Playback Issues with SEI Messages in H.264 Streaming

Description:

There are currently playback issues in Chrome when using SEI (Supplemental Enhancement Information) messages in H.264 streams. These issues happen only during packet loss, which can impact video quality.

Starting with Chrome version m128, the H.264 depacketizer introduced a bug leading to problems with SEI messages during packet loss. The typical symptoms are low frame rate on Chrome but not on Safari (Mac) or Firefox. The use of SEI messages combined with any level of packet loss may lead to significant playback issues. Customers trialing our DRM solution will also be affected.

Solution:

A patch to address this playback issue has been submitted to Chrome. It is expected to be merged into the Chrome m131 release.

If you are experiencing this issue, as a temporary workaround, please remove all SEI messages in your streams. This approach can help mitigate playback problems until a stable fix is implemented in Chrome.

For further assistance on the issue, please contact Dolby.io support team.

Affected Product:

Web viewers using Chrome with the H264 codec with SEI messages embedded in their streams.

References:

https://issues.webrtc.org/issues/368335257

https://webrtc-review.googlesource.com/c/src/+/364241

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/375352614