Identifier: header.
Haven't been able to get it to work on my Apple TV yet. I've installed version 5.5.5 on my Apple TV. Where do I access the QR code? There is no debug menu under settings? Many thanks.
Only available in beta
Thanks so much. When do you expect it to come out of beta (no precise date needed, but more like "before year end" or "Q1 of 2023", something like that). Fully understand if you can't give a timeframe. How do you become part of the beta program? Love this feature.
I am not sure about the timing, but the beta program for the apps is discussed here...
To install the dvr beta on your server, download the beta dvr software by hitting the down arrow on the Channels DVR Settings page. The version is found at the top and you will see a "Check for update" button. Hit the down arrow and select "Check for pre-release".
Thanks GeorgiaOkie! I got it up and running on my AppleTV.
For the devs: when I am remote live channels works perfectly, however recorded content will not play on my Apple TV. Note I don’t have this problem on my iPhone when I play content through Tailscale.
The error message reads:
“Failed to download file: http://:8089/dvr/files/8416/hls/stream.m3u8/stream0.ts?abitrate….”
The ip address is from Tailscale. The log simple reads: “starting encoder for…” and then the next entry, after erroring out, reads “stopped encoder for …”
I suspect it has to do with the encoder. When I select in experimental options “HEVC encoder” nothing works on the Apple TV or iPhone when using tailscale.
Thanks so much
Please update to the latest TestFlight beta for the fix.
Thanks. I updated to the latest beta version but still get the same error. Thanks for your support
Please go to Settings -> Support -> Submit Diagnostic Logs from your device and let us know when it's been submitted so we can have a better idea of what was going on.
Tailscale works great but as others have noted or discovered, performance is pretty poor. You lose a lot of thoroughput running over the Tailscale VPN connection unfortunately. I have to reduce my stream quality to 1Mbps (ugh) to be reliable when streaming this way otherwise the buffering and stopping/skipping is too onerous. I have found that performance in general on Tailscale is not very good - even when a "direct" or "hairpin" on the same router but a different interface etc. It just takes a huge performance hit no matter what you do, and that sucks, but at least it works. I don't do the remote streaming this way very often, but it does work when needed, even if the quality is sub-optimal at 1Mbps streams.
To put in perspective, on the same physical ethernet interface, gigabit transfer with no TS VPN. Once Tailscale is used, the max performance drops for me to around 170 megabits. That is a heck of a drop. Once it goes to a different interface it drops to only 1-2 (!) megabit of performance effectively. It's pretty terrible. Obviously this isn't the Channels developers fault and I appreciate the Tailscale stuff for simplicity and ease of use but it is most certainly NOT a performance VPN solution by any stretch of the imagination. Eventually I will probably setup a dedicated Wireguard direct site-to-site VPN and just connect a travel router on the other side when needed, as Wireguard native performance is substantially superior in all aspects.
Tailscale uses Wireguard. Are these performance numbers using the native Tailscale server and client, or using our embedded versions?
I'm using the native TailScale server and client; I have not enabled nor used the built-in experimental TailScale stuff in Channels DVR. Though I wouldn't expect performance to be dramatically different in either scenario. TailScale suffers from a large performance problem in general due to the Wireguard Go! implementation (as opposed to having native kernel driver access) which greatly limits and reduces the overall thoroughput of the VPN possible.
Yes I get that same rate around 7-9Mbps on some TailScale clients but other times it is lucky to sustain 2-3 megs. So typically I set a default 1Mbps stream rate on all devices and scale up from there as the connection permits. Honestly on a lot of screens 1Mbps works just fine, I don't need high quality.
