Tvheadend

+1 :)

+1 :)

Just to add a quick note: I did even noticed one other situation (other than when ffmpeg stalls) I did also reproduced a different issue, when ffmpeg actually terminates and respawns, but if it's source stream is temporarily unavailable then it will terminate again immediately (as it should) with no data outpt and this is shown on tvheadend log:

2016-07-09 08:13:05.427 spawn: Executing "/usr/bin/ffmpeg"
2016-07-09 08:13:05.729 iptv: stdin pipe unexpectedly closed: No data

however then tvheadend will not respawn again anymore (I expected it to respawn forever until it data is available) and subscription will stall like that forever.

Btw, I did found a good way to workaround the problem (in fact both the one I describe on the ticket and the one on my comment above) using a script like this:

#!/bin/bash

pid=$$
( while [ 1 ]; do bb=$aa; aa=$(stat -L /proc/$pid/fd/1 | grep Modify); if [ "$aa" = "$bb" ]; then pkill -P $pid ffmpeg; echo "kill ffmpeg" >/proc/$pid/fd/2; fi; sleep 20; done )&

while [ 1 ]; do
/usr/bin/ffmpeg -loglevel fatal -fflags +igndts -re -i "$1" -acodec copy -vcodec copy -metadata service_provider="$2" -metadata service_name="$2" -f mpegts pipe:1
sleep 3
echo "respawn ffmpeg" >&2
done

To use the script, on Mux settings I set URL like this:

pipe:///storage/scriptname.sh <live_stream_url> ${service_name}

The script will handle respawn and will kill it's ffmpeg "child" if there is no data flowing on the pipe for more than 20 seconds... I'm testing it for weeks of continuous streams and so far seems perfect, no stall streams on tvheadend anymore :)

I know this is not a forum... but hope my workaround can be useful to other users, that's why I'm posting it.

Nuno Silva wrote:

Btw, I did found a good way to workaround the problem (in fact both the one I describe on the ticket and the one on my comment above) using a script like this:

[...]

To use the script, on Mux settings I set URL like this:
[...]
fill "Mux Name" and "Service Name" fields... and no need to enable "Respawn (pipe)" option anymore...

The script will handle respawn and will kill it's ffmpeg "child" if there is no data flowing on the pipe for more than 20 seconds... I'm testing it for weeks of continuous streams and so far seems perfect, no stall streams on tvheadend anymore :)

I know this is not a forum... but hope my workaround can be useful to other users, that's why I'm posting it.

Thanks for posting this, much appreciated. Using perl to rewrite the downloaded m3u to include this as a pipe, rather than just http directly. Stalling problems gone.

Nuno Silva wrote:

Btw, I did found a good way to workaround the problem (in fact both the one I describe on the ticket and the one on my comment above) using a script like this:

[...]

To use the script, on Mux settings I set URL like this:
[...]
fill "Mux Name" and "Service Name" fields... and no need to enable "Respawn (pipe)" option anymore...

The script will handle respawn and will kill it's ffmpeg "child" if there is no data flowing on the pipe for more than 20 seconds... I'm testing it for weeks of continuous streams and so far seems perfect, no stall streams on tvheadend anymore :)

I know this is not a forum... but hope my workaround can be useful to other users, that's why I'm posting it.

Hi - does the script need ${service_name} to work? Could I just strip that out of the script? My M3U file doesn't have that at present, so I'm hoping it's just a nice to have...
(I'm at work right now, so I'm unable to check, else I would have just coded it and seen if it would work! :) )

Thanks.

Dean Steele wrote:

Hi - does the script need ${service_name} to work? Could I just strip that out of the script? My M3U file doesn't have that at present, so I'm hoping it's just a nice to have...
(I'm at work right now, so I'm unable to check, else I would have just coded it and seen if it would work! :) )

What you put for the service name doesn't matter too much, so just use the channel name if you don't have a service name [remember to quote if the name has spaces].

Hiro Protagonist wrote:

Dean Steele wrote:

Hi - does the script need ${service_name} to work? Could I just strip that out of the script? My M3U file doesn't have that at present, so I'm hoping it's just a nice to have...
(I'm at work right now, so I'm unable to check, else I would have just coded it and seen if it would work! :) )

What you put for the service name doesn't matter too much, so just use the channel name if you don't have a service name [remember to quote if the name has spaces].

Thanks - I've managed to embed the script inside a pipe, inside my m3u (as per this post - https://tvheadend.org/boards/4/topics/29249) but I'm now getting a fair few more respawns turning up in my log window. Loads, in fact.

Any ideas? My script is exactly what the one here is, but my system seems to be respawning ffmpeg all over the place at times...

UPDATE: I think I've worked out the respawn problem. Either due to the "clone entry on error" in the recording profile, or the "restart on error" option in stream ("pass") profile - switching both off seems to have stopped the respawns.

J Smith wrote:

Nuno Silva wrote:

Btw, I did found a good way to workaround the problem (in fact both the one I describe on the ticket and the one on my comment above) using a script like this:

[...]

To use the script, on Mux settings I set URL like this:
[...]
fill "Mux Name" and "Service Name" fields... and no need to enable "Respawn (pipe)" option anymore...

The script will handle respawn and will kill it's ffmpeg "child" if there is no data flowing on the pipe for more than 20 seconds... I'm testing it for weeks of continuous streams and so far seems perfect, no stall streams on tvheadend anymore :)

I know this is not a forum... but hope my workaround can be useful to other users, that's why I'm posting it.

Thanks for posting this, much appreciated. Using perl to rewrite the downloaded m3u to include this as a pipe, rather than just http directly. Stalling problems gone.

Could you be more specific about that implementation?

Ricardo Rocha wrote:

Could you be more specific about that implementation?

Check out this post - https://tvheadend.org/boards/4/topics/29249 - and the sixth reply (I think). It shows using a respawn script (continuousffmpeg) embedded in a pipe, that "envelopes" the web addresses in your referenced M3U. I've been running with this for about a week now...