wallop icon indicating copy to clipboard operation
wallop copied to clipboard

HD streams are jittery/pixelated (SD plays fine)

Open christo16 opened this issue 11 years ago • 23 comments

So excited to get this installed and running, thanks for your effort. I'm seeing one issue with my setup, SD streams play fine, but HD streams fail to play. The streams will usually start and immediately become unresponsive and distorted.

Here is my ffmpeg log, any thoughts? Running on Ubuntu 12.04.

christo16 avatar Jan 08 '14 17:01 christo16

I'm having a similar problem, running on OSX. My problem might be related to the fact that my server is my laptop on wireless. I'll try tomorrow on with a wired connection.

mcqueena avatar Jan 26 '14 22:01 mcqueena

You're never going to be able to have this work over wireless reliably. The raw mpeg2 streams are just too large for wireless to reliably do this kind of thing.

The rule of thumb is: never do anything with HD video over wireless. Heh.

On Jan 26, 2014, at 5:00 PM, mcqueena [email protected] wrote:

I'm having a similar problem, running on OSX. My problem might be related to the fact that my server is my laptop on wireless. I'll try tomorrow on with a wired connection.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

maddox avatar Jan 27 '14 00:01 maddox

Ok, thanks. I thought so and will try it on wired. I'll report back.

mcqueena avatar Jan 27 '14 00:01 mcqueena

I still have trouble with HD channels, even on the wired connection.

mcqueena avatar Jan 27 '14 21:01 mcqueena

@mcqueena This replicates my experience, wired -> wired for HD channels failed to play.

christo16 avatar Jan 27 '14 22:01 christo16

What are the specs of the computer doing the real time encoding?

On Jan 27, 2014, at 5:04 PM, christo16 [email protected] wrote:

@mcqueena This replicates my experience, wired -> wired for HD channels failed to play.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

maddox avatar Jan 27 '14 23:01 maddox

Model Name: MacBook Air Model Identifier: MacBookAir4,2 Processor Name: Intel Core i5 Processor Speed: 1.7 GHz Number of Processors: 1 Total Number of Cores: 2 L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB L3 Cache: 3 MB Memory: 4 GB

mcqueena avatar Jan 28 '14 02:01 mcqueena

yeahhhhhhhhh..... that might be too slow to be encoding 20+mbit mpeg2 streams in to h.264 in real time. It just might not work :/

You could try editing this line and swap out superfast for ultrafast. It'll make encoding faster, but at a loss of quality.

I should probably make this (and a lot of other things in the ffmpeg command) an option.

maddox avatar Jan 28 '14 02:01 maddox

Ok, I'll try that. What would you say are the minimum requirements for SD and HD?

mcqueena avatar Jan 28 '14 02:01 mcqueena

You can also try lowering the default resolution and bitrate here.

tmm1 avatar Jan 28 '14 02:01 tmm1

You can also try lowering the default resolution and bitrate here.

I really need to make a setting for that in the web views.

maddox avatar Jan 28 '14 02:01 maddox

Have any other performance tweaks you could suggest?

Think adding "nice -n -15" or something similar to to the exec of ffmpeg up the priority of it would help?

Changin superfast to ultrafast did seem to make it smoother, but the quality is terrible. Dropping the bitrate down to 2000k didn't seem to help.

I'm running Wallop on a Ubuntu VM that has 4 cores of a 4GHz i7 dedicated to it and the HD streams are unwatchable. Either stuttering and pixelated or buffering 50% of the time. Wired gigabit Ethernet from the HDHR to Wallop and then wired gigabit or wireless to each Roku behaves the same. The VM seems busy when encoding, but not bogged down. 50-65% cpu utilization max.

wTheOnew avatar Feb 04 '14 14:02 wTheOnew

Bump the bitrate up, to 6000k atleast

tmm1 avatar Feb 04 '14 14:02 tmm1

Is it possible the problem is on the Roku end?

mcqueena avatar Feb 04 '14 15:02 mcqueena

I'll try a higher bitrate this evening. Seems like that would make it harder to stream though?

I guess it could have something to do with the specific channel, since I can stream much higher bitrates using plex. This is the Roku channel: https://github.com/computmaxer/roku-hdhomerun If you look at the videoScreen.brs file it's about as simple as it gets, it just sets up the stream and displays it. Know any way I can stream an m3u8 file in Windows to test it? VLC just does the audio stream for whatever reason.

Thanks to both of you.

Hate to junk up this thread if there's a better place to troubleshoot?

edit: Had a chance to do a bit more testing. It looks like it only pixelates and bufferes really bad on the wireless Roku. The wired one rarely buffers after the first 5 minutes. It's weird since I can stream stuff with plex at 12Mbps to either one. I can live with SD on the wireless one. Going to still play with it to see if I can make it better and I'll update this if I figure something out.

wTheOnew avatar Feb 04 '14 16:02 wTheOnew

I guess I'm having a similar issue, my HD channels won't play at all but my SD channels play fine. I have tried reinstalling wallop and also tried doing a new install of ffmpeg but can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Anyone else having this issue? Can anyone help? Thank you!

127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /channels HTTP/1.1" 200 87021 0.0255 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /css/styles.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0235 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /css/font-awesome.min.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0283 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /css/bootstrap.min.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0463 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/jquery-1.9.1.min.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.1014 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /css/bootstrap-responsive.min.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.1071 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/jquery-ui-1.9.1.min.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0342 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/plugins/spin.min.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0116 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/plugins/jquery.spin.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0115 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/coffee-script.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0139 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/bootstrap.min.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0141 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:01] "GET /js/src/settings.coffee HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0034 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 302 - 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /channels?type=favorites HTTP/1.1" 200 4501 0.0038 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /css/bootstrap.min.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0038 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /css/font-awesome.min.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0150 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /css/bootstrap-responsive.min.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0024 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /css/styles.css HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0031 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /js/jquery-1.9.1.min.js HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0018 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:02] "GET /fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff?v=3.0.1 HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0144 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:06] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 302 - 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:06] "GET /channels?type=favorites HTTP/1.1" 200 4501 0.0031 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:17] "GET /channels HTTP/1.1" 200 87021 0.0155 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "GET /channels/2 HTTP/1.1" 200 4581 0.0736 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "GET /channels/2/status HTTP/1.1" 404 - 0.0010 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "GET /channels/2.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 404 - 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "POST /channels/2/tune HTTP/1.1" 200 29 0.0161 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "GET /js/src/settings.coffee HTTP/1.1" 304 - 0.0017 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "GET /channels/2.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 420 - 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:33] "GET /channels/2.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 420 - 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:34] "GET /channels/2/status HTTP/1.1" 200 81 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:35] "GET /channels/2/status HTTP/1.1" 200 81 0.0010 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:36] "GET /channels/2/status HTTP/1.1" 200 81 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:37] "GET /channels/2/status HTTP/1.1" 200 81 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:38] "GET /channels/2/status HTTP/1.1" 200 80 0.0009 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:38] "GET /channels/2.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0014 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:38] "GET /channels/20.ts HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0077 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:41] "GET /channels/2.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0014 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:41] "GET /channels/21.ts HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0079 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:44] "GET /channels/2.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0010 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:44] "GET /channels/22.ts HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0046 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:44] "GET /channels/23.ts HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0043 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:45] "GET /channels HTTP/1.1" 200 87021 0.0208 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:46] "GET /channels/20.ts HTTP/1.1" 200 - 0.0044 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:47] "GET /channels?type=hd HTTP/1.1" 200 45661 0.0043 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:50] "GET /channels/402 HTTP/1.1" 200 4589 0.0018 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:50] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 404 - 0.0010 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:50] "GET /channels/402.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 404 - 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:50] "POST /channels/402/tune HTTP/1.1" 200 29 0.0168 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:51] "GET /js/src/settings.coffee HTTP/1.1" 304 - 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:51] "GET /channels/402.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 420 - 0.0010 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:51] "GET /channels/402.m3u8 HTTP/1.1" 420 - 0.0009 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:51] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0010 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:52] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:53] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:54] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 404 - 0.0012 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:55] "POST /channels/402/tune HTTP/1.1" 200 29 0.0049 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:55] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0064 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:56] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0011 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:56] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0013 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:57] "GET /channels/402/status HTTP/1.1" 200 83 0.0016 127.0.0.1 - - [17/Feb/2014 22:18:57] "GET /channels HTTP/1.1" 200 87021 0.0121

xtremedrummer7 avatar Feb 18 '14 06:02 xtremedrummer7

If you're seeing video work at all, then its working. What are the specs of the machine doing the transcoding? It may not be fast enough to do real time transcoding of the large mpeg2 HD video streams.

You can try messing with the FFMPEG options in the config file to get things to go a little faster. Specifically the h264_preset option. Try setting it to ultrafast.

maddox avatar Feb 18 '14 15:02 maddox

I changed it to ultrafast and still can't get it to play HD channels, SD still plays fine.

I'm running it on a Mac Mini 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB Ram. Are there any other settings I might need to change?

Thanks so much for your help!

xtremedrummer7 avatar Feb 18 '14 23:02 xtremedrummer7

Is the computer on Ethernet or wireless?

On Feb 18, 2014, at 6:39 PM, xtremedrummer7 [email protected] wrote:

I changed it to ultrafast and still can't get it to play HD channels, SD still plays fine.

I'm running it on a Mac Mini 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB Ram. Are there any other settings I might need to change?

Thanks so much for your help!

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

maddox avatar Feb 19 '14 00:02 maddox

Ethernet.

I tried a couple other channels and it seems to work on HD but not on ABC, CBS, or NBC haha, the main channels… have you experienced this before? I checked in the HDHR Prime config while it was running and it seems to tune to it correctly and there isn't any protection on them. I'm rescanning right now to see if this will help.

xtremedrummer7 avatar Feb 19 '14 00:02 xtremedrummer7

If you get no video at all, it might be some sort of ffmpeg issue. Check log/ffmpeg.log

tmm1 avatar Feb 19 '14 00:02 tmm1

I think I've narrowed my issue down to 4 local HD channels, and for some reason the HDHR Prime is giving a CableCard message "Error requesting channel. Please try again later." Anyone else have this issue with specific channels? I've rescanned twice and get the same thing. Also, I'm on TWC, with a Motorola CableCARD and a TA. It reads the channels as unlocked with no protection on them. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

xtremedrummer7 avatar Feb 19 '14 03:02 xtremedrummer7

I just made a change in d92ccd3 that might help fix the stuttering issue. Can you try it?

tmm1 avatar Sep 11 '14 20:09 tmm1