"Infinite spinner" for live content (currentTime ouside of buffered start)

[martinstark]

Have you read the FAQ and checked for duplicate open issues?
Yes

What version of Shaka Player are you using?
3.1.1

Can you reproduce the issue with our latest release version?
N/A

Can you reproduce the issue with the latest code from master?
Not tested (yet) due to time constraints

Are you using the demo app or your own custom app?
Both.

If custom app, can you reproduce the issue using our demo app?
Yes

What browser and OS are you using?
Linux, Mac, Windows, Firefox, Chrome

What are the manifest and license server URIs?
Sent via email.

What configuration are you using? What is the output of player.getConfiguration()?

Full config (minus keySystems, since test stream is drm free)

{
  "drm": {
    "retryParameters": {
      "maxAttempts": 4,
      "baseDelay": 1000,
      "backoffFactor": 2,
      "fuzzFactor": 0.5,
      "timeout": 30000,
      "stallTimeout": 12000,
      "connectionTimeout": 5000
    },
    "servers": {},
    "clearKeys": {},
    "advanced": {},
    "delayLicenseRequestUntilPlayed": false,
    "logLicenseExchange": false,
    "updateExpirationTime": 1
  },
  "manifest": {
    "retryParameters": {
      "maxAttempts": 4,
      "baseDelay": 1000,
      "backoffFactor": 2,
      "fuzzFactor": 0.5,
      "timeout": 30000,
      "stallTimeout": 12000,
      "connectionTimeout": 12000
    },
    "availabilityWindowOverride": null,
    "disableAudio": false,
    "disableVideo": false,
    "disableText": false,
    "disableThumbnails": false,
    "defaultPresentationDelay": 0,
    "dash": {
      "clockSyncUri": "https://time.akamai.com/?iso",
      "ignoreDrmInfo": false,
      "disableXlinkProcessing": false,
      "xlinkFailGracefully": false,
      "ignoreMinBufferTime": true,
      "autoCorrectDrift": true,
      "initialSegmentLimit": 1000,
      "ignoreSuggestedPresentationDelay": false,
      "ignoreEmptyAdaptationSet": false,
      "ignoreMaxSegmentDuration": false,
    },
    "hls": {
      "ignoreTextStreamFailures": false,
      "useFullSegmentsForStartTime": false
    }
  },
  "streaming": {
    "retryParameters": {
      "maxAttempts": 4,
      "baseDelay": 1000,
      "backoffFactor": 2,
      "fuzzFactor": 0.5,
      "timeout": 30000,
      "stallTimeout": 12000,
      "connectionTimeout": 12000
    },
    "rebufferingGoal": 4,
    "bufferingGoal": 60,
    "bufferBehind": 30,
    "ignoreTextStreamFailures": true,
    "alwaysStreamText": true,
    "startAtSegmentBoundary": false,
    "gapDetectionThreshold": 0.1,
    "smallGapLimit": 0.5,
    "jumpLargeGaps": true,
    "durationBackoff": 1,
    "forceTransmuxTS": false,
    "safeSeekOffset": 5,
    "stallEnabled": true,
    "stallThreshold": 1,
    "stallSkip": 0.1,
    "useNativeHlsOnSafari": true,
    "inaccurateManifestTolerance": 2,
    "lowLatencyMode": false,
    "autoLowLatencyMode": false,
    "forceHTTPS": false,
    "preferNativeHls": false
  },
  "offline": {
    "usePersistentLicense": true
  },
  "abr": {
    "enabled": true,
    "useNetworkInformation": true,
    "defaultBandwidthEstimate": 1000000,
    "switchInterval": 2,
    "bandwidthUpgradeTarget": 0.75,
    "bandwidthDowngradeTarget": 0.85,
    "restrictions": {
      "minWidth": 0,
      "maxWidth": null,
      "minHeight": 0,
      "maxHeight": null,
      "minPixels": 0,
      "maxPixels": null,
      "minFrameRate": 0,
      "maxFrameRate": null,
      "minBandwidth": 0,
      "maxBandwidth": null
    }
  },
  "preferredAudioLanguage": "sv",
  "preferredTextLanguage": "",
  "preferredVariantRole": "",
  "preferredTextRole": "",
  "preferredAudioChannelCount": 2,
  "preferForcedSubs": false,
  "restrictions": {
    "minWidth": 0,
    "maxWidth": null,
    "minHeight": 0,
    "maxHeight": null,
    "minPixels": 0,
    "maxPixels": null,
    "minFrameRate": 0,
    "maxFrameRate": null,
    "minBandwidth": 0,
    "maxBandwidth": null
  },
  "playRangeStart": 0,
  "playRangeEnd": null,
  "useMediaCapabilities": false
}

What did you do?

1. Configure shaka with retries for manifests
2. Use autoplay
3. Play a live HLS stream where the first few manifest requests will fail

retryParameters: {
  timeout: 30000,
  stallTimeout: 12000,
  connectionTimeout: 12000,
  maxAttempts: 4,
  baseDelay: 1000,
  backoffFactor: 2,
  fuzzFactor: 0.5,
}

We discovered this when testing HLS streams that do not support range headers, causing CORS failures on the first few requests. With retry parameters set for manifest requests, this results in shaka getting stuck in a state where the stream never starts playing.

Without retry parameters set, the failed range attemps happen fast enough for the stream to work as intended.

We can fix this particular case by setting useFullSegmentsForStartTime: true which prevents the range requests from occurring, but I believe the root issue still persists in case the manifest fetch would fail for some other reason (e.g. a temporary network error), combined with retries.

What did you expect to happen?
The live stream starts playing.

What actually happened?
The live stream does not start playing.

Player is stuck with an infinite spinner, with currentTime always just outside of buffered start:

Modifying video.currentTime will make the stream start playing.

Pressing pause/play triggers a jump large enough to make the stream start playing.

[theodab]

Reproduced. Thanks for the report, we'll look into it.

[TheModMaker]

This looks like a duplicate of #3089, can you try again with the latest release?

[avelad]

Can you test with v4.3.3? Thanks!

[github-actions]

Closing due to inactivity. If this is still an issue for you or if you have further questions, the OP can ask shaka-bot to reopen it by including @shaka-bot reopen in a comment.