hls: Choppy stream, no buffering message, plays fine in web browsers and VLC
Hello all,
the issue was initially reported against Goodvibes, an internet radio player that I maintain, at https://gitlab.com/goodvibes/goodvibes/-/issues/145.
This is an issue with a particular HLS stream that doesn't play right with GStreamer. The sound is choppy every few seconds. The stream is at https://hls-01-radiorecord.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/playlist.m3u8.
Details about the stream
My command for testing is:
gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri='https://hls-01-radiorecord.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/playlist.m3u8'
I tested in the following environments:
- Debian unstable (gstreamer
1.20.0-1
) -> sound is choppy - Flatpak fdo runtime
21.08.10
(gstreamer1.18.5
) -> no audio at all - Flatpak fdo runtime in which I built gstreamer from main branch -> sound is choppy
Here's what the playlist looks like:
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:6
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:5
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:3427745
#EXTINF:4.99229,
https://hls-07-storage.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/out3427745.ts
#EXTINF:4.99229,
https://hls-07-storage.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/out3427746.ts
#EXTINF:4.99229,
https://hls-07-storage.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/out3427747.ts
#EXTINF:4.99229,
https://hls-07-storage.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/out3427748.ts
#EXTINF:4.99229,
https://hls-07-storage.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/out3427749.ts
#EXTINF:4.99229,
https://hls-07-storage.hostingradio.ru/record-brks/96/out3427750.ts
I'm not sure what to do with that, I know little about HLS. But here's what I noticed:
- the value for
EXT-X-TARGETDURATION
is different from the value forEXTINF
. But after a very quick search, it seems that it shouldn't be a problem. - wondering about
EXT-X-VERSION:6
, refered as "CLOSED-CAPTIONS media type". TBH I don't really know what that means.
Outside of GStreamer
The website to listen to this stream is https://www.radiorecord.ru/station/brks. From there, one can listen to the stream from the web browser. I tried both Firefox 96 and Chromium 98, and the stream plays fine for me.
I also tried to play this stream with VLC (just picked the latest VLC from Flatpak), and the stream plays just fine.
More details of interest
Something interesting is that gstreamer doesn't generate buffering messages for this stream. This is the first time I see that. So far, for all the HLS streams I've played, gstreamer always generates buffering messages.
@philn tried to play this stream (cf. gst-plugins-bad#1703 (comment 1265569)) and it plays fine for him... Maybe it depends on how good is the network connectivity?
I anyone else wanted to give a try to this stream, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!