[FFmpeg-user] [hw] strange stream behaviour

[Mettavihari D]

Greetings

I note you did not have a reply to this long and exhaustive mail

if you have solved it I would be happy to know the solution
If not try to put -report into the command line.

ffmpeg -n -loglevel 8 -report -i http://example.com/foo.m3u8 -codec
copy -t 00:10:00 -f mpegts example


and post the output of the log file
you may then get a response which will be useful for me also

with best regards
Mettavihari

On Sun, Aug 6, 2017 at 9:03 PM, hw <hw at adminart.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> there are video streams showing a strange behaviour when recording them
> with ffmpeg in that ffmpeg will record the stream for an apparently
> random amount of time, ranging from one minute to ten minutes, and then
> stop recording.  Once it stops recording, ffmpeg continues to run
> indefinitely, not receiving and not recording anything.
>
> I have programmed my recording application that uses ffmpeg to overcome
> this problem such that it monitors the size of the recorded file.  If
> the size doesn´t change for at least eight seconds, the ffmpeg process
> supposed to record it is being killed and a new one is started to record
> the same stream.
>
> When the recording is finished, I have a number of files (chunks) that
> were recorded, and I can use ffmpeg to concatenate these files.  When
> watching the concatenated version of the recording, the video that has
> been recorded shows "backjumps": That means there are a few seconds that
> were at the end of chunk N which also are at the beginning of chunk
> N+1.  How many seconds are overlapping varies.
>
> This is, of course, annoying.  It is also puzzling because I used to
> think that the recording stops because there sometimes is insufficient
> bandwidth to continue to record.  This doesn´t seem to be the case,
> though:
>
>
> The stream being recorded is an hls stream accessed via the http URL of
> an m3u8 playlist.
>
> There are such streams that can be played with ffplay without
> interruption for hours.  (I haven´t tried recording those yet.  Since
> the streams that can not be recorded continuously also cut off when
> being played with ffplay, I can assume it would be possible to record
> the streams that play uninterrupted as continuously as they play.)
>
>
> Now I´m assuming that the problem isn´t insufficient bandwidth or an
> issue with ffmepg, but more likely an incompatible or troubled server.
> That hls provides the "stream" (I wouldn´t call that a stream because
> "stream" implies a continuous flow) in small chunks can explain the
> annoying overlaps I am observing:
>
> When the recording is restarted, it starts with a chunk that already has
> been received and continues with the next chunks provided, some of which
> also have already been recorded.
>
> It can take about 10 seconds for ffmpeg to be restarted.  I have not
> observed a single missing chunk, not even with a two hour movie
> scattered over thirty single files.  There have only been overlaps.
>
> If there was a bandwidth problem, I would expect chunks to be missing.
> Since no chunks are missing even after a rather lengthy break in
> recording, all chunks seem to be available on the server for more then
> ten seconds.
>
> So what if the time between the server telling ffmpeg 'use this next
> chunk' and the availability of the chunk on the server is somewhat long?
> Is there a time window within which ffmpeg tries to get the next chunk,
> and is that window too short?  Is there an option to make that window
> longer, or a place in the source where I could make it longer?
>
> What else might cause the interruptions?
>
> Why is ffmpeg unaware that recording has ceased and doesn´t quit when
> that happens?  It is silly that the control program needs to poll the
> size of the output file every eight seconds to figure out if something
> is still being recorded or not.  Doing that isn´t really feasible,
> either, because it is not guaranteed that eight seconds is always the
> right polling interval.
>
> Why doesn´t ffmpeg quit after it has been recording for the amount of
> time specified with the '-t' option?  For example:
>
>
> ffmpeg -n -loglevel 8 -i http://example.com/foo.m3u8 -codec copy -t 00:10:00 -f mpegts example
>
>
> Ffmpeg does not stop after the ten minutes have passed when the
> recording has stopped before that.  That doesn´t make any sense because
> ffmpeg obviously either figures it is still recording --- in which case
> it needs to stop after ten minutes --- or it figures it is not
> recording, in which case it should quit before the ten minutes have
> passed, or at least when they have passed.  Having it run indefinitely
> is not the right choice.
>
> So what can I do to record without interruptions, or at least without
> the annoying overlaps?
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