[RELEASE] DStv Now KODI Add-on

I have and I keep getting a parse login error. Is it possible I am doing something wrong?
 
Hi, I'm having trouble getting the iptv merge to work. I installed it from Slyguy's repo and then used the setup iptv simple client option. I selected the addon and ran a merge but nothing shows up in the TV section. What am I missing?
 
Since using Slyguy’s repository I have no issues with DStv Now on both my Android box and my fire stick. Works well most of the time! I say most because I do experience some times when sections of videos repeat again for a few seconds and then jump ahead to the live feed again. This appears to be predominantly on live channels like news (ENCA for example when our president gives COVID-19 updates, it happens quite often) and sport. I Also noticed it in the rugby this morning on SS1. I am not sure if this is something that has been addressed or not but I would appreciate some advice on this if possible? Is this a known issue? Or perhaps a buffer size issue?
 
hotdog said:
Since using Slyguy’s repository I have no issues with DStv Now on both my Android box and my fire stick. Works well most of the time! I say most because I do experience some times when sections of videos repeat again for a few seconds and then jump ahead to the live feed again. This appears to be predominantly on live channels like news (ENCA for example when our president gives COVID-19 updates, it happens quite often) and sport. I Also noticed it in the rugby this morning on SS1. I am not sure if this is something that has been addressed or not but I would appreciate some advice on this if possible? Is this a known issue? Or perhaps a buffer size issue?
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I have seen this issue while back when dstv had capacity problems shortly after lockdown started. I'm on a 50/5 (100/10 during upgrade) so not a bandwidth issue. As far as I know the inputstream adaptive addon that is used for widevine DRM playback cannot buffer enough ahead to avoid that and will try and play back at your selected resolution - in contrast to the dstv now app that uses adaptive streaming and will lower your resolution realtime as needed.

So in theory if you select a low enough resolution before you start the channel it should not happen.
 
Thanks @enerdude I’m on a 10/10 Fibre connection and have tried reducing resolution significantly but it still seems to happen. It is not a very regular occurrence but definitely seems to be more prevalent in Live feeds like SS and ENCA, hence why I thought maybe there are timing issues with live feeds as opposed to recorded broadcasts. Logic tells me no, but my experiences seem to be different. Your suggestion that there is a bandwidth starvation at the time seems plausible but I cannot see it in any of my bandwidth tests at the time as I am not saturating my 10Mbps connection when it happens. The issue seems to then point to something upstream maybe? When I do have bandwidth issues I invariably see the Buffering progress wheel on the screen as the video feed tries to recover. This is different to the issues I’m reporting on here.

I have now resorted to capping the max bandwidth to 3.5Mbps in the custom playback quality option, which gives me adequate resolution but the video repeat still happens.This mornings rugby was running at 1280 x 720 which is adequate.

The Settings > Playback menu has a option called Use Inputstream HLS which is enabled. Should I consider switching this off or does that not have anything to do with my experiences? The same goes with the Advanced menu items HTTP Timeout, Retries and Chunksize? What do all of these mean? Would tweaking these values have any influence on this? If I up the chunksize, will that not force the video stream to buffer more video t smooth over the bandwidth issues that could be causing the issue?
 
@hotdog I think you should leave all settings on default. Try using a lower custom resolution. I think problem is when you have a dip in your connection which does not necessarily induce a buffering progress wheel but that the inputstream adaptive addon cannot recover from.
Apparently the developer of inputstream adaptive addon is aware of the problem and trying to improve the buffering capability.
 
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