[QA] Play m3u8 playlist working from app but not from browser

[manias21]

Question

m3u8 and ts:
-You probably came to the same test, in version dsm6.1, with VideoStation.spk.
-create a file with the extension .ts and add the example:
example.txt

-It indexes it and then with the videostation app you can play it, with the web I never managed to do it, but with the app I can.

-The question..... I can't get close to solving the dsm7, it does index it, yes, but it doesn't understand the file because the time of the file is always 0:00:00,
when it detects it in the dsm6 it is -1:00:00, so... do you have any ideas?

maybe it has something to do with it?... -protocol_whitelist file,tcp,http

By the way, I like your project

[AlexPresso]

Hello,
I'm not sure to understand the issue, you're trying to play a m3u8 file from VideoStation ?

My understanding is:

• you put the m3u8 file in the VideoStation's movie directory.
• VideoStation is able to index de video
• You can play the video using the app but not from the web browser

Is it correct ?

[manias21]

yes.

[AlexPresso]

Okay, so this is normal behaviour.

VideoStation is not made to read m3u8 files, it could be able to do it because it's using ffmpeg as a backend but VideoStation by itself is designed to "produce" m3u8 playlists, not "consume" them.

The reason you can read these files using the DSVideo app, is because in some cases (you are in one of these cases), no transcoding occurs on the NAS itself. The movie file (in your case m3u8 playlist) is directly sent to the TV and the "consuming" part (transcoding if necessary) happens on the TV.

The ffmpeg on the TV is able to read m3u8 files, that's why you can read it.
You can have more infos about VideoStation's worflow here: #88 (comment)

To summarize: when using from the browser, VideoStation is just generating parameters to be used by ffmpeg to transcode a movie file (this transcoding is actually generating a m3u8 file), that's why it won't work in your case. I think VideoStation is not designed to read m3u8 files.

[AlexPresso]

But still, if you are using a patched version of VideoStation, you can follow the following steps to generate a issue report, so I can have a look if we can do something about it or if it's pure VideoStation limitation:

• Start the video on VideoStation, wait for the video to play and put the browser in background (keep the video playing)
• Connect through SSH (help)
• Switch to root user: sudo -i
• Run the report tool: curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AlexPresso/VideoStation-FFMPEG-Patcher/main/issue-report.sh | bash
• Copy-paste the output to a new gist and put the link here

[manias21]

I agree, all your words make sense.
The use that is processed in version 2.3.2 is formed in this way.
It is the external player used in the dsvideo app that obtains the link and processes it, but somehow in order to achieve this it has to understand the video and be able to provide service, that is why it is shown as in the image in version 2.3. 2

video duration image

[manias21]

In all other versions in dsm7.x I have not succeeded.
I thought it could be because of the gstreamer, how can I force a test?

[AlexPresso]

Please send me a issue report, it will contain any error when the player tries to play the file: #97 (comment)

It may give us some clues to play with

[manias21]

can it through the... gstreamer?

dsm6
Patch Details......................................
Is patched ? no
Has gstreamer ? yes

dsm7
Patch Details......................................
Is patched ? yes
Has gstreamer ? no

dsm6.txt
dsm7.txt

[AlexPresso]

For DSM 6:
It seems that you're not using the patch, please patch your VideoStation version before playing the file and running the issue-report tool again.

For DSM 7:
It seems that no error files were generated by the wrapper, did you play the video before running the issue-report tool ?

[manias21]

I process a backup of dsm6 and I will apply your patch so I can see more.
In the dsm7, an error is not generated when playing, because it does not allow it, it does not identify it with video duration, that is, it is not indexed and it does not allow it to be played with the app.
I'll show you another log from when it tries to index the file.
dsm7-log2.txt

[AlexPresso]

For DSM7, in this situation, either VideoStation's app has an issue or your m3u8 file is incorrect, but it seems not related to the patch

But as far as I know, there's no timecode or duration metadata in an m3u8 playlist, the slices are just played in the top bottom order

[AlexPresso]

Sorry, I can't do anything for this issue as it's not related to the patch itself, it seems to be a difference with the new version of VideoStation.

What you could do is try to convert your m3u8 playlist file to a single mp4 file, after that everything should work fine

[Kissycat]

Sorry, I can't do anything for this issue as it's not related to the patch itself, it seems to be a difference with the new version of VideoStation.

It seems a http hls stream in a https access like this, and it can not solved by nginx return 302 or 301.

[AlexPresso]

In this case it looks like a misconfiguration with your NAS networking / ports / certificates

[Kissycat]

In this case it looks like a misconfiguration with your NAS networking / ports / certificates

Yes, it is, caused by nginx ssl out of dsm, then I need not place cert files into dsm.
And anyway, there is nothing else with this issue, but the hls stream, I can not find the source problem, so I finally put the cert files in..