HTTP Live streaming support. (.m3u8)

[SuperLAVA]

When trying to open *.m3u8 file (HTTP Live play list) it plays it only once, though it looks like playing properly, I do not notice gaps or pauses between segments.

Problem: It plays the list only once. In HTTP Live it has to be refreshed after each segment played.

Solution: I think it is pretty easy to add "auto refresh live playlist" option to allow for continuous uninterrupted live playback of those streams.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is already supported

[SuperLAVA]

Jean-Baptiste,

Please pardon my laziness to research further and explain clearer:
You are absolutely correct that it does play HTTPLive (when used from main interface). I guess I have to move this thread to Windows troubleshooting? (I'm not sure how to do it in this forum.)

Experimenting further, on all of my PCs, I've found that only when URL entered or pasted directly into the player interface it plays indefinitely, the way it should. The problem appeared when .m3u8 opened through file association in Firefox or IE. In Playlist, instead of single item (like when URL entered directly into player), there is a list of segments, sometime looks like randomly aggregated from different times from same m3u8. Then VLC plays each of them once and stops, sometime for some reason falling into background process while consuming significant amount of CPU resources without actually doing anything (I'm guessing untimed short loop somewhere in playlist controller software? I don't see such behavior when operated through player interface).

Because VLC behaving the same with both browsers I'm further guessing that there is mismatch between the way windows forms command for associated applications and the way VLC expecting this command line to be.

Probably my correct request should be to make sure VLC can handle m3u8 associated commands properly when executed from IE or Firefox (and possibly other applications as well).


Best regards and respect for your great work!

[SuperLAVA]

Replying to myself, root cause found. Maybe there is a way to handle it better?

Experimenting even more I came to suspicion that problem I see is not due to command line for associated application, but the way m3u8 handled:

When clicking on the link in page made for Safari or iOS, Windows browser trying to open m3U8, it passes to associate application not the URL to m3u8 but the file itself without original address to this URL. Therefore it is parsed by playlist manager and broken into segments and played only once as any other playlist.

My short term fix would be to replace m3u8 files with m3u playlists with m3u8 link inside (already tested, works). Pretty convoluted. It solves problem for my own pages. Does not solve it for sites not owned by me.

Is it possible to somehow associate straight HTTP Live steaming links with VLC to be opened properly in Firefox or IE?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Then issue is your browser setting, to be honest.

[ddejager]

I am having the same problem. I agree that it is a browser issue. It is happening on Windows 7 for both Chrome and IE. Does anyone know how to "fix" the browsers so they pass the m3u8 URL to VLC instead of downloading the m3u8 and then passing the downloaded file to VLC?