Remote access broken overnight -

Channels DVR Server
#1

Upfront - I’ve ben having trouble with CDVR, but I don’t know why. Remotely, we started having issues with audio and video staying synced - irritating, but it was only on Channels, so we had other online options - we just couldn’t easily watch the local news, or any of our library without occasionally exiting Channels so we could get things re-synced. I blamed Tailscale, and turning it off on all devices ( I thought ) had made our connection better - but - I went ahead and reduced the resolution for remote streaming, added ram to the NAS, and generally checked everything I could think of at home.

We get to the cabin yesterday - Channels seems to be working better - we’re watching a couple of recorded shows, watch a little live TV, all good, and go to bed - next morning, turn on TV, see all our recordings, see the local guide, what’s on now, etc, but trying to view anything we get errors. Trying to watch live we get -

The connection to Channels DVR Server had a problem. Press play to try again. (Transcoder)

Couldn't find playlist: /Volumes/NASFolder/ChannelsTV/Streaming/ch7.1-dANY-e39266a4bd5c/remux/stream.m3u8: stat /Volumes/NASFolder/ ChannelsTV/Streaming/ch7.1-dANY-e39266a4bd5c/remux/stream.m3u8: no

this was just a random channel, as I tried it on a few to see if it was channel specific. I then tried to watch a recorded show, and it gave us an error again -

The connection to Channels DVR Server had a problem. Press play to try again. (Transcoder)

It’s frustrating to be a couple hundred miles from the server (a M1 mini, with database on Synology NAS) and have everything working pretty darn reasonably that evening, only to wake up and have it all be non-op. I wanna blame installing Tailscale, but that worked pretty well initially, maybe its an update on the Synology NAS? Maybe the Sequoia update? How do I tell? And the fact that it sees the server, knows all the recordings, gets all the channel data for live TV, but nothing plays - very frustrating. ( Channels speedtest option wireless says 25.6ms - 59.8 d, 32.8 u )

Please help me understand what is going on, and what the easiest way is to get is all working again!

#2

What's the rest of the error message?
Is it related to your Mac losing the NAS mount?

#3

Thats all the message that I get on the screen - it could be a NAS connection problem, but thats

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hard to check remotely -

#4

I'm assuming the end of that error msg is "no such file or directory"

If you can't remote in to the NAS, perhaps submitting diagnostics from the client also submits them from the DVR Server?

#5

Not really, since you have remote streaming enabled all you have to do is go to http://my.channelsdvr.net/ in any browser and login.
You can see everything in the logs along with everything else server wise.

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#6

To potentially close this - I think a lot of my problems came from the Sequoia update, and possibly a Synology update. Connections to external drives, including the NAS, were not being maintained, or re-connecting after a reboot. This, despite them working perfectly for quite sometime prior to these updates. So, I took all my channels data and moved it to a USB drive connected to the mini, and after turning on/off/on/off the access privileges repeatedly, I managed to get the drive to be recognized after a reboot. This seems to have solved all local problems, and also made my whole Channels/AppleTV system much more responsive. Local remote access has been solid, with no more transcoder problems, and I hope to soon test system responsiveness at my remote-remote location.

Sequoia has been the most problematic update I’ve ever experienced. It created problems with my SecuritySpy system, my logitech media server (I still have a couple slim devices running after xx years) as well as my Channels - but I’m hoping it’s behind me -

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#7

Just an addendum - Am now at our away house, and even after upgrading the quality level and streaming level, everything works great (except live TV, which I may have turned off when checking settings?) - at least, until I changed the audio output to the stereo HomePod minis, and Channles reverted to out of sync audio/video, and stuttering video frames. Turnin audio back to TV speakers and all is good -

#8

Channels has always had a contentious relationship with HomePods.

One thing I've noticed that causes HomePod issues like you describe even outside of Channels is if you have framerate matching enabled in the AppleTV settings. When this was enabled I experienced issues as you describe, and they went away when I disabled it.

#9

Match content was off, but I changed the video to 1080p 60hz ) it was originally saying 59.94hz?? - Audio is synced better but video is still dropping frames/stuttering slightly - OK with the news, but I'd never want to watch a movie this way -

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#10

Yeah, unfortunately you'll have to switch to the TV speakers then. Apps that do not use Apple's system player have to jump through many hoops to get HomePod audio working well, and every new OS update introduces new problems. It's a game of Whac-A-Mole with absolutely no help from Apple.

(Search the forum for HomePods and you'll see.)

#11

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