Playback Issues in Web UI (Mac hardware transcoder)

A post was split to a new topic: Web playback stuttering (Linux hardware transcoder)

Confirmed, same bug occurring at the 7min mark.

This froze in Chrome desktop?

Can you reproduce with a recording playback instead of live tv?

With my puny Core, desktop Chrome exhibits the same behavior as Safari on iPad, as detailed above for HW/blend/240P.

On Recorded playback

Yup, it was Chrome desktop. I played a DVR recording and couldnā€™t reproduce the issue.

Even a recording off the same channel which freezes watching live?

I didnā€™t try that. Iā€™ll try to get to it tomorrow night.

Iā€™d like to thank the devs for adding SW transcoding.

On my 2010 Core 2 Duo, mac mini, I was able to watch a recorded 2 1/2 hour movie (1080i) in itā€™s entirety, without any glitches, pauses, or stalls.

Transcoding Software/Blend/240P on iPad Safari, web ui (AC wi-fi). No other activity on mac mini DVR.

By the end, the speed had decreased to 1.02x, however, no problems. As I watched it in the small window, I noticed that the transcoder ā€œpausedā€ multiple times, obviously it was pausing due to waiting for the stream from mac mini to iPad to allow for more data. There were no pauses in playback.

Thanks again @tmm1 and @maddox ā€¦this is awesome.

@timstephens24 @photosmike When the playback stalls out, does the audio keep playing?

It hasnā€™t frozen on me now in 30 minutes on Chrome (Hardware decoding set to 1080p), so no idea what was causing it.

The Audio stops.

Donā€™t know if youā€™re still working on improvements to to the web UI live TV playback, but just a report back on how things sit with me as of the current server:

Chrome: Software Encoderā€“Plays back 480 2 stream with software encoder, I believe seamlessly; Hardware Encoderā€“Otherwise same settings, wonā€™t start.

Safari: Wonā€™t play anything for me, hardware or software encoder.

This is all remote viewing from my :8089 port. Both ends have plenty of speed to play/send the video.

Version
2017.02.01.0203
Uptime 19 hours
Started Yesterday at 8:08 PM

OSDarwin
10.12.2 (kernel: 16.3.0)
CPU
4 cores / IntelĀ® Coreā„¢ i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz
load averages: 1.17 1.21 1.18
RAM 17.18 GB
13.0% free

Can you post logs again from hardware transcoding output.

I just retried both Safari and Chrome with both software and hardware conversion, and three of the four streams seemed to be continuing without hanging. This was on a lower resolution sub-channel (not sure if itā€™s SD or not), so I donā€™t know how much, if any downsampling was taking place.

If you want, Iā€™ll try to run the same test with both browsers and an HD channel this evening.

Logs:

480p @ 2mbps (all)

Safari, software, blend (hung up):
2017/02/01 16:33:56 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 10.2 (encoder=libx264, resolution=480, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=2000)
pipe:: could not seek to position 34282.392
2017/02/01 16:34:28 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session 10323CCF-ch10.2 @ 27.6276s
[mpegts @ 0x7fc4a9008000] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)
overread 8
[mpeg2video @ 0x7fc4a800ee00] Warning MVs not available
Error writing trailer of /Users/jcrunch/Movies/Channels/Streaming/10323CCF-ch10.2/stream.m3u8: No such file or directory

Safari, hardware, blend (played to 3 minutes, stopped by user):
2017/02/01 16:36:52 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 10.2 (encoder=h264_videotoolbox, resolution=480, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=2000)
pipe:: could not seek to position 34458.870
2017/02/01 16:40:18 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session 10323CCF-ch10.2 @ 3m21.0008s
[mpegts @ 0x7fb54100a400] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)
[mpeg2video @ 0x7fb543144c00] ac-tex damaged at 62 23
[mpeg2video @ 0x7fb543144c00] Warning MVs not available

Chrome,hardware, blend (played to almost 2 minutes, stopped by user):
2017/02/01 16:43:25 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 10.2 (encoder=h264_videotoolbox, resolution=480, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=2000)
pipe:: could not seek to position 34851.184
2017/02/01 16:45:20 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session 10323CCF-ch10.2 @ 1m50.743967s
[mpegts @ 0x7ff3d7808600] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)

Chrome, software, blend (played to over 2 minutes, stopped by user):
2017/02/01 16:47:25 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 10.2 (encoder=libx264, resolution=480, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=2000)
pipe:: could not seek to position 35091.277
2017/02/01 16:49:47 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session 10323CCF-ch10.2 @ 2m18.471667s
[mpegts @ 0x7fe721008000] Dropped corrupted packet (stream = 1)
Error writing trailer of /Users/jcrunch/Movies/Channels/Streaming/10323CCF-ch10.2/stream.m3u8: No such file or directory

Have you been able to reproduce this behavior on a HD recording at all?

I watched Ellen live today via OTA, using mac hardware transcoder, and had no issues.

If someone can reproduce with a recording (instead of live), that would be ideal because then I can use the file to recreate the issue on my computer.

I also made a small change in v2017.02.03.0335 based on a hunch, that may or may not fix the issue when watching live tv. Try it out and let me know.

Seems to be a Safari on the desktop video player issue, perhaps because of the age of the version of Safari Iā€™m using (10.0.2).

Chrome streams the same channel, with the same settings (see below), fine on the same desktop remotely (8089).

Safari on my iOS device (iPhone 6s) runs 720p, hardware, blend, 4mbps stream from live HD source fine remotely (8089) through either wireless router on receiving end or through AT&T LTE after turning WIFI off on phone.

Running v2017.02.03.0335.

Iā€™ll just stay away from old Safari on the desktop to run this great service.

Thanks again for all your hard work and follow-up.

Safari 10.0.2 is latest, and works fine for me here. Is the behavior youā€™re seeing that it never starts, or it starts and then suddenly stops playing after a while?

Desktop Safari starts, plays a few seconds, then stops. Transcoding is still going on, at a plenty high rate (well over 1.0ā€“1.3, 1.4), but the video and audio just hang.

Okay so on the channel thatā€™s failing in that way, what happens if you click record instead of watch now. Let it record for a few minutes, then go to the recordings tab and try playing it via the same hardware encoder on mac. Does it stall out in the same way?