Playback broken for 2k streams

[Marcus-Schubert]

Context

Twitch lately introduced 2k streams. If you select such a stream, you have to select the resolution. However, as soon as you select any resolution the stream stops shortly afterwards or doesn't even load. This seems to happen on 2k streams only.

• Add-on Version: 3.0.2
• Kodi Version: 21.2 (Android TV)
• Kodi GUI Language: German
• Operating System: Android
• Operating System Language: German

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Expected Behavior

The streams shall open without any issue.

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Current Behavior

Once the stream has been clicked on a modal dialogue is shown to select the resolution. No matter what is selected the stream closes directly or shortly afterwards.

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Steps to Reproduce

Please provide detailed steps for reproducing the issue.

1. Open up Twitch plugin as usual
2. Look for a stream in 2k
3. Start playback of the stream

[martin1ehm]

Same issue here: From what I’ve found so far, the issue is not related to plugin.video.twitch but rather seems to be caused by ffmpeg.
I tested an m3u8 playlist using the .strm method, and the stream also stops after 6 seconds. (Confirmed on Windows 11 and LibreELEC on Pi 5)

See: xbmc/xbmc#25131

Edit: Found a workaround:
-> Open the plugin.video.twitch settings
-> Change Video Quality to "Adaptive"

Edit2:

If I remember correctly, you need to install the inputstream.adaptive plugin for that.
(I tested so many things yesterday that I can’t remember whether it was already installed or if I added it manually)

https://github.com/xbmc/inputstream.adaptive

Edit 3:
If audio is not working - just click "Toggle Audio Stream" once in the settings during playback

[apo86]

Interesting. For me on a Vero V / OSMC (Kodi 21.2), Adaptive doesn't work at all. Neither for regular streams, nor the new "enhanced broadcasting" streams.
With Adaptive at first I was getting curl SSL errors on the Twitch playlist URL, which I "fixed" by creating a global .curlrc with the -k (ignore certificate) parameter. But now I'm getting timeout/couldn't connect errors.
Which is wild, because regular command line curl works just fine for the same URLs (even without -k).

Anyways, one thing I did manage to do is install streamlink and use that to play streams through the kodi media player. So that could be a (very inconvenient) alternative...

[edit] Actually adaptive does work, but not if I set it as default quality in addon settings, only if I select quality per stream. Huh.

[Marcus-Schubert]

I can confirm that switching to input stream adaptive works on Android TV and Linux.

[einanderson]

The 6-second stall is the ffmpeg/Kodi bug noted above (xbmc/xbmc#25131), not the add-on.

Workaround that works today:

1. Install inputstream.adaptive if you don't have it.
2. plugin.video.twitch → Settings → Video Quality = Adaptive (not a fixed resolution).
3. Play the stream — the stall should be gone.
4. No audio? Open the OSD once and Toggle Audio Stream (see No audio on 2k stream #700).

For actual 2K, Twitch only serves the Enhanced-Broadcasting/HEVC variant when the client requests HEVC. I've put together a small optional addition on top of anxdpanic's add-on that does exactly that (default unchanged): #705 (plugin) + anxdpanic/script.module.python.twitch#141 (lib). With those + Adaptive, 2K plays with video and audio.