Remote Streaming Issues

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

Greetings everyone. I am having an issue with remote streaming (local LAN is working fine).

I have been working with "support" but it hasn't gotten anywhere. The logs show an upstream of 2.9kpbs, obviously not sufficient for streaming video. The internet connection I have is a business-class cable modem connection with 600 down/40 up. Plenty of bandwidth is available.

My interior network is 10 gig backbone, and the Channels DVR server is running on Ubuntu Linux. My firewall is pfSense running the latest version, and the relevant ports are open on the WAN side.

What am I missing here? What can I do to fix this?

Thanks in advance!

#2

What does my.channelsdvr.net/speedtest show

1 Like
#3

Screenshot 2023-07-06 1.59.14 PM
Screenshot 2023-07-06 1.59.14 PM2358×1283 217 KB

#4

Add /speedtest at the end of the URL (i.e. xxx.u.channelsdvr.net:8089/speedtest)

#5

Do you want that ran from the remote client, or from inside the network where the server is located?

#6

Both?

#7

Here is from a remote connection back to my Channels DVR server

Screenshot 2023-07-06 10.26.52 PM
Screenshot 2023-07-06 10.26.52 PM1667×592 60 KB

#8

Screenshot 2023-07-08 9.17.03 AM

Bumping this for help. Here is a SpeedTest from the Linux Channels server itself.

#9

I'm no expert on this, but I believe that 170 number is your download latency. When I was reading up on good speed, latency, jitter, etc., I believe I saw somewhere that latency above 100 could cause problems.

#10

No, 26ms is his latency. 170ms is the latency while downloading, perfectly normal.

#11

This speed test does not show 600/40
Do you monitor bandwidth on your pfsense?

I would install netdata on both pfsense and the r720xd beast

#12

Screenshot 2023-07-08 at 1.35.53 PM
Screenshot 2023-07-08 at 1.35.53 PM1760×804 45.2 KB

The point here is that there is MORE than enough bandwidth and MORE than enough server horsepower that I should not be having any remote streaming issues whatsoever. I simply don't understand why Channels is having such a hard time performing this properly. The Ubuntu server is updated to the very latest software updates. What else could it be???

#13

Limiters or some other traffic shaping going on in pfsense? What happens if you bypass pfsense?

#14

Obviously if you were working with support, they know the answers to these, but we don't.
Which logs are showing that?
What client/s is/are being used?
Is the issue with viewing recordings, live tv or both?
Have you tried remote using VLC player as client?

#15

Support has stopped responding to me since I provided speed tests confirming the speeds were more than sufficient. I sent logs from the Channels iOS client and they said they were seeing 2.9kbps coming from the server to the iPhone.

No shaping is going on with pfSense. No other application has any issues, including a Plex server and clients.

I have tried multiple different clients (iOS, MacOS, Windows, Android) same results with a recorded show that streams flawlessly within the LAN.

What is the syntax of the URL I should use with VLC?

Thanks!

#16

For the recorded FileID 6605

I use this locally in VLC Open Network Stream
http://192.168.1.4:8089/dvr/files/6605/stream.mpg

For remote over Tailscale I use the Tailnet IP of the server in place of 192.168.1.4:8089
http://100.x.x.x/dvr/files/6605/stream.mpg

I don't use the Channels DVR Remote access.

#17

What connection are you using for the remote (outside lan). If it is cellular you are being throttled. Try a VPN and test again

#18

It looks like we're having problems with your hardware encoder:

2023/07/05 17:26:30.024096 [HLS] ffmpeg: file1134-6f1688fc1486:  [h264_nvenc @ 0x2b45680] OpenEncodeSessionEx failed: unsupported device (2): (no details)
2023/07/05 17:26:30.060477 [HLS] ffmpeg: file1134-6f1688fc1486:  [h264_nvenc @ 0x2b45680] No capable devices found
2023/07/05 17:26:30.060571 [HLS] ffmpeg: file1134-6f1688fc1486:  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
2023/07/05 17:26:30.062337 [HLS] ffmpeg: file1134-6f1688fc1486:  [aac @ 0x2aacc40] 2 frames left in the queue on closing
2023/07/05 17:26:30.062361 [HLS] ffmpeg: file1134-6f1688fc1486:  [aac @ 0x2b3a0c0] 2 frames left in the queue on closing

Changing the encoder to Software will help your situation, but the logs don't show any details why the hardware encoder is not working.

#19

E5-2670 v2 Doesn’t support quick sync

#20

Thank you. I will try that also.