Non-DVR application providing DVR playback

[naanlizard]

As discussed elsewhere, when in the background and muted, chrome will pause a stream. This is bad for viewers, as they fall behind.

One of our attempted fixes/workarounds was to create a separate application in OME that doesn't provide DVR, so in theory shouldn't be able to fall behind.

Here's our Server.xml

To reproduce the thing I'm talking about, start OME and forward the same stream to both applications. Play the stream from the nodvr application via llhls, and then put the stream in a background tab while muted. Come back in a few minutes and see that the stream is playing content from when you tabbed out, making requests to the server like everything is normal, and the server giving ten minute old content with no trouble.

I'm unsure if this is intended behavior or a bug, can you please assist @getroot? (Apologies, I do not know if you all get notifications for new discussions)

[bchah]

I use a client-side workaround for a different issue that might be useful here. Set up a "visibilitychange" listener in JavaScript to detect when the user tabs away or backgrounds the window - when they change back, reload the live source in the player or use seek API if you are using OvenPlayer to skip forward to now. This solved a headache where playback in Safari goes out of sync if you tab away then back.

[getroot]

When hls.js is playing HLS, even if the user clicks pause, the player continues to download new segments and buffers them. (OvenMediaEngine does not give the player the old segment. It has already been deleted from memory.) I think this is natural. I think many users expect to continue watching the live broadcast when they pause and then resume. So I think that hls.js is doing this by default. If you want the user to always see the most up-to-date stream, it would be better to receive an event and seek to the latest point, as bcah suggested. Alternatively, it would be nice to see if there is such a thing among the options of hls.js. Let's take a look at the options of hls.js. @SangwonOh

[getroot]

[getroot]

Even in the paused state, hls.js continues to download and buffer the latest segments. And when it resumes, it starts playing again from the paused position.

[naanlizard]

But the requests appeared in the browser console AFTER I tab back in, and it is playing old stream content. I would expect the requests to occur while it was NOT focused, that is what is confusing me.

[getroot]

I thought the player paused when the tab went to the background and resumed when it came back to the foreground. isn't this?

[naanlizard]

Yes the player pauses in the background. When you go back to the tab, it resumes from the point when you tab away (in the past DVR content). The player continues requesting segments and playing the old content.

But I realize maybe it then is requesting the newest segments, not old segments. I'm not sure how I could test this. I think you're right though, that this is hls buffering things in the background.

[naanlizard]

I'll close the discussion, I think I was incorrect and it was just buffering that was happening.

When unfocused we just unpause the stream now, and that works though is inefficient. We'll keep working to see if we can improve that.