(2016-06-18, 15:25)CaptainT Wrote: [ -> ]I would guess that this particular box uses different DNS-settings or possibly a proxy of some sorts. We had a similar case long time ago with another user. He had played with the DNS settings to stop his Amazon Firestick from auto-updating. Unfortunately, he also blocked servers which are used by the add-on, so he always got the message that he was not in the UK.
Thanx for your kind reply,
That is my guess too. But why would live TV then work and not catch-up?
Anyway, it's an Asus Chromebox set to DHCP and so the DNS so should be identical to other devices set to DHCP that work.
Grateful for any hints worth trying.
(2016-06-18, 13:20)MikeKL Wrote: [ -> ]Note: I have option to always select stream level to playback, have you tried this method to see if some of available streams play for a given catch-up item, if/when others dont?
Thanx for your reply. Why would streamlevel settings help with a geo error?
Does not really make sense, but I'll give it a go anyway. Thanx again.
(2016-06-18, 16:45)houser Wrote: [ -> ] (2016-06-18, 13:20)MikeKL Wrote: [ -> ]Note: I have option to always select stream level to playback, have you tried this method to see if some of available streams play for a given catch-up item, if/when others dont?
Thanx for your reply. Why would streamlevel settings help with a geo error?
Does not really make sense, but I'll give it a go anyway. Thanx again.
Not totally sure to be very honest but there are a mix of streams available for each item so worth a punt....rebooting you router can also help sometimes (to obtain a new ip from provider) it's just that once system is fixated on fact that it belives your not in uk you may need to try alternate stream option (don't keep trying same stream) With iplayerwww auto option you don't have an option to switch easily between the Limelight and Akamai streams...(although lots of other good options)
(2016-06-18, 16:40)houser Wrote: [ -> ]That is my guess too. But why would live TV then work and not catch-up?
I don't know why, but this seems to be a common behaviour. We have seen similar reports from other users in the past.
Quote:Anyway, it's an Asus Chromebox set to DHCP and so the DNS so should be identical to other devices set to DHCP that work.
Grateful for any hints worth trying.
Sorry, I don't have a clue if you are running LibreELEC and not Chrome OS.
(2016-06-18, 17:17)CaptainT Wrote: [ -> ] (2016-06-18, 16:40)houser Wrote: [ -> ]That is my guess too. But why would live TV then work and not catch-up?
I don't know why, but this seems to be a common behaviour. We have seen similar reports from other users in the past.
Sorry, I don't have a clue if you are running LibreELEC and not Chrome OS.
Sorry, stated in my first post that this is on Openelec and Libreelec.
Same issue on all current builds and versions so far.
I see your point about this happening in the past. Thanx.
Am I the only one having problems with the "primary" streams?
The problem is that after a while the picture goes into a "slow motion", jerky mode and there is no sound.
Once it gets into this mode it rarely recovers. Sometimes it will enter buffering mode and recover, most often, even if it rebuffers it stays in this broken mode.
I suspect the streams themselves, because if I use something like the London stream, there are no problems.
Its not (I don't think) network (65mbps), and changing the stream speed has little effect. In fact, the 5mbps stream is slightly better if anything.
Also, it seems time dependent, Sunday evenings (UK time) seem worst.
BBC1 is worst, but all of the other (HD) streams have the same problem.
Perfect on the local streams...
-----------
Kodi running on raspberrypi 2.
Using "intelligent DNS" server.
Network: 65mbps down, 13mbps up.
(2016-06-19, 18:42)PhilipPeake Wrote: [ -> ]Am I the only one having problems with the "primary" streams?
The problem is that after a while the picture goes into a "slow motion", jerky mode and there is no sound.
Once it gets into this mode it rarely recovers. Sometimes it will enter buffering mode and recover, most often, even if it rebuffers it stays in this broken mode.
I suspect the streams themselves, because if I use something like the London stream, there are no problems.
Its not (I don't think) network (65mbps), and changing the stream speed has little effect. In fact, the 5mbps stream is slightly better if anything.
Also, it seems time dependent, Sunday evenings (UK time) seem worst.
BBC1 is worst, but all of the other (HD) streams have the same problem.
Perfect on the local streams...
-----------
Kodi running on raspberrypi 2.
Using "intelligent DNS" server.
Network: 65mbps down, 13mbps up.
No your not alone, I have had similar experiences, Saturday & Sunday mornings works absolutely fine at highest Quality settings but at weekend in the evenings and with more popular live programs I have same issue.
Its not confined to my rpi2 though, can see same issues using kodi and iplayerwww on a 2010 imac.
What I have been doing to minimize (but not eliminate) issue is always manually select stream type and mid/low quality level at peak viewing periods. (When noticing buffering before finally in an unusable video/audio slow/mo mode)
I recently switched from OpenELEC to LibreELEC and use latest milhouse nightly builds on an rpi2, I cant swear but feel (placebo effect) that things are slightly better with latest Krypton LibreELEC Builds.
(But then i don't watch so much live TV, preferring catch-up which also appears to have benefit of being more stable than the live streams)
(2016-06-19, 18:42)PhilipPeake Wrote: [ -> ]Am I the only one having problems with the "primary" streams?
The problem is that after a while the picture goes into a "slow motion", jerky mode and there is no sound.
Once it gets into this mode it rarely recovers. Sometimes it will enter buffering mode and recover, most often, even if it rebuffers it stays in this broken mode.
I suspect the streams themselves, because if I use something like the London stream, there are no problems.
Its not (I don't think) network (65mbps), and changing the stream speed has little effect. In fact, the 5mbps stream is slightly better if anything.
Also, it seems time dependent, Sunday evenings (UK time) seem worst.
BBC1 is worst, but all of the other (HD) streams have the same problem.
Perfect on the local streams...
I see the same thing here and yes it depends on the time of the day and what programmes are on. So from my point of view it is a mix of load on the streams and your geographical position to the nearest server of the CDN in use.
This would not be so apparent if Kodi supported dynamic bitrate switching, but it doesn't. If it did, the stream quality would just occasionally drop and then recover, but at least it would keep on running.
Not much the add-on can do about this. I would recommend to disable autoplay and then quickly choose a different bitrate and CDN. Also, I would recommend not to save live channels as bookmarks in Kodi. The actual streams can vary over time and they always get reloaded when you enter the respective programme's folder in the "Watch Live" section. So you may want to revert to there and select the channel again to see if it gives you an improvement.
Having said that, there are days where it is pretty unwatchable here as well. And although your line may be 65Mbps, it does not mean that you get 65Mbps to the CDN providing the live streams.
(2016-06-20, 07:04)CaptainT Wrote: [ -> ] (2016-06-19, 18:42)PhilipPeake Wrote: [ -> ]Am I the only one having problems with the "primary" streams?
The problem is that after a while the picture goes into a "slow motion", jerky mode and there is no sound.
Once it gets into this mode it rarely recovers. Sometimes it will enter buffering mode and recover, most often, even if it rebuffers it stays in this broken mode.
I suspect the streams themselves, because if I use something like the London stream, there are no problems.
Its not (I don't think) network (65mbps), and changing the stream speed has little effect. In fact, the 5mbps stream is slightly better if anything.
Also, it seems time dependent, Sunday evenings (UK time) seem worst.
BBC1 is worst, but all of the other (HD) streams have the same problem.
Perfect on the local streams...
I see the same thing here and yes it depends on the time of the day and what programmes are on. So from my point of view it is a mix of load on the streams and your geographical position to the nearest server of the CDN in use.
This would not be so apparent if Kodi supported dynamic bitrate switching, but it doesn't. If it did, the stream quality would just occasionally drop and then recover, but at least it would keep on running.
Not much the add-on can do about this. I would recommend to disable autoplay and then quickly choose a different bitrate and CDN. Also, I would recommend not to save live channels as bookmarks in Kodi. The actual streams can vary over time and they always get reloaded when you enter the respective programme's folder in the "Watch Live" section. So you may want to revert to there and select the channel again to see if it gives you an improvement.
Having said that, there are days where it is pretty unwatchable here as well. And although your line may be 65Mbps, it does not mean that you get 65Mbps to the CDN providing the live streams.
Something we could easily do is to have a second "Live bitrate (SD)" setting and "Watch Live (SD)" menu. Then rename the other as HD.
(2016-06-20, 07:32)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]Something we could easily do is to have a second "Live bitrate (SD)" setting and "Watch Live (SD)" menu. Then rename the other as HD.
Correct. But I doubt that the SD stream would be any better than the HD stream at the same bitrate. It would just limit the number of available streams and the max bitrate.
(2016-06-20, 07:49)CaptainT Wrote: [ -> ] (2016-06-20, 07:32)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]Something we could easily do is to have a second "Live bitrate (SD)" setting and "Watch Live (SD)" menu. Then rename the other as HD.
Correct. But I doubt that the SD stream would be any better than the HD stream at the same bitrate. It would just limit the number of available streams and the max bitrate.
I don't think you quite get me. The user could set the HD to Highest or even lower and the SD to 1.8Mbps or whatever works at peak times.
Just a report of success.
A fix for the catchup-tv geoerror that I
reported earlier
Tried various settings without success, sorted updating to
latest milhouse build (June 19) for my platform.
With this build iPlayer WWW 2.3.2 appears to work perfectly on catchup TV as well.
FWIW.
(2016-06-20, 07:49)CaptainT Wrote: [ -> ] (2016-06-20, 07:32)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]Something we could easily do is to have a second "Live bitrate (SD)" setting and "Watch Live (SD)" menu. Then rename the other as HD.
Correct. But I doubt that the SD stream would be any better than the HD stream at the same bitrate. It would just limit the number of available streams and the max bitrate.
Having the same issues, as well.
Not far from London and on 80+Mbit fiber.
Would it be possible to increase the stream buffer, i.e. I don't mind waiting few seconds until it buffers enough to be able to retry/re read the stream in advance without breaking/stuttering of the playback.
Just a guess, I assume this is outside of the plugin's control.
m
(2016-06-20, 17:06)bluezone Wrote: [ -> ]Having the same issues, as well.
Not far from London and on 80+Mbit fiber.
Would it be possible to increase the stream buffer, i.e. I don't mind waiting few seconds until it buffers enough to be able to retry/re read the stream in advance without breaking/stuttering of the playback.
Just a guess, I assume this is outside of the plugin's control.
m
Please see the first post of this thread for information on how to adjust the buffer size, at least in theory. In reality, it seems to me as if Kodi ignored these settings for HLS streams.
(2016-06-20, 07:52)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think you quite get me. The user could set the HD to Highest or even lower and the SD to 1.8Mbps or whatever works at peak times.
Sorry, I really didn't get that.
Yes, that is an option, but it adds more clutter to the main menu. From my point of view, this just leads to more confusion. Users with marginal connections should disable autoplay.