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Browser Playback

M3Undle can generate HLS for browser and Electron clients when a live stream is available only as MPEG-TS. Configure this under Settings → Streaming → Browser Playback.

How browser playback works

When a browser (or Electron app) asks for a channel that the provider only offers as MPEG-TS — a format browsers can't play directly — M3Undle uses FFmpeg to convert it to HLS on the fly. FFmpeg must be installed on the M3Undle server; the top of the Browser Playback section tells you whether it was found:

FFmpeg is available. Browser playback is active.

Browser Playback settings

The visible controls are:

  • Enable generated HLS — turns the browser-compatible output on or off.
  • FFmpeg Path under Advanced Options — leave it blank to use ffmpeg from the server's PATH, or enter an absolute path when FFmpeg is installed elsewhere. The field shows which executable is currently active.

Browser Playback changes take effect after a restart. Select the Apply button in the Browser Playback section after making a change.

There are no FFmpeg codec, bitrate, resolution, HLS segment-length, playlist-length, or hardware-acceleration controls — M3Undle manages those itself.

Browser Playback appears below Stream Proxy on the same Settings → Streaming page. These controls affect viewer sessions generally, including sessions that use generated HLS:

  • Enable Stream Proxy — the master switch for relaying streams through M3Undle.
  • Under Session Limits:
    • Max Simultaneous Streams — the maximum concurrent viewers across all channels. When the cap is reached, new tune requests receive a "tuner busy" response. Match this to your provider's connection limit.
    • Disconnect Grace Period (sec) — keeps the upstream connection open for this period after the last viewer leaves, so a viewer who reconnects quickly picks up without rebuffering.
  • Under Advanced Options → Buffering:
    • Maximum Idle Time (sec) — hard limit: closes any idle stream beyond this, even if grace periods keep renewing. Default 120 s.
    • Buffer per Stream (bytes) and Total Buffer Limit (bytes) — bound the memory used to smooth brief provider interruptions. Defaults ≈ 4 MiB per stream, 32 MiB total.
    • Download Chunk Size (bytes) — how much is read from the provider at a time. Default ≈ 32 KiB.
  • Under Advanced Options → Reconnect Behaviour:
    • Stall Detection (sec) — silence from the provider before the stream is treated as stalled. Default 30 s.
    • Reconnect Window (sec) — how long M3Undle keeps retrying after a stall before giving up. Default 75 s.
    • Connection Timeout (sec) — how long to wait for the provider to respond on connect. Default 15 s.

What happens during and after a reconnect — and how M3Undle adapts to channels that stall repeatedly — is explained in Retry, Failover, and Cooldowns.

The page distinguishes when settings take effect: new viewer sessions inherit Stream Proxy settings immediately, while overall limits and Browser Playback changes require a restart.

Sizing storage for generated HLS

Generated HLS writes rolling playlists/segments under /data/hls-work by default. These are rolling/sliding, session-scoped, and cleaned up on session end or inactivity — not full VOD retention — but you still need to size the volume that backs /data.

Estimate required storage with:

required_bytes ≈ concurrent_generated_hls_sessions × average_bitrate_bytes_per_second × retained_seconds

or in Mbps terms:

required_gb ≈ concurrent_sessions × average_mbps × retained_seconds / 8 / 1024

Recommended planning:

  • Start with a 2×–4× safety multiplier over the raw estimate.
  • Small/home usage: allocate 2–5 GB.
  • Multi-user usage: allocate 10–20 GB or more, depending on bitrate and concurrency.

Examples:

  • 5 sessions at 8 Mbps, 60 seconds retained: raw ~300 MB → recommended 1–2 GB.
  • 10 sessions at 12 Mbps, 90 seconds retained: raw ~1.35 GB → recommended 3–5 GB.

If you expect heavy browser playback and want this scratch space on a separate disk, mount it directly at the internal path:

volumes:
  - ./config:/config
  - ./data:/data
  - ./hls-work:/data/hls-work

Before changing the settings

  1. Confirm the page says FFmpeg is available.
  2. Leave FFmpeg Path blank unless the executable is not available through PATH.
  3. Match the general simultaneous-stream limit to the upstream provider's connection limit.
  4. Apply changes and restart M3Undle when the page says a restart is required.
  5. Reopen Settings → Streaming and confirm Browser Playback reports active.