Cannot play recordings from Kodi library

[berkhornet]

I wanted to check if the following use case should work. Running Kodi 21.1 with latest version of Simple Client.

One of my Simple Client instances is configured for media. I have run a test with two movie entries in the m3u file. Both movies are listed under recordings and play successfully from there.

I then noticed that I could add "recordings" as a source for the video library. I did this and both movies were successfully scraped into the library. However, neither play from the library - I get the error "CVideoPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening [pvr://recordings/tv/active/Movies/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241017_152608, 915726481-/Movies/Back to Black.pvr]" in the Kodi log.

I don't recall seeing this listed as supported functionality in any change logs/release notes, but wanted to know if it should work on Kodi 21.1. Many thanks for your help

[phunkyfish]

I think it should work, although I’ve never tried. @ksooo, before going down a rabbit hole, should this work?

[berkhornet]

I've completed some further tests.

1. Removed the movies from the video library
2. Restarted Kodi
3. The movies show up under PVR recordings
4. Movie plays ok from PVR recordings. Kodi opens pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr
5. Scan recordings to video library
6. In the movie table of the database the path to the movie is pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr (the same as in step 4)
7. "Playback failed" error when playing movie from the library

Extract from log:
2024-10-19 09:55:18.243 T:22932 info : VideoPlayer::OpenFile: pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr
2024-10-19 09:55:18.244 T:17344 info : Creating InputStream
2024-10-19 09:55:18.245 T:17344 error : CInputStreamPVRBase - CInputStreamPVRBase::CInputStreamPVRBase - unable to obtain pvr addon instance for item 'pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr'
2024-10-19 09:55:18.245 T:17344 error : CInputStreamPVRRecording - CInputStreamPVRRecording::OpenPVRStream - unable to obtain recording instance for recording pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr
2024-10-19 09:55:18.245 T:17344 error : CVideoPlayer::OpenInputStream - error opening [pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr]
2024-10-19 09:55:18.245 T:17344 info : CVideoPlayer::OnExit()
2024-10-19 09:55:18.252 T:18008 info : Deleting settings information for files pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_083605, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr
2024-10-19 09:55:18.272 T:22932 error : PVR::CPVRItem::GetChannel: Unsupported item type!

I then restarted Kodi, and again successfully played the movie from PVR recordings. However, this time the entry played was pvr://recordings/tv/active/Back%20to%20Black, TV, 20241019_090314, 915726481-Back to Black.pvr, different to that noted in step 4 above.

So each time Kodi restarts the recordings are created with a different timestamp, so I can see how playing from the library would fail after a Kodi restart.

[phunkyfish]

Nice work, good debugging!

As far as I can tell that timestamp is not created by the add-on, it must be created by kodi when processing the recording. I don't know right now if the add-on that influence that timestamp or not. Maybe @ksooo has some thoughts. If it can be influenced then maybe we can do something to make those links more permanaent instead of temporal.