Remote Streaming Stops - Black Screen

I recently went on vacation and was attempting to stream TV from home to my iPad. It would work okay, but sometimes would stop streaming, and be stuck on a black screen. I would have to stop the stream, and restart it to continue watching. I thought it was the connection, but it was a 10mbps Cable connection, and running speed tests I had good numbers. The stream was only a 1mbps stream. So I have been back for a few weeks and have been trying to troubleshoot the issue and read the logs, etc. I'm trying to stream to my iPhone from my office (Download: 27 Mbps, Latancy: 94ms, Jitter: 61ms) and it stops fairly quick.

Below is the server log output when it stops streaming:
2019/06/28 10:59:55 [TNR] Opened connection to 1313xxxx for ch703 2019/06/28 10:59:55 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 703 from 73.48.xxx.xxx (encoder=libx264, resolution=480, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=1000) [libx264 @ 0000000002a6e980] MB rate (145800000) > level limit (522240) 2019/06/28 11:00:42 [HLS] Stopping inactive session ch703-dANY-43e8729a3da2 @ 44.800022s 2019/06/28 11:00:42 [TNR] Closed connection to 1313xxxx for ch703 2019/06/28 11:01:32 [TNR] Opened connection to 1313xxxx for ch703 2019/06/28 11:01:33 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 703 from 73.48.xxx.xxx (encoder=libx264, resolution=480, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=1000) [libx264 @ 0000000002a05640] MB rate (145800000) > level limit (522240)

I have switched from hardware transcode to software transcode, and still the same result. Almost looks like the client is reporting or maybe server that it's exceeding the streaming limit.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you in advance,

  • Scott

Using the Channels app? What version is installed on your iPad?

2.2.23

Sorry, yes I am using the channels app. I also tried just streaming in the web interface too. Same result.

Just pulled down version 2019.07.02.0118, testing now. And approx 5 mins into the stream, it just stopped, went to black.

Not getting the exceeding bandwidth error, but still have an issue with iOS streaming and going to black screen.

2019/07/01 18:47:36 [TNR] Opened connection to 1322xxxx for ch703 KCRADT
2019/07/01 18:47:36 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 703 from 166.137.xxx.xxx (encoder=h264_nvenc, resolution=360, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=700)
2019/07/01 18:53:06 [HLS] Stopping inactive session ch703-dANY-43e8729axxxx @ 5m27.2269s
2019/07/01 18:53:06 [TNR] Closed connection to 1322xxxx for ch703 KCRADT

Stopping inactive session means the client is not keeping the transcoder alive. Which client are you using?

Channel iOS App Version 2.2.23

This is very strange. Please submit diagnostics from the bottom of the Settings tab of the app after this happens, and post here after they've uploaded.

Just submitted diag log from iPad.

Hi. Any word on info from the logs?

It's not immediately obvious what is happening.

Can you submit diagnostics again from a new session, but also post the dvr logs here so we can correlate the two together.

Curious if you have the same problem if you stream from home wifi with the iPad Channels app set to Home Streaming 360p 0.7Mbps.

It works for me streaming KCRA-3 at that rate.

HARDWARE TRANSCODING
2019/07/07 10:54:20 [TNR] Opened connection to 1323AADB for ch703 KCRADT
2019/07/07 10:54:20 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 703 from 192.168.1.92 (encoder=h264_vaapi, resolution=360, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=700)
2019/07/07 11:04:28 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch703-dANY-ip192.168.1.92 @ 10m5.605s
2019/07/07 11:04:28 [TNR] Closed connection to 1323AADB for ch703 KCRADT

SOFTWARE TRANSCODING
2019/07/07 11:08:23 [TNR] Opened connection to 1323AADB for ch703 KCRADT
2019/07/07 11:08:23 [HLS] Starting transcoder for channel 703 from 192.168.1.92 (encoder=libx264, resolution=360, deinterlacer=blend, bitrate=700)
2019/07/07 11:33:20 [HLS] Stopping transcoder session ch703-dANY-ip192.168.1.92 @ 24m54.3303s
2019/07/07 11:33:20 [TNR] Closed connection to 1323AADB for ch703 KCRADT

im having the same issue with my setup
image

on my dvr it looks like is running but i have a black screen on my phone app
image

Could be the same issue I've been having posted in this thread.

ok when i try to watch live tv or recorded on the my iphone from the channels app after 5 seconds the screen goes black.. but on the DVR it shows the active connection like still streaming.
image