diff --git a/internal/daemon/daemon.go b/internal/daemon/daemon.go
index 1b8de44..20afde7 100644
--- a/internal/daemon/daemon.go
+++ b/internal/daemon/daemon.go
@@ -232,8 +232,10 @@ func (d *Daemon) healthLoop(ctx context.Context) {
 				continue
 			}
 			stalls[p.Slot]++
-			if stalls[p.Slot] >= 2 {
-				d.log.Warn("stream stalled, forcing restart", "slot", p.Slot, "camera", p.Name)
+			// Require three consecutive unresponsive probes (~60s) before
+			// forcing a restart, so a brief IPC hiccup never bounces a stream.
+			if stalls[p.Slot] >= 3 {
+				d.log.Warn("stream hung, forcing restart", "slot", p.Slot, "camera", p.Name, "misses", stalls[p.Slot])
 				p.Stop() // Supervise relaunches
 				stalls[p.Slot] = 0
 			}
diff --git a/internal/player/player.go b/internal/player/player.go
index 75b66e9..6368325 100644
--- a/internal/player/player.go
+++ b/internal/player/player.go
@@ -212,14 +212,17 @@ func (p *Player) Command(args ...any) (map[string]any, error) {
 	return nil, fmt.Errorf("no reply from mpv ipc")
 }
 
-// Healthy probes mpv over IPC and reports whether it is actively playing (has
-// a finite time position advancing). A false result signals the daemon to
-// consider restarting the slot even if the process is still alive (frozen).
+// Healthy probes mpv over IPC and reports whether it is responsive. It queries
+// a property that always exists (mpv-version) rather than time-pos, because a
+// live stream with caching disabled can legitimately report time-pos as
+// unavailable while playing fine — using it here caused false "unhealthy"
+// verdicts and needless restarts. A false result now means mpv's IPC didn't
+// answer at all, i.e. the process is genuinely hung.
 func (p *Player) Healthy() bool {
 	if !p.Running() {
 		return false
 	}
-	reply, err := p.Command("get_property", "time-pos")
+	reply, err := p.Command("get_property", "mpv-version")
 	if err != nil {
 		return false
 	}