Bug 198377 – [GStreamer] HLS stream slow start

• Component: WebKitGTK
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Alberto Garcia]

There was regression in WebKitGTK 2.24.1 that prevented the user from
playing certain kinds of internet radios. This was filed as bug 197410
and fixed.

It seems that even after the fix the playback of those streams is much
slower than in WebKitGTK 2.24.0.

Here are the steps (as reported by a Debian user):

             ---------------------------------------------------
1) Go to http://radio.dos.nl/
2) Go to settings (drop down in right top corner)
3) Click "Choose protocol" until it shows HLS
4) Click on arrow (back to radio)
5) Click on "Page menu" (bottom left corner) and choose "news"
6) switch between the BBC stations (they're all HLS)

(check the Info button on the left top corner, at the bottom of the
info page there is the protocol that is used, it should show "HLS")

2.24.0 takes only tenths of a second (switches almost immediately),
2.24.1/2.24.2 takes several seconds. This is an issue that shows up with HLS
stations. 2.24.0 switches much faster anyway.
             ---------------------------------------------------

In addition to that there's also this problem, reported by the same
user:

             ---------------------------------------------------
switching too fast between two HLS stations (e.g. 5 Live and BBC
Worldservice) makes the whole beast hang.  No way anymore to switch
between stations. Note: I use a Debian unmodified version of the
"surf" webbrowser to play these stations. I need to stop "surf" in
order to make it work again.
             ---------------------------------------------------

There's another regression that I filed as bug 198376 which might be
related to this one. I chose to file them as separate bugs for the
time being.

Original Debian bug report: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=929749

[Philippe Normand]

(In reply to Alberto Garcia from comment #0)

[...]
> 
> 2.24.0 takes only tenths of a second (switches almost immediately),
> 2.24.1/2.24.2 takes several seconds. This is an issue that shows up with HLS
> stations. 2.24.0 switches much faster anyway.

I have a potential patch for this, will attach it here.

>              ---------------------------------------------------
> switching too fast between two HLS stations (e.g. 5 Live and BBC
> Worldservice) makes the whole beast hang.  No way anymore to switch
> between stations. Note: I use a Debian unmodified version of the
> "surf" webbrowser to play these stations. I need to stop "surf" in
> order to make it work again.

This is https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=197558

> 
> There's another regression that I filed as bug 198376 which might be
> related to this one. I chose to file them as separate bugs for the
> time being.
> 

I'll have a look.

[Philippe Normand]

Created attachment 371949 [details]
Patch

[Xabier Rodríguez Calvar]

Phil, I think it would make sense to write a quick test for this, don't you think?

[Philippe Normand]

A test measuring start-up time? How?

[Philippe Normand]

Committed r246399: <https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/246399>