RTSP stream loads after more than 50 seconds on iOS 16, before the iOS 16 update it was working absolutely fine

I have developed an IP camera app for iOS in which I am playing RTSP streams using MobileVLCKit (ver: 3.3.0 and the latest one) but after the iOS 16 update, the load time of RTSP streams is increased to 40-50 seconds on iPhone 12 onwards while the stream loads fine on iPhone 11 and earlier. Before the iOS update, the stream was loading perfectly fine on every device(within 4-5 seconds).

I have added the following options to my player instance:

media.addOptions(["rtsp-tcp": true, "codec":"avcodec", "network-caching":500, "avcodec-hw":"none"])

**Also like this: **

media.addOptions(["--rtsp-tcp": true, "--codec":"avcodec", "--network-caching":500, "--avcodec-hw":"none"])

I have also tried adding the "multicast entitlement" key "com.apple.developer.networking.multicast" in info.plist but nothing is working to reduce this load time.

The video is attached for reference: It's iPhone 13 and in this the stream loads after 23-24 seconds.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8w2hzntgtguxif/WhatsApp%20Video%202022-10-18%20at%202.31.24%20PM.mp4?dl=0

Any way around fixing this issue or am I making any mistake while adding options to the player? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

You need to request the entitlement. The Info.plist is not the right place.

Does the stream play correctly in our official VLC app?

Thank you for your reply. Can you please guide me on how can I request the entitlement? No, the stream is loading with more delay (60-65 seconds) in the official VLC App (project downloaded from Github)

The question was not whether you can compile our app, but whether the stream works with the app we provide on the App Store which includes the correct entitlement.

Regarding the entitlement, please google it. There is a form to request it from Apple for your app.

Yes, the stream is working fine on the app downloaded from the App store. And thank you for guiding me on entitlement.

closed

@fkuehne can we add entitlement from XCode capabilities (Network Extension) as well? Or is it mandatory to fill out this form

have you add entitlement in XCODE ?? if yes then which can you please share

@aalokhyperlink yes we have added the entitlement which you can get from the Apple developer. But that didn't work out for us. We have performed the following steps to temporarily resolve our issue.

1: Go to Settings
2: Search for your application
3: Disable Local Network Settings.

Hello Arslan Ahmad

i am using MobileVLCKit for play rtsp , but i am facing loading issue in that like it takes 10 - 15 seconds for play rtsp stream.if you are using same how much time it will take to load stram in your side if less then that my time then can you please tell me how you reduce the load for it i am waiting for your reply..

@aalokhyperlink please follow the steps I mentioned in my last update. Hope it will help. We don't have any delay after performing these steps.

@ArslanNTL can you please tell me steps for how can I disable it in iOS Simulator also ?

@aalokhyperlink downgrade the MobileVLCKit library. This helped us.

Hello @febelectron this version is also was 3.4.0 see the terminal screen shot below how we can reduce the buffer time that's my question dear help me in this

reopened

It is mandatory to fill the form as indicated on Apple's website.

closed

Team, I am reopening this issue as we are still facing the same delay (of more than 50-55 seconds) issue while loading RTSP streams. We have requested and added Multicast Networking (screenshot is attached) to our app and also added media options as "rtsp-tcp": true, "network-caching":999, "codec": "" after getting help from the official VLC app. As mentioned above, we are not facing any delay issues in the VLC app which is in production on App Store. Do let us know if we are still missing anything or any other dependency/setting we have to add to our player.

Please help us out in fixing this issue as this is very annoying and affecting our IP cameras service. Would be grateful if you guys can look into this on priority.

reopened

Team any update, please?

We need a debug log to see what is happening.

Team, the attached logs are for your information.

NWatch_logs_when_issue_occurred.rtf

NWatch_logs_when_stream_play_fine.rtf

NWatch_logs_when_stream_stucked.rtf

We are getting the same effect on iOS, however not only on iOS 16 (but mostly on it). The strange thing - if phone connected to Mac via cable - the video starts after 3 seconds. Do you see the same?

Yes, we were facing the same issue but after a lot of debugging, we found a temporary solution to this issue. You may also try the following steps to rectify this.

1: Go to Settings
2: Search for your application
3: Disable Local Network Settings.

I hope it will help.

Thanks, Arslan. I didn't have a chance to try your advice but finally MobileVLCKit downgrade to 3.3.10 helped us (per this one). we have added to Podfile: pod 'MobileVLCKit', '3.3.10'

its still taking 30 to 40 sec to play stream

below is my code for play rtsp url

func startstream(url: String) {
        guard let url = URL(string: url) else { return }
        videoPlayer.drawable = vwPlayer
        videoPlayer.media = VLCMedia(url: url)
        videoPlayer.delegate = self
        videoPlayer.libraryInstance.debugLogging = true
        videoPlayer.media?.addOption("-vv")
        videoPlayer.media?.addOptions([
            "network-caching": 500,
            "sout-rtp-caching": 100,
            "sout-rtp-port-audio": 20000,
            "sout-rtp-port-video": 20002,
            ":rtp-timeout": 10000,
            ":rtsp-tcp": true,
            ":rtsp-frame-buffer-size":1024,
            ":rtsp-caching":0,
            ":live-caching":0,
        ])
        videoPlayer.libraryInstance.debugLogging = true
        videoPlayer.libraryInstance.debugLoggingLevel = 3
        videoPlayer.media?.addOption(":codec=avcodec")
        videoPlayer.media?.addOption(":vcodec=h264")
        videoPlayer.media?.addOption("--file-caching=2000")
        videoPlayer.media?.addOption("clock-jitter=0")
        videoPlayer.media?.addOption("--rtsp-tcp")
        videoPlayer.media?.clearStoredCookies()
        videoPlayer.audio.isMuted = self.isMuted
        videoPlayer.play()
    }

Try setting rtsp-tcp option.

If that solves it, that's UDP borked in iOS 16

Or, as I said previously, activate the mcast permission for iOS16

added RTSP label

Greetings, y'all.

I've been doing some research on this topic, but I cannot seem to find anything conclusive. My Swift app for iOS 16 seems to work properly (if slightly slowly) both on simulators and plugged devices. But once I unplugged the physical devices from the Mac that's running the debugger, the streaming does not start for good.

I would like to ask some questions:

1.- Is there any way to access the Media Player debug log outside Xcode (e.g. writing its content to a TXT file, or to a SQLite database)?

2.- In some cases, I've found that the mentioned behavior is due to the Multicast Networking entitlement not being enabled for the application (even stated in this very thread). Could someone kindly explain to me why is that so?

In case you need further details, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

mentioned in issue #703 (closed)

We are still facing this problem, it occured in React-Native VLC library in IOS. It works fine when we debug with cable, but we face this problem in production