# Some recordings simply will not play/stream



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

This is not a fluke. Several times now I have tried to stream/play a video to my Android Linux Nexus 10 tablet running the TiVo app from my Tivo Roamo Pro and it just shows the spinning circle for a minute, then asks if I want to delete the program. But I can turn around and play some other recording with no problem at all. Go back to the problem one and it will not stream. I can restart the app, restart the tablet, nothing will make it play that recording. I go to the TV and select it and it plays that "problem" video just fine.

I can't find anything in common with those that will not play. It is not a certain channel or type of video. It is not that I did or didn't start watching it before somewhere. Certainly someone else has encountered this too.

As an aside, it will also not even allow the user to ATTEMPT to stream/play something that was uploaded to the TiVo via PyTiVo.


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

I am having problems playing lots of videos on an Android tablet also.


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## tatergator1 (Mar 27, 2008)

Is it a particular set of channels, or can you watch one video from Channel X, but not another video from Channel X?

Since you mention issues with pyTivo, I'm leaning towards being an H.264 issue. Depending on pyTivo setup, it can be configured to push compatible H.264 content directly to the Tivo without trans-coding to Mpeg2. Most cable is encoded using Mpeg2 compression, but some providers are moving towards encoding with H.264 which offers bandwidth saving up to 50% over Mpeg2. The Tivo itself will handle H.264 just fine, but the Stream will choke on that content. A few months ago, we got some intel from Tivo that H.264 support was coming to the Stream software in 2015. 

Who's your cable provider? I know FiOS and Cox use h.264 for some stuff; not sure about other providers.


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

All of my pyTiVo transfers originated on a TiVo of one model or another, no h.264 files for me.

My Android tablet won't play anything that was not recorded on my Premier.

If I record something on my Series2 and transfer it to the Premier the Android app won't play it. The ios app will play these recordings.


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## tatergator1 (Mar 27, 2008)

Perhaps it's related to some sort of missing or corrupted metadata for the video files. pyTivo transfers and Series 2 transfers always lose some of the original Tivo metadata when you use MRV to transfer videos between Tivos.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Do these same files/shows play on an android phone? 

In asking a rep yesterday about my Xoom not working with the app, it appeared that they are spending some time tweaking the app for tablets due to some compatibility issues. So, I'm wondering if this is a program file issue or the app not fully working with tablets.

Thanks!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

crxssi said:


> This is not a fluke. Several times now I have tried to stream/play a video to my Android Linux Nexus 10 tablet running the TiVo app from my Tivo Roamo Pro and it just shows the spinning circle for a minute, then asks if I want to delete the program. But I can turn around and play some other recording with no problem at all. Go back to the problem one and it will not stream. I can restart the app, restart the tablet, nothing will make it play that recording. I go to the TV and select it and it plays that "problem" video just fine.
> 
> I can't find anything in common with those that will not play. It is not a certain channel or type of video. It is not that I did or didn't start watching it before somewhere. Certainly someone else has encountered this too.
> 
> As an aside, it will also not even allow the user to ATTEMPT to stream/play something that was uploaded to the TiVo via PyTiVo.


Could be something with the recording. Can you transfer the show to a PC? Stream it to another TiVo or Mini? Perhaps the recording is using an odd audio codec (we have a couple that use MP2 instead of AC3) or maybe it has a weird structure like long GOPs or some sort of corrupt header. I'm not sure how robust the Stream transcoder is.


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## Megamind (Feb 18, 2013)

I believe this is similar to or the same as http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=521567

In my experience, programs that were not originally recorded on the TiVo from which the streaming occurs will not play in the Android App. In my case, this occurred with programs that were transferred directly (not via PyTiVo) from my XL4.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

I suspect some of this is related to the copy protection...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10031622

When moving content via PyTiVo - a Push will will apply a copy once CCI byte and a Pull will come to the TiVo clean. Anything with the CCI Byte set will not stream...


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

jrtroo said:


> Do these same files/shows play on an android phone?
> 
> In asking a rep yesterday about my Xoom not working with the app, it appeared that they are spending some time tweaking the app for tablets due to some compatibility issues. So, I'm wondering if this is a program file issue or the app not fully working with tablets.
> 
> Thanks!


If you are asking me, I don't know. My Android phone is not compatible.

All programs will play on my iPhone 4s and 3gs.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> Could be something with the recording. Can you transfer the show to a PC? Stream it to another TiVo or Mini? Perhaps the recording is using an odd audio codec (we have a couple that use MP2 instead of AC3) or maybe it has a weird structure like long GOPs or some sort of corrupt header. I'm not sure how robust the Stream transcoder is.


I don't have anything else to try. The recordings that won't play from PyTiVo on the Android app are all H264 with AC3, but that shouldn't matter, since they play just fine on the TiVo+TV (because they have already been transcoded to something the TiVo likes).

Anything I can play on the TiVo+TV should stream to the Android tablet. If not, something is strange. It looks to me like if there is no meta data (mine has none) then TiVo's servers simply refuse to allow you to play it.

My bigger issue are the recordings the TiVo itself made from cable that it can't seem to stream... I have run across three so far, and I see no pattern.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The stream can not play H.264 files at all, even when they are recorded from H.264 cable channels. There is one user on here who lives in an area serviced by a small provider who uses all H.264 and he's been complaining about the for years.

TiVo recently said they are working on adding H.264 support for Comcast, who's doing an H.264 test in Georgia, but it wont be ready until sometime next year.


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

This is still broken for me. I just got a Galaxy S5 and can only stream recordings that originate from my Premier. Anything that is transferred via MRV will not stream. This is true for in and out of home streaming.


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

LI-SVT said:


> All of my pyTiVo transfers originated on a TiVo of one model or another, no h.264 files for me.
> 
> My Android tablet won't play anything that was not recorded on my Premier.
> 
> If I record something on my Series2 and transfer it to the Premier the Android app won't play it. The ios app will play these recordings.


The above problem has been fixed for me. I can now stream shows to Android that originated from my Series 2.


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> The stream can not play H.264 files at all, even when they are recorded from H.264 cable channels. There is one user on here who lives in an area serviced by a small provider who uses all H.264 and he's been complaining about the for years.
> 
> TiVo recently said they are working on adding H.264 support for Comcast, who's doing an H.264 test in Georgia, but it wont be ready until sometime next year.


It would seem that Cincinnati Bell Fioptics, actually was one of the first to go MPEG 4 back in 2011, eliminating the need for tuning adapters. Smaller sometimes has its benefits.


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

This must be why I can't Stream anything recorded from my local broadcast PBS KERA 13.1..

Absolutely nothing streams even though this is an OTA channel.


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## das335 (Feb 8, 2006)

PCurry57 said:


> This must be why I can't Stream anything recorded from my local broadcast PBS KERA 13.1..
> 
> Absolutely nothing streams even though this is an OTA channel.


I am still working with TiVo support on a similar problem with my local PBS WEDU 3.1

They opened a ticket and have escalated the problem to Level 3 , but nothing new over the last month.


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## kgvickers (Mar 18, 2015)

PCurry57 said:


> This must be why I can't Stream anything recorded from my local broadcast PBS KERA 13.1..
> 
> Absolutely nothing streams even though this is an OTA channel.


I'm in Fort Worth - I get good audio when streaming KERA 13.1 recordings but the video is a frame about every 5 seconds. I was assuming I had a bandwidth problem since my Roamio OTA and my Stream are buried behind a few switches.

Local channel 11 works just fine, even over cellular on my iPhone.

This is a real bummer for me because I love KERA. Might be time to return this thing and reinstall the trusty old Slingbox.


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## blunderdog (Mar 22, 2015)

I just got my first Tivo and use Cincinnati Bell Fioptics. I love the device but I cannot stream to my Android tablet or phone. Do I understand correctly from this thread that this is because Fioptics provides video in MP4 format?


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

blunderdog said:


> I just got my first Tivo and use Cincinnati Bell Fioptics. I love the device but I cannot stream to my Android tablet or phone. Do I understand correctly from this thread that this is because Fioptics provides video in MP4 format?


You are correct. Fioptics has been broadcasting in MPEG4 for over 2 years now. I have had it since 2009, and started off with a few channels, and expanded. I found that out, because some of my channels would disappear. They swapped out 4 cable cards, and it turned out that hey actually started using MPEG4 before TiVo was able to decode it. That either speaks for the lack of technology or enthusiasm from TiVo, or Fioptics ability to look ahead.

Systems who use MPEG4, do not have to use the tuning adapter. I'm still waiting for TiVo to enable playback on the Stream. Something that should have been done at least a year ago.

I started a thread way back in June of 2013, and got some pretty snarky comments. I give them the same consideration as I do my ex.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

It's kinda like Android support. I could defend them not having support in the initial release. But 2.5 years later and it still doesn't work? That seems crazy. What could possibly be so hard. It's transcoding the video anyway, so all they have to do is enable the H.264 decoder in the Stream hardware. (assuming it has one)


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## blunderdog (Mar 22, 2015)

I just downloaded the new Android app but it still does not stream. Based on another thread I decided to test with a local channel. The local streams fine but a test on the History Channel results in: Streaming is not supported for this video format. Error Code E=31 V=2285. Bummer


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

LI-SVT said:


> The above problem has been fixed for me. I can now stream shows to Android that originated from my Series 2.


I just got a TiVo App for Android update on 3/26/15. I can no longer stream shows that originated from my Series2.


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## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

More to add:

The Android app does not give me a "play on phone" option for any recording that is MRV'd.

So...
If I select an original recording from, lets say, my Basement DVR the phone will allow me to watch the show.

If I MRV (transfer) that show to another DVR there is no option to watch.on the phone.

I spoke to Tivo about this and submitted a ticket.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

blunderdog said:


> I just downloaded the new Android app but it still does not stream. Based on another thread I decided to test with a local channel. The local streams fine but a test on the History Channel results in: Streaming is not supported for this video format. Error Code E=31 V=2285. Bummer


This is going to require an update to the Stream itself, not the app. There is a priority list that just went live for a new Roamio update, maybe it will have the fix for H.264 channels? (they don't do priority list for the standalone Stream)


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