[BUG]: [IOS] HLS Live time incorrect, difficulty to get Live time.

[guyhguy25]

Version

6.10.0

What platforms are you having the problem on?

iOS

System Version

18.2

On what device are you experiencing the issue?

Real device

Architecture

Old architecture

What happened?

I did some testing around and found out that on iOS it's not easy to get the live timing of the HLS video.

onProgress giving us those values:

1. currentTime
2. playableDuration
3. seekableDuration

on Android(ExoPlayer) when streaming live HLS video, the currentTime will buffer around the seekableDuration
fe:
seekableDuration: 3600(1hr)
currentTime: 3590 -> 3591 -> 3592 -> 3593 -> 3594 -> 3595 -> 3590

so when trying to calculate the user position on Android this is what we do:
currentTime / seekableDuration to get the "currentOffsetFromLive"

on iOS, however, the formula would not work, as the currentTime scale is infinite.
fe:
seekableDuration: 3600(1hr)
currentTime: 3595 -> 3596 -> 3597 -> 3598 -> 3599 -> 3600 -> 3601 -> and so on till video restarted.

you can look at that this way:

|------------------------------------------------------------|
0-----------------------------------------------------------Live

5 min later: (the 5 min becomes the 0 position)

|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
0---------5 min-------------------------------Old Live(5min)---Live

If I seek to 0, the AVPlayer will reseek me to 5 minutes, so it is like 5 minutes of the seek bar is not reachable.
and when I try to reach the current Live after 5 minutes,
I will be at: "Old Live" not the new one which is 3600 + 300(5 min)

(I tried a few tricks like: updating the duration each time inside onProgress by 0.250 as the progressUpdateInterval is, but then we need to find a solution to lose a second at the start of the stream, cause the way it works the start of the video is keep increasing as well by default)

It has a solution, but it requires using the epoch value, currentPlaybackTime and always getting a new date to know what time is now and what time the video is, and then doing a calculation to find the currentOffsetFromLive.

that's one problem, the second one is getting back to Live.
if you take AVplayer without anything, only controls, and stream live HLS, you will see after a few minutes played if you try using the seek bar to get back to live, it is not possible (it will take you to the live time when you start watching the live) and the only way is by clicking: "Jump to Live" by AVplayer controls.

I think I found a solution for the second one, I need to test it. If it works I may pull request it.

Reproduction Link

https://github.com/guyhguy25/hls-video-test

Reproduction

Step to reproduce this bug are:
just stream a HLS live video, you will see it in onProgress

[github-actions]

Previous bot comment (click to expand)

Thank you for your bug report. We will review it and get back to you if we need more information.

[github-actions]

Previous bot comment (click to expand)

Thank you for your bug report. We will review it and get back to you if we need more information.

There is a newer version of the library available. You are using version 6.10.0, while the latest stable version is 6.10.1. Please update to the latest version and check if the issue still exists.

Note: If the issue still exists, please update the issue report with the latest information.

[github-actions]

Thank you for your bug report. We will review it and get back to you if we need more information.

There is a newer version of the library available. You are using version 6.10.0, while the latest stable version is 6.10.1. Please update to the latest version and check if the issue still exists.

Note: If the issue still exists, please update the issue report with the latest information.

[venBharathManjunath]

Hi @guyhguy25

I am facing your second issue in version 6.4.5, Could you please share the solution for this if you are able to crack it.

If I use seek(endTime + some buffer say 20 ) first time jumping to live position works but next time onwards it will always jumps to the not real time live but instead to first time live jump position.

[guyhguy25]

I am facing your second issue in version 6.4.5, Could you please share the solution for this if you are able to crack it.

If I use seek(endTime + some buffer say 20 ) first time jumping to live position works but next time onwards it will always jumps to the not real time live but instead to first time live jump position.

you can check this:
my fork of this library
the diff
I added currentOffsetFromLive & currentLiveTimestamp props, try something like this:

const jumpToLive = useCallback(() => { player.seek(player.currentTime + player.currentOffsetFromLive - 20) }, [player]);
you can create a button to seek(currentTime + (currentOffsetFromLive - bufferTime)), should always bring you to live.

NOTE: It has not been tested, I will create a PR for it after I test it.

[venBharathManjunath]

@guyhguy25 @freeboub I tried this solution but due to missing EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME I am not able to get the currentOffsetFromLive and currentLiveTimestamp.

My follow up question would be, The player.seek("someplayerpositionfrom0to7188") was working fine in react-native-video 6.0.0.aplha-7 version. Did the approach changed in 6.4.5 how seek works ?

Because now when I seek to the Live Position, The frame jump to old live position when the player was opened. It feels the player is holding the segment in cache and not refreshing it.

Could you please suggest any other options I could try further.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open for 30 days with no activity. If there won't be any activity in the next 14 days, this issue will be closed automatically.