[tpfagan]

Here is my Setup:

I have 3 Rasperberry Pi's Running OSMC Kodi 18 connected to ServerWMC (1255). Tuners are HDHomeRun Prime Tuner (3 channel).

Issue: Occassionally on all three RPI's (experienced independently), Live TV audio and/or video stops. When it resumes, its out of sync for 10-30 seconds. Sometimes I get audio and no video, sometimes I get video and no audio. Recorded shows/movies play flawlessly (like Live TV use to be)
This has been rock solid on Kodi 17.x. I rolled a RPI back and it works perfectly on Kodi 17. DLNA is off in ServerWMC to support Kodi 18. I have attached the ServerWMC Service log (pastebin).

In the kodi Log, when the issue is occurring,  I see the following:

https://pastebin.com/R7F6AfpY




ServerWMC Server Log (Pastebin)
https://pastebin.com/sLzdq5uF

Any suggestions (aside from roll back)?

Thanks,

Tim

[tpfagan]

Here is my Setup:

I have 3 Rasperberry Pi's Running OSMC Kodi 18 connected to ServerWMC (1255). Tuners are HDHomeRun Prime Tuner (3 channel).

Issue: Occassionally on all three RPI's (experienced independently), Live TV audio and/or video stops. When it resumes, its out of sync for 10-30 seconds. Sometimes I get audio and no video, sometimes I get video and no audio. Recorded shows/movies play flawlessly (like Live TV use to be)
This has been rock solid on Kodi 17.x. I rolled a RPI back and it works perfectly on Kodi 17. DLNA is off in ServerWMC to support Kodi 18. I have attached the ServerWMC Service log (pastebin).

In the kodi Log, when the issue is occurring,  I see the following:

https://pastebin.com/R7F6AfpY




ServerWMC Server Log (Pastebin)
https://pastebin.com/sLzdq5uF

Any suggestions (aside from roll back)?

Thanks,

Tim

So, I'm not sure this is a ServerWMC issue but more of a kodi issue. I added an advancedsettings.xml file to .kodi/userdata and added the following setting based on similar issues other kodi users (non RPI) have had in the past.

<cache>
        <memorysize>20971520</memorysize>
        <buffermode>2</buffermode>
        <readfactor>10</readfactor>
</cache>

After restarting kodi, the jittery audio/video was substantially better/reduced, or less infrequent......

So I up'ed the memory from 20MB to 25MB (below)

<cache>
        <memorysize>26214400</memorysize>
        <buffermode>2</buffermode>
        <readfactor>10</readfactor>
</cache>

I havent had any jitter at all since this change, but will report back in a day or so after it burns in...

[krustyreturns]

Interesting, thanks for the info.  I looked at the swmc log and it shows no problems during live streams.  Your result makes sense because in your config, you have swmc set to remux the playback of recordings (which I don't recommend - its really only there to help for debugging).  In this mode swmc treats recordings the same way as live-tv (it remuxes them on the fly) so in most cases you should not see a difference in how live vs recordings playback unless its a kodi issue.

[tpfagan]

Interesting, thanks for the info.  I looked at the swmc log and it shows no problems during live streams.  Your result makes sense because in your config, you have swmc set to remux the playback of recordings (which I don't recommend - its really only there to help for debugging).  In this mode swmc treats recordings the same way as live-tv (it remuxes them on the fly) so in most cases you should not see a difference in how live vs recordings playback unless its a kodi issue.

That's great feedback. I'll turn off remux as one of my test cases to see if it has any improvement. I mostly likely left it that way since it worked really well before. So far performance has been much better. I did notice this morning that while video and audio are no longer cutting out, there is a slight sync issue between audio and video - enough to just notice it is off...

[tpfagan]

Interesting, thanks for the info.  I looked at the swmc log and it shows no problems during live streams.  Your result makes sense because in your config, you have swmc set to remux the playback of recordings (which I don't recommend - its really only there to help for debugging).  In this mode swmc treats recordings the same way as live-tv (it remuxes them on the fly) so in most cases you should not see a difference in how live vs recordings playback unless its a kodi issue.

That's great feedback. I'll turn off remux as one of my test cases to see if it has any improvement. I mostly likely left it that way since it worked really well before. So far performance has been much better. I did notice this morning that while video and audio are no longer cutting out, there is a slight sync issue between audio and video - enough to just notice it is off...  

SO i've been running a few days with this configuration and have these observations:

1. adding the above setting to advancedsettings.xml seems to have helped, but has not eliminated the problem. I've up'ed the memory and changed the buffermode from 2 to 1 and neither one of those changes seem to make it any better or worse.
2. For me, turning off remux immediately made things worse... I only ran that way for about an hour before turning it back on -  Live TV was pretty much unwatchable during that time frame. I will try again just in case it was coincidental. I also dont recall if I ran this way before or after the advancedsettings change so I want to revisit that.
3. I'm running HDHomerun tuners and switched to the hdhomerun plugin and Live TV did not have any problems that I am currently experiencing...

I've been super happy with the ServerWMC app. I've been using it for probably 3 years or so. Despite that, I've been struggling with a larger issue that WMC is no longer supported and I need to find a new PVR backend that supports my HDHomerun tuners (I have 3). I know I have lots of choices and I just need to start trying a few, but its been a lower priority. With my recent Live TV issues, the proverbial wheel is starting to squeak.

Anyway, I hope this helps with someone else's troubleshooting.