Windows 7, IE 11 - video ok, but no audio. Need insight into AWS elastic transcoder presets for HLS

[generhim]

Description

I am currently working on a proof-of-concept project where we are using videojs-contrib-hls. The issue is that when we use the index.html page from the repo with the given cloudfront.net url both the audio and video plays fine within Windows 7, IE 11 and other Windows 7 browsers.
https://github.com/videojs/videojs-contrib-hls/blob/master/index.html

However when we use our own cloudfront m3u8 with our own presets for HLS, we are getting no joy as far as audio is concerned for Win 7, IE 11. The video plays fine but the audio does not.

This is the only scenario where we are seeing HLS audio not working. Our presets are currently:

Output Details:

1. Preset: Video Platform: HLS 1080P Video - 6000k - Custom
   Segment Duration: 6.0
2. Preset: Video Platform: HLS 720P Video - 4800k - Custom
   Segment Duration: 6.0
3. Preset: Video Platform: HLS Video - 2M
   Segment Duration: 6.0
4. Preset: System Preset: HLSVideo - 1.5M
   Segment Duration: 6.0
5. Preset: System Preset: HLS Video - 1M
   Segment Duration: 6.0
6. Preset: System Preset: HLS Video - 600k
   Segment Duration: 6.0
7. Preset: System Preset: HLS Video - 400k
   Segment Duration: 6.0
8. Preset: Video Platform: HLS Audio - 160k
   Segment Duration: 6.0
9. Preset: Video Platform: HLS Audio - 64k
   Segment Duration: 6.0

We have one playlist:

Master Playlist Name: our_hls/index
Playlist Format: HLSv4
Outputs in Master Playlist list all 9 of the presets.

Sources

Is a certain source or a certain segment affected? please provide a public (accessible over the internet) link to it below.
No, this is not about software but AWS elastic transcoder configuration to use videojs-contrib-hls on Windows 7, IE 11.

Steps to reproduce

Explain in detail the exact steps necessary to reproduce the issue.

1. Set up a elastic transcoder pipeline in AWS, connect it to an S3 for ingesting video, an S3 for outputting the transcoded video.
2. Create a new job for this new pipeline and use the listed presets.
3. Setup cloudfront and associate it with the S3 output bucket.
4. Upload a new video to the ingest S3 and wait for it to transcode.
5. Verify that transcoding is complete and the necessary files are created in the S3 output bucket.
6. Verify that the output m3u8 file is accessible via Cloudfront.
7. Replace the default example's cloudfront url to its m3u8 file with the newly created .m3u8 file.
8. Test the videojs hls player will play in other browsers.
9. Test the videojs hls player will play in Windows 7, IE 11.

Results

Expected

Please describe what you expected to happen that did not happen in the description.
We should see both the video AND the audio playing. Currently we only see video playing in Windows 7, IE 11.

Error output

If there are any errors in the console, from the player, or anywhere else please include them here:
Nope, no errors, except what is audibly not there.

Additional Information

Please include any additional information necessary here. Including the following:

videojs-contrib-hls version

what version of videojs-contrib-hls does this occur with?
videojs-contrib-hls 5.5.1

videojs version

what version of videojs does this occur with?
video.js 5.20.1

Browsers

what browsers are affected? please include browser and version for each

• Internet Explorer 11.

Platforms

what platforms are affected? please include operating system and version or device and version for each

• Windows 7

Other Plugins

are any other videojs plugins being used on the page? If so, please list them with version below.

• Only videojs-flash

Other JavaScript

are you using any other javascript libraries or frameworks on the page? if so please list them below.

• No. We actually used the example from the videojs-contrib-hls repo to reduce any possibly issues of conflicting JavaScript: all we did was run the given index.html in Windows 7, IE 11 and notice that it works fine with both audio and video. Then we used our own m3u8 with the listed presets and the video plays but the audio does not.

[mjneil]

I'm not sure what the specifics of the presets are, but being hls v4, I assume that all your content is unmuxed into separate video and audio streams, making use of alternate audio groups. For Win 7 IE 11 playback, a flash fallback is used where we transmux the mpeg2ts into flv tags, which does not support unmuxed audio. If possible, I suggest having an hls v3 source available to serve to win7 ie11 users, or setup your transcoder settings to output muxed audio and video

[generhim]

Interesting, thanks MJ. So if we switch to hlsv3 and maintain transmuxed mpeg2ts it should work?
Thanks

[mjneil]

Yes making that switch should get audio working again

[ebraan]

Hello,

I am facing the same problem as described here. I have noted the only solution is to move to maximum hls V4. Unfortunately my packager (Shaka-packager) seems to format HLS ouput only in V6.

Does someone find a turn around to play hls V6 when flash fallback is used (Win 7 IE 11 playback)?

Many thanks
Regards
Eric

[gesinger]

Hey @ebraan , if you are still looking for a flash fallback with support for demuxed audio and video, there is now https://github.com/brightcove/videojs-flashls-source-handler that can be used alongside videojs-contrib-hls. Hope this helps.