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natem · (This post was last modified: 2017-01-04, 04:46 by natem.)

I am having trouble with playing video from NextPVR on Krypton. I have two windows 10 PC's hardwired on my network with Kodi 17 and NextPVR installed and configured (latest RC release, just installed clean today on one PC). I then have a server running NextPVR server 3.9.2 in a Windows 7 VM and Emby in a second VM. I am able to play live TV fine through Emby over the internet and through the Emby apps locally (Roku and Emby Theater).

Playing live TV through Kodi 17 and NextPVR just loads a frame, then buffers for awhile, jumps another frame, buffers, rinse and repeat.

My server setup worked fine in Kodi 16, but I have had trouble in 17. I've uploaded a log of trying to play a channel below and can provide any other helpful information I may have missed.

Kodi.log

Thanks for any help here.

sub3 · 2017-01-03, 02:45

Can you video smoothly in NextPVR itself?

natem · (This post was last modified: 2017-01-03, 05:56 by natem.)

The server is headless, but the web interface now buffers after a second as well. I believe is worked fine before the latest update to 3.9.2. I assume it has something to do with transcoding since the recorded shows all work fine? Does the NextPVR server transcode live streams for PVR client in Kodi?

sub3 · 2017-01-03, 20:38

(2017-01-03, 05:56)natem Wrote: The server is headless, but the web interface now buffers after a second as well. I believe is worked fine before the latest update to 3.9.2. I assume it has something to do with transcoding since the recorded shows all work fine? Does the NextPVR server transcode live streams for PVR client in Kodi?

NextPVR transcode for playback in he web interface. It doesn't transcode for playback in Kodi.

I suggest you try playback in NextPVR's own native desktop app first.

natem · 2017-01-04, 01:29

I think local playback is working fine. Again, this is a VM on my server and I can only access the desktop through VNC. The VNC connection stutters as one would expect, but the video does continue to play in the native app.

sub3 · 2017-01-04, 02:24

I wouldn't doing this stuff in VM myself, and I'm sure it'll be a contributing factor.

natem · 2017-01-04, 04:54

So I went back and installed Kodi 16.1 and the issue persisted. I guess this is an issue of changing too many things at once. I think I also upgraded the server (Win7 and NextPVR) at the same time as Kodi. I'll keep trying to roll things back to a good state to isolate what broke. What is strange to me is that the live TV works fine when playing (and being transcoded on the same server) through Emby.

Do you have any suggestions of what logs to look at to find where the data path is not flowing right? I'll probably verify my network speed to the VM next.

sub3 · 2017-01-04, 05:05

(2017-01-04, 04:54)natem Wrote: Do you have any suggestions of what logs to look at to find where the data path is not flowing right?

That's what I was trying to do when I suggested you start the very first step in the process, by confirming you can watch Live TV in NextPVR itself (before adding complications like Kodi). Unfortunately you seem to be failing at that very first step because (I assume) you're running in an underpowered VM which isn't capable of running Live TV. Makes it difficult to know where you problems are if even the most basic steps can't be run in isolation.

sub3 · (This post was last modified: 2017-01-04, 05:07 by sub3.)

You could maybe download the NextPVR "nlite" client, and run it on a native Windows machine on the same network, and see if it is able to play streams coming out of your VM. If it's unable, it sounds like the issue is on your server side (VM or networking, or capture device).

What capture device are you using?

natem · (This post was last modified: 2017-01-05, 04:14 by natem.)

Its a PCIe Avermedia ATSC tuner. Unfortunately it only has drivers for Windows.

Problem is somewhat solved. Turns out that it was a network-related issue. My first diagnostic tests showed I had good throughput to this VM, but I couldn't find another explanation for the behavior. I then found I was getting an extreme amount of TCP retransmissions (nearly every other packet). I ended up switching which Ethernet port the xen bridge is using. The retransmissions went away and I can now play live TV through Kodi again! Magic!

Thanks for helping me work it out. Now to find out what is wrong with the other network interface...

sub3 · 2017-01-05, 04:51

Great!