Annoying HLS Playback Problem On Windows But Not iOS

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Hello All,

I am getting up to speed with CloudFront and S3 for VOD. I have used the CloudFormation template. Uploaded an MP4, obtained the Key for the m3u8 file. I create a distribution in CF. I embed it in my webpage. For the most part, it works great. But there is a significantly long buffering event during the first few seconds.

This problem does not exist when I play the video on my iOS device. And strangely, it does not happen when I play it in Akami's HLS tester on my Windows 11 PC using Chrome. The problem seems to only occur when I play it from my website, using any browser, on my Windows 11 PC.

Steps I take to provoke the issue:

Open an Incognito tab in Chrome / navigate to my website, my player is set to auto play so it auto plays / the video starts out a bit fuzzy, it then stops for a second / restarts with great resolution / and stays that way until the endo f the video. If I play again, no problems at all, but that is to be expected. I assume there is a local cache.

Steps I have tried to fix / clues:

I have tried different segment lengths via modifying the Lambda function created when the stack was formed by the template. The default was 5. At that setting, the fuzzy aspect lasted the longest but the buffer event seemed slightly shorter. At 1 and 2, the fuzzy is far shorter but the buffering event is notably longer.

One thought, could this be related to the video player I am using? I wanted to use the AWS IVS but could not get it working the first go around so I tried the amazon-ivs-videojs. That worked immediately, except for the buffer issue. And as the buffer issue seems to go away when I test the distribution via the Akami HLS tester.

As always, much appreciation for reading this question and any time spent pondering on it.

  • Hello,

    Curious to get some additional details from you.

    Does the browser's developer tools show you anything of value that might help diagnose the issue (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/open)? If this were a support case I'd ask for a HAR file (https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/support-case-browser-har-file/) to review what is going on while your site loads and starts playing. Of course the HAR file would have to have any sensitive information removed for security reasons.

    I've reached out to a few colleagues here at AWS for anyone with experience in the player's behavior as described. I'll post anything I find and if you can provided additional details on what may be found in the developer tools, I'd appreciate it .

    Thanks!

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