Incorrect duration value when streaming VOD via HLS to ipad/ipod

[jay_charles]

I'm finding that when streaming a video file to iDevices via HLS and using a <video> object on the client to display, I'm getting an incorrect value for the duration.

For example, a file with a true duration of 60.4604568481445 seconds is reported as having a duration of 61 seconds. As a result, the event handler for the video object's ended event is never fired.

Is this a Wowza issue (i.e, is Wowza rounding the duration reported to the device), or is this an issue with the <video> implementation of the device?

[charlie]

The iOS playlist system is quite inaccurate. All the time values are in seconds. We do a careful job of being as accurate as possible as we round up and down each segment duration. I can see where the segment duration could be a second longer or shorter than the actual duration of the file rounded to the nearest second. I don't think there is any way to resolve this in Wowza.

Charlie

[jay_charles]

Thanks Charlie.

Is there any way to force Wowza to always round down? If not, I suppose I can write my javascript to invoke events a second prematurely, but that would mean potentially clipping of more than a second of video

I figure it's better to have a fractional second of a video clipped off than it is to have the application break, and iOs being what it is, I guess that's the experience iDevice users will have to live with.

[charlie]

No, there is no way to control it. It is wrapped up in how we generate the duration of each segment. Again, it is just sloppy to have the duration of a segment measured in seconds.

Charlie