Libreelec 11.01 live TV freezes then crashes randomly

    Hi,

    Ever since upgrading to LE 11.0 (and subsequently LE 11.0.1) from LE 10.0.4, live TV is randomly freezing and after 10-20 seconds crashes out. I'm using this setup here Simple Freeview NZ & AU IPTV Kodi Setup (with full guide & radio) (matthuisman.nz) and have been for several years without this issue previously.

    I thought it could be an issue with upgrading so I've built a new clean install on an SSD attached to the same RPi4 that I've used from LE9 and up. I've installed nothing else but the Simple IPTV client and I still get this happening randomly, it can be anything from 5 minutes to 2 hours and happens several times a night.

    Log file here ix.io/4vrt

    Let me know what other information would be useful. BTW I've changed TV, sound system, HDMI cable with no difference, the internet connection is ethernet with 900/450 Mbps fibre. I've been monitoring buffering via Ctrl+Shift+O and rarely see it dip below 97%.

    Thank you for all your hard work, it's much appreciated. This issue has me a little stumped.

    Cheers

    David

  • Go to Best Answer

    I'd start with repeating the setup on a clean SD card and the current LE12 nightly .. it will have updated kernel + ffmpeg + kodi and is what devs are working on (LE11 is not under active development now). Also, when you say "crashes out" does HTPC lock up (hard crash) or simply video stops and it drops back to the home screen (soft crash)?

    • Best Answer
    Code
    2023-05-08 06:40:22.015 T:1112     info <general>: ffmpeg[0x3faf3a8]: [hls] Opening 'crypto+https://d2ce82tpc3p734.cloudfront.net/out/v1/97a6854b9b9147ee85165908bd78cfb7/master_19_20306835.ts?m=1683518436' for reading
2023-05-08 06:40:27.980 T:1112     info <general>: ffmpeg[0x3faf3a8]: [hls] Opening 'crypto+https://d2ce82tpc3p734.cloudfront.net/out/v1/97a6854b9b9147ee85165908bd78cfb7/master_19_20306836.ts?m=1683518436' for reading
2023-05-08 06:40:36.103 T:1118     info <general>: CVideoPlayerAudio::Process - stream stalled
2023-05-08 06:40:37.950 T:1117    debug <general>: CPtsTracker: pattern lost on diff 79999.000000, number of losses 1
2023-05-08 06:40:37.954 T:1117    debug <general>: CVideoPlayerVideo - Stillframe detected, switching to forced 25.000000 fps
2023-05-08 06:40:42.811 T:1117    debug <general>: CPtsTracker: detected pattern of length 1: 40000.00, frameduration: 40000.000000
2023-05-08 06:40:47.996 T:1112    error <general>: ffmpeg[0x3faf3a8]: [tcp] Failed to resolve hostname d2ce82tpc3p734.cloudfront.net: Name or service not known
2023-05-08 06:40:47.996 T:1112    error <general>: ffmpeg[0x3faf3a8]: [crypto] Unable to open resource: https://d2ce82tpc3p734.cloudfront.net/out/v1/97a6854b9b9147ee85165908bd78cfb7/master_19_20306836.ts?m=1683518436

    This is the key part of log. It looks like we are happily reading data from d2ce82tpc3p734.cloudfront.net, geting a chunk every 5 seconds until it fails. It's unable to resolve the hostname (a DNS failure).

    I suspect the problem isn't on the LibreELEC device, but somewhere on the local network (router if it handles DNS, but it could be another PC is you are running PiHole or some other DNS server.

    Can you try running (on the Pi or any linux machine* on network):

    Code
    while : ; do ping -c1 d2ce82tpc3p734.cloudfront.net || break; sleep 1; done

    It should run forever but will stop if you get a failure.

    (*) ideally a machine that doesn't do DNS address caching.

    popcornmix Thank you!

    It looks like you were right on the money. The home router is set with Quad9 as its primary DNS and hands that out to the clients. I changed it to manual on LE and set DNS to 8.8.8.8 and haven't had a drop since.

    It must have been coincidence that the problems started as soon as I upgraded to 11, either that or it handles DNS differently.

    Interestingly Google DNS resolves a different set of IP addresses to what Quad9 does.

    Thank you all for your excellent work.

    David