bitvid attached every hosted source with `videoEl.src = url`, which only plays
HLS on Safari-family browsers. Firefox 146 fails with MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED
(canPlayType returns ""), so every .m3u8 note -- e.g. anything published by
nostube/slidestr -- was unplayable there and the URL-health badge showed
"offline". Chrome/Brave 149 happen to play HLS natively, which is why this
looked browser-specific.
Vendor hls.js (npm run build:hls) and route HLS sources through it:
- js/services/hlsPlayback.js owns detection, engine choice and the hls.js
lifecycle. Engine choice keys off MediaSource, NOT canPlayType: Chrome
returns "maybe" for every HLS type, so a native-first branch would hang.
Native is used only when MSE is genuinely unavailable.
- The bundle is the FULL build, not hls.js/light -- light drops the alternate
audio stream controller and real ladders demux audio into an EXT-X-MEDIA
group. It is lazy-imported only when a .m3u8 is encountered, so ordinary
MP4/WebTorrent playback never pays the ~500KB.
- modalCoordinator tears the instance down first; clearing `src` alone leaves
the transmuxing worker and segment fetches running after the modal closes.
- urlHealthController probes HLS by fetching the playlist for #EXTM3U. The old
bare-<video> probe could not load it and on Chrome emitted no events at all,
burning the full timeout on every HLS card.
- HLS_PLAYBACK_START_TIMEOUT widens the 3s start window, which fired
mid-startup: the bundle, master playlist, variant playlist, init segment and
first media segment are four-plus serial round trips.
Also fixes two bugs found while verifying this:
- A stale MediaError was reported as the current failure. Teardown clears `src`
and calls load(), leaving MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED ("Empty src attribute")
on the element; a later watchdog fallback rendered that as "Hosted playback
failed: source not supported or blocked." over a stream that was playing
fine. Only a MediaError produced by the current attempt is surfaced now.
Sources are also bound before the watchdogs are armed, so hls.js's own
attachMedia() src swap cannot read as a playback failure.
- `audio/x-mpegurl` is a legacy alias for an HLS playlist of any kind, not an
audio-only assertion. isAudioOnlyVideoObject misfiled HLS video ladders
published with it as podcasts and dropped them from every video feed.
Verified end-to-end in Chromium, Chrome 149, Brave 149 and Firefox 146 against
a live HLS stream: Firefox goes from "No playable source found." to playing.
Rollback: stop calling attachHlsSource() and the previous `src` assignment
returns; see docs/playback-fallback.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
Updates documentation to match current codebase implementation:
- Deprecates `nostrClient.fetchVideos` in README.md, pointing to `subscribeVideos`.
- Clarifies `playVideoWithFallback` implementation location in `docs/playback-fallback.md` and `AGENTS.md` (moved to `js/app/playbackCoordinator.js`).
- Corrects `WATCH_HISTORY` d-tag description in `docs/nostr-event-schemas.md` to match actual code behavior (`<YYYY-MM>`).
Co-authored-by: PR0M3TH3AN <[email protected]>
