Frequently Asked Questions

Q: My live stream is buffering forever or doesn't play.

A: Check your time-sync. In v1 we would adjust automatically to account for bad content. But now in v2, we don't.

This requires setting up clock sync for live streams. This can be done by adding a <UTCTiming> element to the manifest or by setting the .manifest.dash.clockSyncUri configuration. See #386(comment) for more info.

Q: I am getting decoder errors or VIDEO_ERROR or error code 3016.

A: This error is given to us when the browser can't play the content. This is out of our control and is usually caused by bad content. On Chrome you can check chrome://media-internals for more info (see #489(comment)).

Q: I am getting HTTP_ERROR or error code 1002.

A: The browser rejected the request. Look at the browser logs for more info. This is usually a CORS error, which means you need particular headers in the response. Additionally, with some manifests, we will send a Range header. This will require explicit approval through the CORS header Access-Control-Allow-Headers.

This can also happen with mixed-content restrictions. If the site is using https:, then your manifest and segments must also.

Q: I am getting REQUESTED_KEY_SYSTEM_CONFIG_UNAVAILABLE or error code 6001.

A: Check that your platform/browser actually supports the key system. If your manifest contains only Playready, it will need to be played on IE/Edge, a Chromecast, or some smart TVs. Also check the drm.advanced configuration for the key system. If you are passing a non-empty robustness, it may not be supported by your patform. See the DRM tutorial for more info.

Also, to use EME requires using a secure origin. This means using https or be on localhost. Currently only Chrome enforces this, but other browsers will in the future. See the announcement for more info.

This will also happen if you use Storage to store protected content (when usePersistentLicense is true). Currently, the only Chromebooks support persistent licenses. On other platforms, you can only store clear content or store only the content offline (i.e. set usePersistentLicense configuration to false).

Q: I am getting LICENSE_REQUEST_FAILED or error code 6007.

A: See HTTP_ERROR. If you are getting a bad HTTP status, the server rejected the request. Your proxy may require wrapping the request or it may require extra authentication.

Q: I am getting INVALID_SERVER_CERTIFICATE or error code 6004.

A: You need to get the license certificate from your DRM provider. This is not the HTTPS certificate of the proxy or any files on your proxy. This should be the certificate of the license server given by your provider.

The certificate can only be used for that license server, but can be used with different proxies so long as they use the same license server. For Widevine, the certificate should be binary, so avoid fetching the response as a string (e.g. with responseText).

Q: I am getting LICENSE_RESPONSE_REJECTED or error code 6008.

A: Check the DevTools network tab for the response. Verify that the response data looks correct. For Widevine, the response should be binary. If you see JSON, you will need to unwrap the response.

Q: My HLS manifest doesn't load.

A: If your HLS manifest describes MPEG2-TS content, the only browsers capable of playing it are Edge, Chromecast and Safari. You will get a CONTENT_UNSUPPORTED_BY_BROWSER error on other browsers due to their lack of TS support. We are planning to implement transmuxing TS files to fMP4 so they're supported across all browsers. Please subscibe to issue #887 to get updates on the progress.

We also were not able to make it work on Safari yet due to a bug in their MediaSource implementation (#743).

Please file an issue if your TS content fails in Chromecast or Edge or if your MP4 content fails anywhere.

Q: Why does it take so long to switch to HD?

A: When Shaka Player's AbrManager makes a decision to adapt, we don't clear any of the content that has already been buffered. (We used to, but it does not work consistently across browsers and created a bad experience.)

This means that if you want to see the results of a new decision sooner, you should have a less aggressive buffering goal. See the tutorial on buffering configuration and the docs for the .streaming.bufferingGoal configuration.

Another factor is the segment size. It may take up to 2 segments before Shaka Player has enough information to form a bandwidth estimate and make a decision. If your content uses 10-second segments, this means we may buffer 20 seconds of low quality video before we make a decision. If it is too late to change the segment size in your content library, you may want to adjust the "default" bandwidth estimate used by Shaka Player to select the first segments. Use the .abr.defaultBandwidthEstimate configuration to control these initial decisions.

Q: I am getting UNSUPPORTED_SCHEME or error code 1000 when loading from file://.

A: In a browser environment, trying to load a file from file:// is inappropriate. Therefore, we do not provide a default network plugin for such requests.

In other environments, for example Electron, it is appropriate. In those cases, before Shaka Player loads a manifest, you can register the existing http plugin for file:// requests:

shaka.net.NetworkingEngine.registerScheme('file', shaka.net.HttpPlugin);