Forum Discussion

tim_beynart's avatar
tim_beynart
Channel Surfer
8 years ago

Paused HLS Live Stream Resumes Without Interaction

I have a "bug" with Live HLS content.
If I pause the stream, it will resume automatically after ~5 minutes. 
If I click pause again, it will not pause the stream.
If I restart the stream (return to live), I can again pause for ~5 minutes before it resumes by itself.

I assume this is the expected behavior with a 5 min sliding window. But I am told this behavior is unacceptable, and video should not resume until a user clicks PLAY. 
What is the expected behavior with a live stream?

This is happening on 7.7 and 8.0 firmware across devices (old stick, 3, 4, premiere+)
Roku Developer Program

10 Replies

  • renojim's avatar
    renojim
    Community Streaming Expert
    8 years ago
    To be honest, that's what I would expect to happen. Once the box's RAM fills up it pretty much has to either start playing or start throwing away new segments. Most live streams I've analyzed only save a small number of segments on the server and only list a small number of segments in the playlist, so in general a player can't pause a live stream forever.

    -JT
  • tim_beynart's avatar
    tim_beynart
    Channel Surfer
    8 years ago
    Yeah I can watch the segments stop downloading in Charles and then the stream resumes. I am now faced with trying to explain this to people who don't want to hear it.  Smiley LOL
  • tim_beynart's avatar
    tim_beynart
    Channel Surfer
    8 years ago
    Still not convinced this is the expected behavior. iOS will remain paused indefinitely, then resume at the live point if the DVR window has passed.
  • tim_beynart's avatar
    tim_beynart
    Channel Surfer
    8 years ago
    FTI, I got a response from Roku. This is, in fact, the intended behavior. When your paused time reaches the limit of the DVR window, the stream will resume.
  • nathanjosiah's avatar
    nathanjosiah
    Visitor
    8 years ago
    I would say that regardless of whether it should begin playing automatically, I should be able to pause it again once it does. Currently, as mentioned above, pause is broken if the video auto-resumes.
  • renojim's avatar
    renojim
    Community Streaming Expert
    8 years ago
    You can't pause it again because once it auto-resumes the memory (DVR window) is full. It can't empty at all because as it's playing it's still filling, thus remaining full. If you fast-forward a bit (therefore freeing up some memory), can you then pause after it has auto-resumed?

    -JT
  • tim_beynart's avatar
    tim_beynart
    Channel Surfer
    8 years ago
    Yes, you can pause again once you fast forward ahead of the end of the window.
  • nathanjosiah's avatar
    nathanjosiah
    Visitor
    8 years ago
    This behavior is very strange. I haven't seen this behavior in any other live player we've used. That includes JWPlayer, OSMF, ThePlatform's player, BitMovin, Wowza, Strobe Media Player, and AppleTV. This is true for both DVR and non-DVR streams.

    Our users (and myself) see this as a bug. The behavior in all of the other players is to only buffer a certain amount when paused, and when resumed, start at the earliest available buffered live content OR at the live playhead if paused for too long.