Problems fast-forwarding and seeking in some streams

These are streams from TVHeadend 4.0.7 (running on separate hw). The problems seem to happen only with streams recorded from Finnish TV via DVB-T, Swedish TV over DVB-T is fine as are Swedish channels over DVB-C. It has always been this way AFAIK.

This is what happens:
When you watch, the info on programme length and such are wrong:

1.05 is the total length, but if you look at start/stop times, they are the same, what “18.18.12” is, I do not know.

Video info:

If you try Fast-Forwarding it will sometimes forward, but when you hit “P” it puts you at the start, same if you try typing in a time or using the arrow keys.

Any ideas?

It’s been a long time since I used TVHeadend, but my understanding is it doesn’t actually support seeking like this, which is known as Timeshifting.

But it does. I can search and skip in other recordings. I am just wondering what makes these recordings special? I can ask in the TVH forums though:

When you are searching and seeking, you are probably just seeking via the Kodi buffer.

I still don’t believe TVHeadend does time shifting as of standard yet. It didn’t when I last checked. If it does, then this matter is still probably better served on the TVH forum

OK. I have posted the question there (link in message above), but naturally, what bugs me is that some streams are OK, others are not. Think that I could see anyhing in the logs, or on the screen when I press “o”? Do not exactly know that all the values mean there…

@sam_nazarko , I don’t think @AndersG refers to time-shift. As far as I understand these are finsihed recordings that he is watching.

@AndersG my assumption is the recordings are bad. Can you seek thru them from any other device (e.g. PC with VLC)? What does mediainfo report on those files?

@fzinken, you are right.

I might be wrong, but my understanding is that “timeshift” is where you watch a recording, whilst recording. This is not the case here (even if it is a desireable feature). We are watching stuff recorded days ago.

I did not have time to check on a PC, but I did test on VLC on android and there I could not position on any of the streams, ie tried to go to 10:30 and nothing happened. I was able to fast-forward though and stop and end up in the correct place. This does not work on the problem streams on OSMC. On OSMC, hitting “p” whilst on say 4X either puts you at the start of the stream or exits the film and puts you back in the menu.

When you say “mediainfo” do you mean on OSMC or on the Linux box running TVH?

@sam_nazarko, if you look at the screenshots above. From where does OSMC get the values it is displaying? say time/endtime?

Edit: Corrected: XBMC -> OSMC

Well the mediainfo against the original file you are trying to play. So if the file remains on the Linux machine run it on that machine.

OK. Will do so. FWIW, I am accessing the files via TVH (as streams), not as files per se.

No one uses XBMC anymore! Please keep in mind that details do matter!

I have corrected the typo in the original post.

Problem file:

tvburk:/home/dalton/Videos # mediainfo "Ommelten valinen aika-1.ts"
General
ID                                       : 10 (0xA)
Complete name                            : Ommelten valinen aika-1.ts
Format                                   : MPEG-TS
File size                                : 1.26 GiB
Duration                                 : 55 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 3 261 kb/s

Video
ID                                       : 513 (0x201)
Menu ID                                  : 201 (0xC9)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L3
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : 27
Duration                                 : 55 min
Bit rate                                 : 2 712 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : MBAFF
Scan type, store method                  : Interleaved fields
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.262
Stream size                              : 1.05 GiB (83%)
Color range                              : Limited

Audio
ID                                       : 529 (0x211)
Menu ID                                  : 201 (0xC9)
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 2
Codec ID                                 : 4
Duration                                 : 55 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -784 ms
Stream size                              : 152 MiB (12%)

Text
ID                                       : 6636 (0x19EC)
Menu ID                                  : 201 (0xC9)
Format                                   : DVB Subtitle
Codec ID                                 : 6
Language                                 : Finnish

Menu
ID                                       : 753 (0x2F1)
Menu ID                                  : 201 (0xC9)
Duration                                 : 55 min
List                                     : 513 (0x201) (AVC) / 529 (0x211) (MPEG Audio) / 6636 (0x19EC) (DVB Subtitle, Finnish)
Language                                 :  /  / Finnish
Service name                             : YLE Teema
Service provider                         : Harmonic
Service type                             : digital television

OK file:

tvburk:/home/dalton/Videos # mediainfo "Var stora karlek-1.ts"
General
ID                                       : 1000 (0x3E8)
Complete name                            : Var stora karlek-1.ts
Format                                   : MPEG-TS
File size                                : 1.72 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 3 765 kb/s

Video
ID                                       : 1639 (0x667)
Menu ID                                  : 1302 (0x516)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : Variable
Format settings, picture structure       : Frame
Codec ID                                 : 2
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 3 320 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 6 000 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Active Format Description                : Full frame 16:9 image
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.320
Stream size                              : 1.52 GiB (88%)

Audio
ID                                       : 1638 (0x666)
Menu ID                                  : 1302 (0x516)
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 2
Codec ID                                 : 4
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -280 ms
Stream size                              : 120 MiB (7%)
Language                                 : Swedish

Menu
ID                                       : 1640 (0x668)
Menu ID                                  : 1302 (0x516)
Duration                                 : 1 h 5 min
List                                     : 1639 (0x667) (MPEG Video) / 1638 (0x666) (MPEG Audio, Swedish)
Language                                 :  / Swedish
Service name                             : SVT1 ABC
Service provider                         : Sveriges Television
Service type                             : digital television
UTC 2016-07-06 09:00:00                  : sv: / sv: / social/political issues/economics /  / 00:40:00 / Running
UTC 2016-07-06 09:40:00                  : sv: / sv: / movie/drama /  / 01:00:00 / Not running
UTC 2016-07-06 10:40:00                  : sv: / sv: / show/game show /  / 01:00:00 / Running
UTC 2016-07-06 11:40:00                  : sv:The Artist / sv: / movie/drama /  / 01:40:00 / Not running

There may be problems with the stream. A remux might fix the problem. If you’re watching these files recorded, rather than live, and having a problem, then this would suggest a problem with the files themselves.

Any difference if you disable omxplayer in video/acceleration settings? (leave MMAL enabled)
Can you provide a sample file that exhibits the problem?

I can try and yes, I can easily provide a file. I guess I should try first to play it as a file, instead of via TVH. Ie there might be differences if it is accessed like a stream or read as a file.

Yes, that would be interesting information.

I have one 193Mb file, three minutes worth of a childrens programme. This file acts exactly the same whether I watch it as a htsp stream from tvh or if I read it as a file over NFS. Ie:

  1. When fast forwarding, the status line shows the same time for start stop
  2. If I hit 1:00 or 2:00 to seem one or two minutes into the film, I am deposited at the beginning.

How do I get this file to you an donly you for testing purposes? I do not want to put it on a publicly accessible webserver since it is probably copyrighted material.

This file does FF correctly though, possibly because it is so small, in the past FFing over 2x generally results in ending up at the begining or exiting altogether.

Three minutes probably constitutes fair use and is ok to upload.

How should I upload? I cannot here: “Sorry, the file you are trying to upload is not authorized (authorized extension: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, ico” so I put i here: http://www.pedago.fi/Murut_ja_lurut.ts
Please say so when you have downloaded so I can delete it.