Startover Window not working as hoped

Question

Hi there,  
  
We are attempting to stream Elemental Link -> MediaLive -> MediaPackage -> Cloudfront -> Theo Player  
  
This works fine on a link like this: https://xxxx.cloudfront.net/out/v1/xxxx/index.m3u8  
  
However when we add the start time we get a 404 error: https://xxxx.cloudfront.net/out/v1/xxxx/index.m3u8?start=2020-08-20T12:40:00+00:00  
  
The startover window in Mediapackage is set to 7200 (2 hours) as the client would like viewers to be able to scroll back to the beginning of the stream for a limited time after the broadcast is finished.  
  
Any help much appreciated!

Accepted Answer

Hi,  
  
One of the common error for Live-to-VOD not working is that the Program-Date-Time in the HLS source doesn't match with the UTC time. This would affect MediaPackage to extract the correct content. Here is my suggestion for the initial troubleshoot.   
  
1. Enable Program-Date-Time in the output and check that it is UTC time.  
2. If it is not UTC time, this means that encoder is not sending the correct time. Please check your encoder setting and make sure it outputs UTC time.   
  
Sam

Answer

Hi Rich,  
  
1) I am referring the the EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME tag in HLS mainfest to indicate the date and time. Following is an example.  
  
#EXTM3U  
#EXT-X-VERSION:3  
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:4  
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:1  
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2017-11-01T22:05:37.000Z  
#EXTINF:3.84000,  
p1_00001.ts  
#EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME:2017-11-01T22:05:40.840Z  
#EXTINF:3.84000,  
p1_00002.ts  
  
Changing the Timecode Configuration to "SYSTEMCLOCK" in EML will present the UTC to the EMP which would fix the harvest issue.   
  
2. If your output group is MediaPackage, we will output EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME by default. Setting "picTimingSei" is not necessary.  
If your output group is HLS, you have to enable EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME in the setting. "MANIFEST AND SEGMENTS" > "PROGRAM DATE TIME" > Set to INCLUDE > set "PROGRAM DATE TIME PERIOD" same as your segment length.  
  
3. We don't support embed the timecode into the video. You may have to add the timecode from your source.   
  
Thanks,  
Sam

Answer

Hi Sam - that was it, thanks so much for your help.  
  
A few further questions for you:  
  
1. When you say enable Program-Date-Time what exactly do you mean? I fixed the issue by setting the Timecode Configuration to "SYSTEMCLOCK". Is this separate to what you meant?  
  
2. For this to work do you also need to passthrough timecode to the individual output groups using "picTimingSei" or is this not necessary?  
  
3. Is there a way to embed timecode onto an output stream visually to check it on a video using medialive?  
  
Many thanks,  
  
Rich

Startover Window not working as hoped

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