IPTV - TV Server cannot deal with DD+ audio streams (1 Viewer)

[MrManuzz]

Hi all,

I could use some help with the following;

OS: Win11 24H2
TV server: 1.37.000.0|x64
(working with Mediaportal for maybe 20 years)

I am using a dedicated TV server (only) installation to watch and record IPTV. My clients are seperate Mediaportal or Kodi devices.
I've created a m3u playlist, scanned the playlist to add TV channels, all working as expected, the whole playlist is succesfully scanned and added as channels.

Now when I test / timeshift the channels all channels are working fine except those which have DD+ (dolby digital plus) audio. When timeshifting such channels the server responds with the "No Video/Audio detected" error. Channels that do work okay have AAC (stereo) audio.

I can't get my head around where to look to get this fixed. The Win11 OS plays the DD+ streams fine, ffmpeg which comes with the Mediaportal TV server installation recognizes the stream perfectly.

When I quickly grab the files in the TimeshiftBuffer directory before the "No Video/Audio detected" error shows, the resulting timeshiftbuffer.ts file has a proper video stream but lacks an audio stream.

I've looked through logfiles
MPIPTVSource.log
TsWriter.log
TVService.log
TVService-Error.log

but I can't find any clue to why a DD+ audio/video stream cannot be processed by the TV server.

The output from ffmpeg when I open the stream;

Stream #0:0[0x100]: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 50 fps, 50 tbr, 90k tbn, 100 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x101](dut): Audio: eac3 ([135][0][0][0] / 0x0087), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (eac3 (native) -> aac (native))

And when I ask ffmpeg to convert the stream into an .mp4 file/container it shows that ffmpeg / the operating system has everything to deal with the stream;

Output #0, mp4, to 'c:\tmp\capture.mp4':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf58.20.100
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 50 fps, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc
Metadata:
encoder : Lavc58.35.100 libx264
Side data:
cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream #0:1(dut): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 394 kb/s
Metadata:
encoder : Lavc58.35.100 aac

What am I missing? Where to look for errors. Help!!

 

[doskabouter]

this is unfortunately due to the mpiptvsplitter.
Don't know if you already use this one: MediaPortal IPTV filter and url source splitter
If not maybe you can try that one. Its a bit newer and (crosses fingers) hopefully able to parse those streams correctly.

If not, then there's not much that can be done, because my knowledge of streams and c++ is by far not good enough to add support for it.
Another option is to use that m3u8 in onlinevideos and use LAV for playback there. That will give at least playback, but sadly no recording and no guide...

 

[MrManuzz]

Thanks for your quick response and your interest in my question.
Yes I've tried MediaPortal IPTV filter and url source splitter but it seems to not have any impact on how the stream is treated by the TV server engine. The plugin helps to build a proper m3u list from maybe an m3u8 list, you can influence timeouts and more, but for plain and simple http streams (which is the case for me) it seems it doesn't really make a difference.

The frustrating thing is that I also have a 4 tuner hdhomerun which inputs DVB-C streams. Such stream consist of a combination of

Stream #0:0[0x30]: Video: h264 (High) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p(tv, bt709, top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x40](dut): Audio: mp2 ([3][0][0][0] / 0x0003), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s
Stream #0:2[0x41](dut): Audio: ac3 ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0:3[0x42](gos): Audio: mp2 ([3][0][0][0] / 0x0003), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s (visual impaired) (descriptions)
Stream #0:4[0xaf](dut): Subtitle: dvb_teletext ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:5[0x50](dut): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:6[0x51](dut): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006) (hearing impaired)
all processed well by the TV Server engine. So it can handle multiple audio streams in a single file, handles audio formats with multiple channels, and as you can see even teletext comes through like a charm.

So why are IPTV streams treated different?

I am not an expert in (Dolby) compressed audio but how much differs DD+ from AC3? I have the hope that it must be something small to change or configure. The question is where?

Maybe in the future the audio check can be skipped when timeshifting. I've also tried NextPVR. NetxPVR has no troubles processing the DD+ audio/video streams.

Again, thanks for your comment. Maybe there a more forum members who can share their thoughts?

 

[doskabouter]

can you share a link to that stream (pm if sensitive info is in it) or just record a couple of minutes and send that to me some way?
maybe its something simple i can do...
no promises though....

 

[MrManuzz]

To other people reading about this 'issue', Doskabouter provided me with a fix/patch. It is a modified version of tswriter.ax which solved the problem with dolby digital plus audio.
I want to thank Doskabouter for all his time and energy he put into resolving this!!