Long loading time if HLS playlist is very long

App & System Services Core OS
Torge OP
Created
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Participants 2

We want to support a long history on live channels, so we have a very long playlist with over 1000 chunks.

Most players we test have no issues with it, but the iOS player as well as Apple TV (airplay) take a very long time to start.

I wonder why, and if we are missing something.

Here is the playlist:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:67707249
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2023-02-22T13:28:21.658Z
#EXT-X-INDEPENDENT-SEGMENTS
#EXT-X-START:TIME-OFFSET=-15
#EXTINF:10.000,
#EXT-X-KEY:METHOD=AES-128,URI="/index.php?censored"
https://cdn012.censored.com/streams/6791/67707249.ts
#EXTINF:10.000,
#EXT-X-KEY:METHOD=AES-128,URI="/index.php?censored"
https://cdn012.censored.com/streams/6791/67707250.ts
#EXTINF:10.000,
#EXT-X-KEY:METHOD=AES-128,URI="/index.php?censored"
https://cdn012.censored.com/streams/6791/67707251.ts
#EXTINF:10.000,
... 1080 entries

Again, if we reduce this to 5 entries, all is fine and quick. Other players (VLC, Android, MPV, OpenPlayer(hls.js)) have no issues.

Replies  3
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Views  1.3k
Participants  2
Media Engineer OP
Apple

I would suggest sending a a bug about your long start up time. It may be there is something else going on, since I don't know what your multivariant playlist looks like, nor what other media playlist may be involved.

One thing I will note is the repetition of the EXT-X-KEYs. If the part you've censored is different between each KEY then that could be the problem. If the KEYs are actually identical then it is just wasteful, but I don't think it is that expensive to handle the repetitions.
Torge OP

Thank you. Would you mind giving me a pointer to where to report the bug report to?

About the keys. They can theoretically change per chunk, but often only do so every few. I will test if this has any impact, but I don't see how, as I do not see any keys being downloaded in the time when the player stalls, and as said, other players don't have an issue with it.

Media Engineer OP
Apple

Bug report - https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/