Hls streaming not working on Chromium 53/68

[jonybekov]

Description

I'm building an application for LG Smart TVs (WebOS 4+) which uses chromium >=53.
I have a video player based on video.js latest version (8.3.0). In development, I'm testing my app on chromium 68. Unfortunately, the player is not playing HLS content displaying "No compatible source was found for this media".
However, when I open the player on latest Chrome (112.x) the HLS content is playing successfully.

In http-streaming docs, it's mentioned that hls will work if browser supports Media Source Extension API. It's supported since Chrome 23.
I can't find where's the problem. Apperciate your help.

You can check the source code of test video player here: https://stackblitz.com/edit/vitejs-vite-hkqafz?file=src/VideoPlayer.svelte

You can try this deployed version on older browsers (Chromium >= 53) https://splendid-boba-51eaac.netlify.app/

Reduced test case

https://splendid-boba-51eaac.netlify.app/

Steps to reproduce

1. Open this link in Chromium 68 or 53.
   You can download them here:

• Chrome 68 x64
• Chrome 53 x64

2. Observe video player
3. HLS video doesn't play

Errors

No compatible source was found for this media.

What version of Video.js are you using?

v8.3.0

Video.js plugins used.

No response

What browser(s) including version(s) does this occur with?

Version 68.0.3439.0 (Developer Build) (64-bit)

What OS(es) and version(s) does this occur with?

Windows 11

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[jonybekov]

Even the DEMO page of http-streaming is not working on Chrome 68

[video-archivist-bot]

Hey! We've detected some video files in a comment on this issue. If you'd like to permanently archive these videos and tie them to this project, a maintainer of the project can reply to this issue with the following commands:

• for https://videojs-http-streaming.netlify.app/?debug=false&autoplay=false&muted=false&fluid=false&minified=false&sync-workers=false&liveui=true&llhls=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fd2zihajmogu5jn.cloudfront.net%2Fbipbop-advanced%2Fbipbop_16x9_variant.m3u8: say @video-archivist-bot save vj9lVE

[gkatsev]

Video.js 8 changed a bunch of things in the playback engine and dropped support for a bunch of older browsers, namely IE. It's possible that some of the changes make it no longer work in Chrome 68 and older.
I'd probably advise trying out the latest version of Video.js 7.

I tried loading https://videojs-http-streaming.netlify.app/ in Chrome 68 and 53 via browserstack and I was able to get playback in Chrome 68 but not Chrome 53.

Also, your test example https://splendid-boba-51eaac.netlify.app/, seems to be using Video.js 7.10.0 and I did get playback in Chrome 68 and 53 with it.

[misteroneill]

We'll need to look into this as we should be supporting Chromium 53+ for Smart TVs

[jonybekov]

https://splendid-boba-51eaac.netlify.app/,

Hi, thanks for your answer. Version 7.10.0 seems working on Chrome 53 via Browserstack but not on Chromium 53. Currently, I don't have access to my WebOS 4.x LG TV. Eventually, I should check it on real device.
For now, I guess I will stick to version 7.10.

However, it's really strange that the result on Chrome and Chromium are different. I thought they use the same rendering engine and support the same Javascript APIs.

P.s. I mixed the usage Chrome and Chromium terms in my issue description. I think I need to rename Chrome to Chromium.

[jonybekov]

@gkatsev @misteroneill
It looks there's something wrong HLS and Chromium browser. On Google Chrome, HLS video plays successfully.
I just installed Chromium 114 (latest?) via official website and tried to open hls demo website and my test example (which uses video.js v7.10.0) and none of these websites play the video

[video-archivist-bot]

Hey! We've detected some video files in a comment on this issue. If you'd like to permanently archive these videos and tie them to this project, a maintainer of the project can reply to this issue with the following commands:

• for https://videojs-http-streaming.netlify.app/?debug=false&autoplay=false&muted=false&fluid=false&minified=false&sync-workers=false&liveui=true&llhls=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fd2zihajmogu5jn.cloudfront.net%2Fbipbop-advanced%2Fbipbop_16x9_variant.m3u8: say @video-archivist-bot save 9EZWPj

[gkatsev]

I believe latest Chrome is 113. It's worth noting that Chromium doesn't ship with the codecs required to play back h264 streams, which the default video on the example uses.

https://videojs-http-streaming.netlify.app/ plays for me without any issues on Chrome 113.

[dani3l3]

Is this related ? #8159 I am also still using an old videojs version in the webOS LG and samsung Tizen apps as I got into those troubles when trying to upgrade.

[dani3l3]

Also in my case 7.6 works... probably up to 7.1xsomething... 7.21.x and the whole 8 version blow up with the blob not defined stuff.