mpv-player / mpv-player/mpv

M3U Video playback freezes when served stream changes

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#11,932 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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os:win
Dominant language
C
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Description

Important Information

Provide following Information:

  • mpv version: mpv-x86_64-v3-20230709-git-ab30028
  • Windows Version: Windows 11, 22H2 (Build 22621.1928)
  • Source of the mpv binary: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpv-player-windows/files
  • If known which version of mpv introduced the problem: Unknown
  • Possible screenshot or video of visual glitches

If you're not using git master or the latest release, update.
Releases are listed here: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/releases

Reproduction steps

Open an M3U with video streams listed therein.
For many broadcast video streams, during the "commercial brake" the video stream is interrupted and a placeholder video is played.
When the video stream gets interrupted by the placeholder video, MPV stops playing back video, though audio continues into the new stream, the last frame of the previous chunk stays on screen. This can be fixed by changing to a different stream in the playlist and back again, however when the placeholder video ends and the main video resumes, the same thing happens.

Attached is a demo M3U file that reproduces this issue (if on windows, please rename the extension to .m3u). The streams may be Geo-Locked to US/Canada.
Playing the second stream in the playlist, once a commercial brake hits, instead of seeing the "plutotv" logo, the stream stops entirely, or sometimes audio will continue, but the video will freeze. Changing streams and back again will temporally fix the issue, until the show resumes, in which case the video will freeze again, as before.
demo.m3u.txt

Expected behavior

Video to continue playing when a different segment starts.

Actual behavior

Video freezes, sometimes audio will continue from the next segment, sometimes not.

Stream will need to be restarted to resume.

Log file

output.txt

Sample files

demo.m3u.txt

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the freeze with the attached demo.m3u.txt playlist and inspect output.txt while the stream changes during a commercial break. Done means video continues playing when the stream switches to the placeholder and back, without requiring a manual stream restart.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
audio-video-rtc
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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