Web Player Alternative for Live TV

Channels DVR Server
#21

Yeah to each his own but when you're dealing with a basically broken web player versus VLC which works all the time, it's an easy choice. I can't tell you how sick I was of restarting the web player countless times when I was out of town couple of weeks ago. VLC can play at multiple speeds and scrub, and of course you have PIP because you can resize it.

There's not much reason to not use VLC considering the broken state of the web player. I wish I could use it because it's easier but at this point it's not worth it.

#22

When you had issues with using the web player to playback recordings

  1. were you using it locally or remote
  2. what OS and browser did you have issues with

Appears that Apple systems have no issues, no matter which browser.
My guess is that whatever browser you use on an Apple device uses the Apple internal browser framework, or whatever it's called. And I think this is what the devs have tested it against.

This is why I originally asked for an alternate way to view instead of using the web player.

I'm trying to stay within the Channels DVR experience (eco-system) and help to improve it, instead of using work-arounds or using something else. But sometimes your patience just runs out when you gotta get things done.

#23

I tried Brave Chrome and Edge on Windows 11 and all of them had the same issue, which makes sense since they're all based on the Chrome engine.

I did not have Firefox installed, and all of this was trying to stream recordings remotely.

I've already switched to VLC so this won't be an issue for me going forward.

1 Like
Web player just sits there with a spinning circle
#24

Have to agree.
I have three strikes against Channels DVR, this being one of them. (Not that three strikes means out)
Otherwise, Love It!
I don't think the web UI player on Windows will ever get fixed. Been complaining for years to deaf ears.

But, if someone has an issue with the web UI Player using Safari, that's a different story, since Safari == Apple ecosystem and gets attention, because...

I can play all my recordings from disk using VLC and other players. I can also edit them and remove commercials using my video editor. I was just trying my best to stick with the Channels ecosystem, keep my recordings there, import things there, etc.

2 Likes
#25

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

#26
#27

I've discovered that deleting the video index for a recording allows it to play flawlessly in the web UI player.

No buffering, no loss of audio, very fast skipping and jumping back and forth.
Any way to disable creating the video index during recordings?
I can do it by making the Streaming/m3u8 directory read-only, but that fills the DVR log with errors.

My next test will be to disable video index creation and watch a recording in progress, then watch live tv.

Testing on my FrndlyTV source fyi channel with video index generation disabled.

Every 5 seconds during the recording it's complaining about not being able to write the video index.

2025/06/02 16:00:11.795763 [DVR] Recording for job 1748905200-ch9025 from M3U-frndlyTV ch9025 into "TV/Storage Wars/Storage Wars S04E17 2013-06-04 The French Job 2025-06-02-1600.mpg" for 29m49.78126113s
2025/06/02 16:00:12.227677 [IDX] Generating video index for job 1748905200-ch9025
2025/06/02 16:00:17.250447 [M3U8] Generator: consecutive_errors=5 err=cannot create temp file: open /volume1/ChDVR8389/Streaming/m3u8/2959/stream.m3u8707427198: no such file or directory
...
2025/06/02 16:30:11.192340 [M3U8] Generator: consecutive_errors=1795 err=cannot create temp file: open /volume1/ChDVR8389/Streaming/m3u8/2959/stream.m3u83127133413: no such file or directory
2025/06/02 16:30:12.021056 [TNR] Closed connection to M3U-frndlyTV for ch9025 FYI
2025/06/02 16:30:12.158777 [SNR] Buffer statistics for "TV/Storage Wars/Storage Wars S04E17 2013-06-04 The French Job 2025-06-02-1600.mpg": buf=0% drop=0%
2025/06/02 16:30:12.159009 [SNR] Streaming statistics for "TV/Storage Wars/Storage Wars S04E17 2013-06-04 The French Job 2025-06-02-1600.mpg": timeouts=0 segment_timeouts=0 playlist_timeouts=0
2025/06/02 16:30:12.314071 [MTS] Statistics for "TV/Storage Wars/Storage Wars S04E17 2013-06-04 The French Job 2025-06-02-1600.mpg": discontinuity_detected=0 transport_errors=0 saw_pcr=true saw_pmt=true highest_pts=1807.966667
2025/06/02 16:30:12.326147 [DVR] Finished job 1748905200-ch9025 Storage Wars
2025/06/02 16:30:12.411694 [DVR] Processing file-2959: TV/Storage Wars/Storage Wars S04E17 2013-06-04 The French Job 2025-06-02-1600.mpg
2025/06/02 16:30:13.277220 [IDX] Generating video index for file-2959: TV/Storage Wars/Storage Wars S04E17 2013-06-04 The French Job 2025-06-02-1600.mpg
2025/06/02 16:30:21.614521 [ERR] Generating video index for file-2959 failed: cannot create temp file: open /volume1/ChDVR8389/Streaming/m3u8/2959/stream.m3u82262592070: no such file or directory

But playing the in progress recording in the web UI player works flawlessly, no buffering, quick jumping forward and backward and playing at 1, 1.5 and 2x normal speeds.

Next test is playing the same channel live in the web UI player after the recording is complete. If that works, I plan to do the same with a cable channel from my HDHR Prime.

Playing the same channel live also works fine. Fast skipping back and forth and playing at multiple speeds.

Next test will be repeating these on a cable channel from my HDHR Prime.

Watching an HD cable channel recording in progress works fine skipping around, although the remuxer is running at about 0.8x speed.
Watching the same HD cable channel live also works fine skipping around, with the remuxer running about 1.0x speed.

I've set my Streaming/m3u8 directory back to r/w and will do some more testing this weekend.

#28

The thing that is happening by deleting the index is that you are forcing transcoding for all bitrates.

With the index, we are able to only remux (or sometimes just send the segments directly off of the disk from the recording if the recording is a format and codec compatible with the client) instead of needing to transcode.

#29

Thanks for the explanation eric.

So my takeaway is it will transcode everything played with the web UI player

It's a workaround for some recordings and recordings in progress, that when played in the web UI player will exhibit;

  • stalling (buffers forever) at beginning or somewhere in the middle
  • stalling (buffers forever) when skipping
  • plays with no audio
  • audio plays for a number of seconds, then goes away, then comes back, repeating the pattern

Not every recording/recording in progress exhibits these problems
I don't watch all of my content using the web UI player
It shouldn't affect original quality direct streaming on my iOS client

#30

If you remux the recording and then regenerate the index does that cause any of the recordings that didnā€™t work to start working?

What browser are you using? Does it behave differently in Safari vs Chrome?

#31

I will try this next time I see the issue

  • Delete cache
  • Delete the video index and try to play it
  • Delete cache
  • exec into the Channels DVR container and use the Channels DVR ffmpeg v6.0.2 to remux
cd channels-dvr/data
../latest/ffmpeg -i "recorded_file.mpg" -ignore_unknown -map 0 -dn -acodec copy -vcodec copy -scodec copy "recorded_file.ts"
mv "recorded_file.mpg" "recorded_file.org"
mv "recorded_file.ts"  "recorded_file.mpg"
  • Regenerate the video index and try to play it

Firefox on Win-11 is my daily driver. If issues with that, I'll try Brave and Edge on Win-11. I never use Chrome.

#32

I gave up trying this.

When a recording doesn't start playing, or plays without audio, or plays with audio cutting in and out, I bail on it and watch in VLC or my video editor. Most of the time, Deleting cache and Deleting the video index allows it to play in the the web UI video player.

Too frustrating to waste time trying to watch a recording in the web UI player anymore.