PlayVideo() never returns with an MPEG-TS file that VLC plays fine (MP4 works)
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2026 12:49 am
Hi,
I'm trying to play HLS live TV with Hollywood by downloading the .ts segments
one by one and playing them as local files. I've hit a problem I can't solve:
PlayVideo() hangs forever on a .ts segment.
Setup:
- Hollywood 11.0, Windows 64-bit
- AVCodec plugin: latest version
- Segment downloaded with DownloadFile(url$, {File = "proba.ts"}), ~1 MB,
about 5-6 seconds of video
Minimal script:
@VERSION 8,0
@REQUIRE "avcodec"
OpenVideo(1, "proba.ts")
DebugPrint("OpenVideo done")
PlayVideo(1, 0, 0)
DebugPrint("PlayVideo returned")
What happens:
- "OpenVideo done" is printed, so OpenVideo() succeeds without errors.
- "PlayVideo returned" is NEVER printed. The script just hangs on PlayVideo(),
the window stays black, and I have to kill it.
- The same happens if I remove @REQUIRE "avcodec" (so Hollywood uses the
Windows video renderer).
- The same script with a normal MP4 file works perfectly: it plays and
IsVideoPlaying() returns True for the whole duration.
- The .ts file plays fine in VLC.
Video info from the HLS master playlist: avc1.4d001f (H.264) video at 25 fps,
and the audio is declared as a separate rendition, so the segments probably
contain video only.
Is this a known limitation of the .ts/MPEG-TS support, or could it be a bug?
I can attach proba.ts if it helps.
Thanks!
I'm trying to play HLS live TV with Hollywood by downloading the .ts segments
one by one and playing them as local files. I've hit a problem I can't solve:
PlayVideo() hangs forever on a .ts segment.
Setup:
- Hollywood 11.0, Windows 64-bit
- AVCodec plugin: latest version
- Segment downloaded with DownloadFile(url$, {File = "proba.ts"}), ~1 MB,
about 5-6 seconds of video
Minimal script:
@VERSION 8,0
@REQUIRE "avcodec"
OpenVideo(1, "proba.ts")
DebugPrint("OpenVideo done")
PlayVideo(1, 0, 0)
DebugPrint("PlayVideo returned")
What happens:
- "OpenVideo done" is printed, so OpenVideo() succeeds without errors.
- "PlayVideo returned" is NEVER printed. The script just hangs on PlayVideo(),
the window stays black, and I have to kill it.
- The same happens if I remove @REQUIRE "avcodec" (so Hollywood uses the
Windows video renderer).
- The same script with a normal MP4 file works perfectly: it plays and
IsVideoPlaying() returns True for the whole duration.
- The .ts file plays fine in VLC.
Video info from the HLS master playlist: avc1.4d001f (H.264) video at 25 fps,
and the audio is declared as a separate rendition, so the segments probably
contain video only.
Is this a known limitation of the .ts/MPEG-TS support, or could it be a bug?
I can attach proba.ts if it helps.
Thanks!