Roku Developer Program

[ionatan]

Hi,

We noticed a strange behavior with HLS Live stream after a broadcasted stream ends.

The m3u8 playlist is still available for 30-60 seconds after broadcast ends so users which are watching it with a delay can watch the last few segments.

What Roku Video player does is that after playback of the stream ends it replays the last segments from the m3u8. So the player reach to the end of the stream, then it starts to play again the segments which already played. 

We tried to set playStart to a high value, but that doesn't help.

Is there a way to avoid this behavior? Web players are able to handle this properly, but not Roku.

Content of m3u8 playlist looks like this:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:6
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:6
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:95
#EXT-X-INDEPENDENT-SEGMENTS
#EXTINF:6.000000,
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2024-06-18T10:42:34.894+0000
seg6000-qsid577-media0-140869983-00095.ts
#EXTINF:6.000000,
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2024-06-18T10:42:40.894+0000
seg6000-qsid577-media0-140869983-00096.ts
#EXTINF:6.000000,
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2024-06-18T10:42:46.894+0000
seg6000-qsid577-media0-140869983-00097.ts
#EXTINF:6.000000,
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2024-06-18T10:42:52.894+0000
seg6000-qsid577-media0-140869983-00098.ts
#EXTINF:3.960000,
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2024-06-18T10:42:58.894+0000
seg6000-qsid577-media0-140869983-00099.ts

[renojim · Accepted solution]

Can you add a #EXT-X-ENDLIST tag to the end of the m3u8 playlist?

[ionatan]

We will try to add #EXT-X-ENDLIST tag to find out if that change the way how Roku video player handles the stream.

[ionatan]

#EXT-X-ENDLIST tag fixed this behavior. Thanks!