RPi and Plex Channels

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1

I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but none of my channels will play any video through my rasplex. Maybe it is just a simple change in settings to direct play, and enabling transcoding, I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but could someone give me a good setup for configuring rasplex so the channels themselves will work. All channels work fine in a browser. The one I have been using the most is the Lifetime channel, since this is a big one for my wife. If anyone has insight on how to make this work I would greatly appreciate it.

Havok

2

This is most likely a server issue rather than a Rasplex issue. I will send you to forums.plex.tv/discussion/44858/readme-first-problems-with-specific-channels-or-several-all-channels#latest.

3

I posted in Channels and worked with Shopgrl on her Lifetime app. I have installed and re-installed my plex server several times. It does not work.

I am running Fedora 24, with Plex 1.2.7.2987
Rasplex 1.7.1 on a Rpi 3.

No channels whatsoever work, but all channels work from a web browser with no issues whatsoever.

4

In that case I would post as a bug in the 1.7.1 thread.

5

No it has never worked, and I have been using this since early stages. I think my problem is something I am not configuring right, unless channels should just work out of the box. Maybe I am wrong, but again all the channels work fine on all players, except my Rasplex. My xbox works fine, my PC works fine, tablets and phones, the channels just work, but they do not work on my rasplex device, and I think it has to do with HLS or eHLS video format possibly.

6

Posted this on the channel list I am working with the creator on:

So I am pretty sure transcoding works. I opened up the lifetime channel while using firefox, unticked the direct play and direct stream checks in the settings as you suggested. Now when I played a video this spawned:

plex 17716 13.4 0.9 949400 70520 ? Sl 17:23 0:07 /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder -codec:V:0 h264 -i https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_LWNY_163272_TVE_000_2398_60_20150331_000_S3_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/master.m3u8?b=400&hdnea=st=1480721003~exp=1480731833~acl=/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_LWNY_163272_TVE_000_2398_60_20150331_000_S3_~hmac=f4016e9cc1ad9e26897aa43c22d705c4f29e967210a9f9c52a3635aca145d913&set-cc-attribute=CC -filter_complex [0:V:0]scale=w=min(960,iw):h=min(540,ih):force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease[0] -map [0] -codec:0 libx264 -crf:0 16 -pix_fmt:0 yuv420p -preset:0 veryfast -x264opts:0 subme=1:me_range=4:rc_lookahead=10:me=hex:8x8dct=0:partitions=none -force_key_frames:0 expr:gte(t,0+n_forced5) -map 0:a:0 -metadata:s:1 language=en -codec:1 copy -copypriorss:1 0 -f dash -use_timeline 0 -min_seg_duration 5000000 -skip_to_segment 1 -time_delta 0.0625 -avoid_negative_ts disabled -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -movflags +faststart dash -start_at_zero -copyts -vsync cfr -y -nostats -loglevel quiet -loglevel_plex error -progressurl http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/ah9h4rxcwfk1s3t7fydyl8dn/progress
root 17784 0.0 0.0 117144 1024 pts/0 S+ 17:24 0:00 grep --color=auto transcode

Pretty sure that is the transcoding of the channel itself, and it appears to be working just fine.

In rasplex I turned off the feature for directplay completely, check force transcode, and set the options to 20Mbps(rPi has 1Gbps Ethernet adapter, limited of course by USB to 480Mbps), this should have forced the transcode and yet I still can not seem to get the Lifetime app to work.

It states to “check that the file exists and that the required drive is mounted.” However this is all pulled from stream, so that makes no sense. In any case I do appreciate the help you have provided thus far.

I am pretty sure transcoding works, it seems to be transcoding when I use Firefox to view my channels. However when I attempt this on the RPi it just fails over and over again.

7

Log:

17:50:46 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRANDHD2398_LFT_LWAT_172814_TVE_000_2398_60_20160121_00_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/master.m3u8?b=400&hdnea=st=1480722616~exp=1480733446~acl=/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRANDHD2398_LFT_LWAT_172814_TVE_000_2398_60_20160121_00_*~hmac=1a831730be5f435610f40c66fc14949cb04f26f763d32f26ea1cbc91554f6954&set-cc-attribute=CC
17:50:46 T:1964651056 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
17:50:46 T:1663218656 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
17:50:46 T:1663218656 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
17:50:47 T:1663218656 ERROR: OpenDemuxStream - Error creating demuxer
17:50:47 T:1663218656 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
17:50:47 T:1964651056 ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [plexserver://834d713e1034e085053d8b48818eef54632ed628/system/services/url/lookup?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mylifetime.com%2Fshows%2Flittle-women-atlanta%2Fseason-1%2Fepisode-1]
17:50:47 T:1964651056 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
17:50:47 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
17:50:47 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
17:50:47 T:1964651056 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
17:50:47 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
17:50:47 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Found 2 Lists of Devices
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Enumerated PI devices:
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 1
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : HDMI
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : HDMI
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_HDMI
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 8000,11025,16000,22050,24000,32000,44100,48000,88200,96000,176400,192000
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_FLOAT,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S32LE,AE_FMT_S16LE,AE_FMT_FLOATP,AE_FMT_S32NEP,AE_FMT_S16NEP,AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_EAC3
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 2
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Analogue
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : Analogue
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 48000
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_FLOAT,AE_FMT_S32LE,AE_FMT_S16LE,AE_FMT_FLOATP,AE_FMT_S32NEP,AE_FMT_S16NEP
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 3
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Both
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : HDMI and Analogue
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 48000
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_FLOAT,AE_FMT_S32LE,AE_FMT_S16LE,AE_FMT_FLOATP,AE_FMT_S32NEP,AE_FMT_S16NEP
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Enumerated PULSE devices:
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 1
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Default
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : Bluetooth
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 5512,8000,11025,16000,22050,32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
17:50:47 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_U8,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S24NE3,AE_FMT_S24NE4,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_FLOAT

8

Same information both times.

9

Debug Logs, looks like a url issue or ffmpeg:

18:27:07 T:1601844192 INFO: Auto-selecting https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/index_0_av.m3u8?null=0&id=AgBJCLb3F9dpN1sRQlhDgs6atviE9B8+GlQgfXBt1px2ltgt54EZ61%2FHR4s8009ApzNSXVBhpSVU2w%3D%3D&hdntl=exp=1480811227~acl=%2Fi%2FAETN-Lifetime_VMS%2FBRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_~data=hdntl~hmac=8539685d533fea84142f0e833b4f62bd5b18d8e80df20b5e77314ae5dc67870a based on configured bandwidth.
18:27:07 T:1568289760 DEBUG: Thread CFileCache 1568289760 terminating
18:27:07 T:1601844192 INFO: CDVDInputStreamFFmpeg: Auto-selecting https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/index_0_av.m3u8?null=0&id=AgBJCLb3F9dpN1sRQlhDgs6atviE9B8+GlQgfXBt1px2ltgt54EZ61%2FHR4s8009ApzNSXVBhpSVU2w%3D%3D&hdntl=exp=1480811227~acl=%2Fi%2FAETN-Lifetime_VMS%2FBRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_~data=hdntl~hmac=8539685d533fea84142f0e833b4f62bd5b18d8e80df20b5e77314ae5dc67870a based on configured bandwidth.
18:27:07 T:1601844192 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
18:27:07 T:1601844192 DEBUG: ffmpeg[5F7A33E0]: [https] HTTP error 403 Forbidden
18:27:07 T:1601844192 DEBUG: Error, could not open file https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/index_0_av.m3u8?null=0&id=AgBJCLb3F9dpN1sRQlhDgs6atviE9B8+GlQgfXBt1px2ltgt54EZ61%2FHR4s8009ApzNSXVBhpSVU2w%3D%3D&hdntl=exp=1480811227~acl=%2Fi%2FAETN-Lifetime_VMS%2FBRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_*~data=hdntl~hmac=8539685d533fea84142f0e833b4f62bd5b18d8e80df20b5e77314ae5dc67870a
18:27:07 T:1601844192 ERROR: OpenDemuxStream - Error creating demuxer
18:27:07 T:1601844192 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
18:27:07 T:1601844192 DEBUG: OnPlayBackStopped : play state was 1, starting 1
18:27:07 T:1601844192 DEBUG: Thread DVDPlayer 1601844192 terminating

10

Above log was with Directplay enabled, this one is set to force transcode at 20Mbps:

17:53:20 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: Opening: https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRANDHD2398_LFT_LWAT_172814_TVE_000_2398_60_20160121_00_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/master.m3u8?b=400&hdnea=st=1480722770~exp=1480733600~acl=/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRANDHD2398_LFT_LWAT_172814_TVE_000_2398_60_20160121_00_*~hmac=621e4ef7c272b7fe7d9b7e00209e1af526d8b3d43dc384efee2cdf5c6737ea9b&set-cc-attribute=CC
17:53:20 T:1964651056 WARNING: CDVDMessageQueue(player)::Put MSGQ_NOT_INITIALIZED
17:53:20 T:1601844192 NOTICE: Creating InputStream
17:53:21 T:1601844192 NOTICE: Creating Demuxer
17:53:21 T:1601844192 ERROR: OpenDemuxStream - Error creating demuxer
17:53:21 T:1601844192 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::OnExit()
17:53:21 T:1964651056 ERROR: Playlist Player: skipping unplayable item: 0, path [plexserver://834d713e1034e085053d8b48818eef54632ed628/system/services/url/lookup?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mylifetime.com%2Fshows%2Flittle-women-atlanta%2Fseason-1%2Fepisode-1]
17:53:21 T:1964651056 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
17:53:21 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
17:53:21 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
17:53:21 T:1964651056 NOTICE: CDVDPlayer::CloseFile()
17:53:21 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: waiting for threads to exit
17:53:21 T:1964651056 NOTICE: DVDPlayer: finished waiting
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Found 2 Lists of Devices
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Enumerated PI devices:
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 1
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : HDMI
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : HDMI
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_HDMI
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 8000,11025,16000,22050,24000,32000,44100,48000,88200,96000,176400,192000
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_FLOAT,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S32LE,AE_FMT_S16LE,AE_FMT_FLOATP,AE_FMT_S32NEP,AE_FMT_S16NEP,AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_EAC3
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 2
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Analogue
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : Analogue
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 48000
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_FLOAT,AE_FMT_S32LE,AE_FMT_S16LE,AE_FMT_FLOATP,AE_FMT_S32NEP,AE_FMT_S16NEP
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 3
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Both
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : HDMI and Analogue
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 48000
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_FLOAT,AE_FMT_S32LE,AE_FMT_S16LE,AE_FMT_FLOATP,AE_FMT_S32NEP,AE_FMT_S16NEP
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Enumerated PULSE devices:
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: Device 1
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceName : Default
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayName : Bluetooth
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra:
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 5512,8000,11025,16000,22050,32000,44100,48000,64000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
17:53:21 T:1887429600 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_U8,AE_FMT_S16NE,AE_FMT_S24NE3,AE_FMT_S24NE4,AE_FMT_S32NE,AE_FMT_FLOAT

11

I think it might be a security issue.

https://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/index_0_av.m3u8?null=0&id=AgBJCLb3F9dpN1sRQlhDgs6atviE9B8+GlQgfXBt1px2ltgt54EZ61/HR4s8009ApzNSXVBhpSVU2w==&hdntl=exp=1480811227~acl=/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_~data=hdntl~hmac=8539685d533fea84142f0e833b4f62bd5b18d8e80df20b5e77314ae5dc67870a

Access Denied
You don’t have permission to access “http://os-vh.akamaihd.net/i/AETN-Lifetime_VMS/BRAND_LFT_KIMQ_154659_TVE_000_2398_60_20140919_000_S3_,18,13,10,7,4,2,1,00.mp4.csmil/index_0_av.m3u8?” on this server.

Reference #18.cfc4317.1481004026.247da95c

The same errors are reported in the log snippets you posted.

18:27:07 T:1601844192 DEBUG: ffmpeg[5F7A33E0]: [https] HTTP error 403 Forbidden

12

The same URL entered into my browser does indeed do the same thing, but it does not explain why in my browser it is working 100%. If it works in Firefox, it should work just fine on the Rasplex as far as I can tell, why does it fail there? It just does not make sense to me.

13

@Havok115 said:
The same URL entered into my browser does indeed do the same thing, but it does not explain why in my browser it is working 100%. If it works in Firefox, it should work just fine on the Rasplex as far as I can tell, why does it fail there? It just does not make sense to me.

No one is trying to explain why it works in your browser 100%. We’re trying to figure out why it’s NOT working in OpenPHT. These are two different things.

From the logs, OpenPHT is attempting to access this stream directly, and it is possibly encountering this security issue.Which would account for why it’s not playing the stream. So then the next question is: How does the plugin perform passing the security on to PMS or your browser’s client?

Can you get us a debug log from a client successfully playing the stream, then do the same for OpenPHT using the same stream? I’d like to compare them.

14

With the introduction to LiveTV and DVR features, this is no longer relevant to me, channels are not required, or needed.