Duration is out of bounds

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Just updated to 4.4, and now getting this message approx every 8 seconds:

LiveStreamPacketizerCupertino.endChunkTS: Duration is out of bounds: duration:8334 bounds:[0,6000], setting to calculated duration:8333, marking as discontinuity

It doesn’t say for which stream, and I can’t find this message anywhere in the forums. What does it mean, and how do we solve it?

2

Hi,

This new feature was included in version 4.4 to detect discontinuity markers.

Here is the relevant note from the Release Notes

  • Added LiveStreamPacketizers/Properties properties to control discontinuity markers in Apple HLS (cupertinto) streams if chunk duration is out of bounds

You can change this behavior by setting the property cupertinoAutoAdjustDurationIfOutOfBounds in the LiveStreamPacketizers/Properties container to false (default is true).

For more information: See the release notes

Please make sure to restart the Wowza application after adding the above property, test your streaming workflow again and confirm that these log messages are no longer displayed.

In a future release we will be turning this off by default.

Andy

3

What does it mean, though? The implication is that there’s something wrong with the stream.

4

Thanks, I’d already opened a companion ticket with support, and I think I have access to the patch build. In terms of how this happens, though, I’m still confused. I’m taking RTMP in, and WSE is creating the HLS chunks. How is it possible that it’s creating HLS chunks with bad durations when it’s doing the encoding/packetization? Could this result in either source encoder (rtmp) disconnects or playback issues?

5

Hi Matt,

I am copying my response to you here as well as an FYI for other users:

As you have read from Andrew’s post, the property cupertinoAutoAdjustDurationIfOutOfBounds if set to true will log any streams it finds with Duration out of bounds, and will mark the discontinuities in the packetized HLS stream. The duration out of bounds error normally stems from the encoding for a particular stream. For example, the cupertino target duration may have been set to something very small such as 2000 (2 seconds) but the key frame interval is quite large (such as 6 seconds).

The available options that you can use to resolve this are as follows:

  1. Set the target duration to be more appropriate for their key frame interval.

  2. Set encoder to a more appropriate key frame interval to match their target duration.

  3. Turn off the new discontinuity feature.

Whichever option you select would depend on your particular use case. If you have not had any previous issues before the version upgrade for this particular stream, then do go ahead and keep the discontinuity feature disabled.

Michelle

6

Hello,

Yes it’s indicating that the HLS Chunk Duration is out of bounds. The following properties can be set:

cupertinoAutoAdjustDurationIfOutOfBounds: Boolean property to turn on/off marking of discontinuities if duration is out of bounds (default is true)

cupertinoMaxChunkDuration: Integer property to set the maximum chunk duration. If set to -1 it will be set to 3*cupertinoChunkDurationTarget; if set to 0 the maximum is not checked (default -1)

cupertinoMinChunkDuration: Integer property to set the minimum chunk duration (default is 0)

A patch has been created that includes additional details such as the stream name in the logging. If you would like to obtain this patch please contact support.

Best regards,

Andrew