Tvheadend

A little help with the "rocket science" -> [[https://vanillavideo.com/blog/2012/a-quick-intro-to-i-frames-and-gop-in-video-codecs]]

This is NOT a tvheadend problem. ALL normal players discard initial data until a valid "i-frame" (start of GOP) is received.

Of course this is a little simplified because there is not just video in a stream. Inter-mixed in the stream (muxed) is also the audio data. When you tune to a stream, you have no way of controlling exactly where you start. The first thing you see may be audio data. But again, any player should not assume that just because it first receives audio data that there is no video data coming.

And to add more complexity, also inter-mixed into the stream can be things like EPG data, teletext data and other information about the stream. Everything in a stream has a specific standardized "start code" receivers can look for to know when to begin paying attention.

Try to turn off 'parser backlog' in the base config (tvheadend). With this settings, the first frame will be the first frame of GOP (I-frame). But VLC can decode also incomplete frames, so it's a bit pitty that some players insist to have full info from the first frame (the playback will be delayed).

Joe User wrote:

A little help with the "rocket science" -> [[https://vanillavideo.com/blog/2012/a-quick-intro-to-i-frames-and-gop-in-video-codecs]]

This is NOT a tvheadend problem. ALL normal players discard initial data until a valid "i-frame" (start of GOP) is received.

Of course this is a little simplified because there is not just video in a stream. Inter-mixed in the stream (muxed) is also the audio data. When you tune to a stream, you have no way of controlling exactly where you start. The first thing you see may be audio data. But again, any player should not assume that just because it first receives audio data that there is no video data coming.

And to add more complexity, also inter-mixed into the stream can be things like EPG data, teletext data and other information about the stream. Everything in a stream has a specific standardized "start code" receivers can look for to know when to begin paying attention.

Thanks for clearing it up.

Jaroslav Kysela wrote:

Try to turn off 'parser backlog' in the base config (tvheadend). With this settings, the first frame will be the first frame of GOP (I-frame). But VLC can decode also incomplete frames, so it's a bit pitty that some players insist to have full info from the first frame (the playback will be delayed).

Thanks, but it's already disabled.

Jaroslav Kysela wrote:

Try to turn off 'parser backlog' in the base config (tvheadend). With this settings, the first frame will be the first frame of GOP (I-frame). But VLC can decode also incomplete frames, so it's a bit pitty that some players insist to have full info from the first frame (the playback will be delayed).

CvH told me to try enabling it (because it's disabled by default) ...and that seems to work. No more issues in Kodi Leia via remote.

sebastian s. wrote:

Jaroslav Kysela wrote:

Try to turn off 'parser backlog' in the base config (tvheadend). With this settings, the first frame will be the first frame of GOP (I-frame). But VLC can decode also incomplete frames, so it's a bit pitty that some players insist to have full info from the first frame (the playback will be delayed).

CvH told me to try enabling it (because it's disabled by default) ...and that seems to work. No more issues in Kodi Leia via remote.

I was wrong.

At home I've tried to reproduce the issue in the local network and simulated my downstream to 8-10 mbit with NetLimiter (https://www.netlimiter.com/). The sympton appears again with and without enabled backlog parsing.
So this issue COULD also appeear in bad LAN configurations (ethernet over power cable, bad and slow WiFi connections, etc).