[BartZorn]

Hello,

I have taken a trial subscription to NLZiet.nl, a provider of most dutch TV channels plus extras.
I have installed the NLZiet video add-on, and when I was in the Netherlands recently, that works reasonably. However, I have no information about the bandwidth of the internet connection where I stayed.

Now I am home in Spain, where we have a 4G LTE based internet connection which maxes at about 20 Mb/s.
The NLZiet app on my phone works fine (via wifi and our home internet).

However, the Kodi NLZiet add-on works very poorly, spending a lot of time with Buffering...
The same thing happens with the Canal Digitaal add-on, which probably shares a lot of code with the NLZiet add-on.

Could it be that the 20 Mb/s internet is too slow for these add-ons, or is it something else? Like I said, the Android app does work.

Please note that this is in no way an attempt to view IPTV channels illegally. I am a Canal Digitaal (NL) subscriber for my satellite channels. The IPTV channels are included with this subscription.
I have a trial account on NLZiet.nl, and I might make that permanent, if I can solve this problem.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bart

[DarrenHill]

Thread moved to the IPTV Simple section.

That PVR addon is usually the best way to view IPTV within Kodi, unless the supplier has a specific addon for their service. There are a lot of users (and team members) there who will have the skills, knowledge and experience to answer your question more definitively.

It may also be worth noting that many times the providers will geolock their services to a specific region/country IP address range. Whilst there are ways and means to cope with that, doing so is beyond the scope of this forum (indeed our VPN Policy (wiki) points out that we will not assist in overriding geolocking).

[BartZorn]

Thanks for answering.

Both NLZiet and Canal Digitaal are NOT geolocked. NLZiet especially makes point of that in its advertising.

Also, I tried to play the NLZiet channels with and without a VPN tunnel to Amsterdam, but that makes no visible difference.

Bart

[DarrenHill]

I would suggest trying the channels via IPTV Simple and see how you get on.

20Mb/s normally should be enough for such streaming from my experience (unless you're trying to stream UHD or something like that possibly), but I'm no expert on that subject.
Hence the move of the question to his section, as it's where people who are hang out...

[BartZorn]

Problem is here that IPTV Simple requires a m3u file or link as input. I don't have m3u's for or from these providers.

You are supposed to use their supplied apps and not something outlandish like Kodi.

Bart

[BartZorn]

I found a m3u file with free UK IPTV channels, but that does not look promising.
Some channels start playing but after a short while it freezes and displays the circle with the increasing percentage, and sometimes that also stops.

I tried the same m3u file with VLC, but the results are not much better, which makes me believe that my internet connection might not be sufficient.
However, the Android app of NLZiet.nl does seem to work over the very same internet connection.

Maybe I need a Chromecast after all!

Bart

[DarrenHill]

It may be that the apps are using a different stream than the IPTV ones, which could account for it if those are lower bandwidth/quality. You may be able to check that with Wireshark or some-such if you feel like going into such depth.

But as I said, I'm no expert on IPTV so I'll have to leave further comment to those who are.

[BartZorn]

Thanks anyway!

I hope someone else finds the time to say something.

Bart

[phunkyfish]

The problem you will find with 4G LTE connections in general is that the reception is patchy. For streaming you generally need a sustained consistent connection.

Likely the android app lowers the bandwidth required to a level that allows a stable stream. Kodi on the other hand might not, if the video inputstream addon being used is inputstream.adaptive then you can likely set a max bandwidth value that could help with this.

[BartZorn]

Yes, that is what I was afraid of. I already had an indication that that might be problematic, when I download a file I can see that that goes with bursts and not a continuous stream.

I am also afraid that playing with the inputstream settings is a bit complicated for me. Unless there is an "Inputstream settings for Dummies" like document?

Thanks,

Bart

[phunkyfish]

I don’t think inputstream adaptive has many settings, so might be worth taking a look.

[BartZorn]

OK, but you forget that I am a Dummy.

Do I understand correctly that an inputstream add-on is an interface between a video add-on or a PVR client add-on and a video player?

Then how do I know which input stream is being used in a particular case?

The Inputstream Adaptive add-on does not have many parameters, true. But besides the minimum and maximum bandwidth I don't understand much of the others.

I tried to set the maximum bandwidth to 10 Mb/s (being about half of what my internet connection gives) but that makes no visible difference. Then again, I don't know if Inputstream Adaptive is the one being used.

It is not so easy for a Dummy!

Bart

[phunkyfish]

That was the setting I was going to suggest. That particular inputstream is the only one that is adaptive (hence the name).

[BartZorn]

Yes, but is that inputstream always used, or is it one of the 3 that I have on my Kodi installation?

Like I said, my experiments did not show any difference.

Bart

[phunkyfish]

@DarrenHill likely this issue needs to be moved back to Video Addons or some general section where caching/buffering settings can be tweaked. But it’s definitely not in the PVR realm as far as I can tell.