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JavaScript MediaSource and MediaRecorder lag in playing live-stream video

I have working on streaming live video using WebRTC based on RTCConnection with library called simple-peer, but I have faced with some lag between live stream video (with MediaRecorder) and that was played on using MediaSource
Here is recorder:
var mediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder(stream, options);
mediaRecorder.ondataavailable = handleDataAvailable;
function handleDataAvailable(event) {
if (connected && event.data.size > 0) {
peer.send(event.data);
}
}
...
peer.on('connect', () => {
// wait for 'connect' event before using the data channel
mediaRecorder.start(1);
});
Here is source that is played:
var mediaSource = new MediaSource();
var sourceBuffer;
mediaSource.addEventListener('sourceopen', args => {
sourceBuffer = mediaSource.addSourceBuffer(mimeCodec);
});
...
peer.on('data', data => {
// got a data channel message
sourceBuffer.appendBuffer(data);
});
I open two tabs and connect to myself and I see delay in playing video ...
Seems like I configured badly MediaRecorder or MediaSource
Any help will be appreciated ;)

You've combined two completely unrelated techniques for streaming the video, and are getting the worst tradeoffs of both. :-)
WebRTC has media stream handling built into it. If you expect realtime video, the WebRTC stack is what you want to use. It handles codec negotiation, auto-scales bandwidth, frame size, frame rate, and encoding parameters to match network conditions, and will outright drop chunks of time to keep playback as realtime as possible.
On the other hand, if retaining quality is more desirable than being realtime, MediaRecorder is what you would use. It makes no adjustments based on network conditions because it is unaware of those conditions. MediaRecorder doesn't know or care where you put the data after it gives you the buffers.
If you try to play back video as it's being recorded, will inevitably lag further and further behind because there is no built-in catch-up method. The only thing that can happen is a buffer underrun, where the playback side waits until there is enough data to begin playback again. Even if it becomes minutes behind, it isn't going to automatically skip ahead.
The solution is to use the right tool. It sounds like from your question that you want realtime video. Therefore, you need to use WebRTC. Fortunately simple-peer makes this... simple.
On the recording side:
const peer = new Peer({
initiator: true,
stream
});
Then on the playback side:
peer.on('stream', (stream) => {
videoEl.srcObject = stream;
});
Much simpler. The WebRTC stack handles everything for you.

Streaming microphone input with getUserMedia under iOS Safari

I'm developing a website where the user can send audio commands which are captured with getUserMedia (only audio) and interpreted in the backend with a Speech-to-Text service. In order to keep the latency as low as possible, I'm sending small audio chunks to my server. This is working just fine on Chrome/Firefox and even Edge. However, I'm struggling with iOS Safari. I know that Safari is my only choice on Apple devices because of the missing WebRTC support on iOS Chrome/Firefox.
The problem is that I normally get the user's voice a couple of times (for some commands). But without any pattern the stream then suddenly contains only empty bytes. I tried a lot of different strategies but in general I stuck to the following plan:
After user clicks a button, call getUserMedia (with audio constraint) and save stream to a variable
Create AudioContext (incl. Gain, MediaStreamSource, ScriptProcess) and connect the audio stream to the MediaStreamSource
Register an event listener to the ScriptProcessor and send audio chunks in callback to the server
When a result is returned from the server close AudioContext and audio's MediaStream
The interesting part is now what happens after a subsequent user command. I tried various things: Call getUserMedia again for each call and close the MediaStream track each time, use the initially created MediaStream and reconnect the EventHandler every time, close the AudioContext after every call, use only one initially created AudioContext... All my attempts failed so far, because I either got empty bytes from the Stream or the AudioContext was created in a "suspended" state. Only closing MediaStream/AudioContext and creating it every time again seems to be more stable, but fetching the MediaStream with getUserMedia takes quite a while on iOS (~1,5-2s), which gives a bad user experience.
I'll show you my latest attempt where I tried to mute/disable the stream in between user commands and keep the AudioContext open:
var audioStream: MediaStream;
var audioContext: AudioContext;
var startButton = document.getElementById("startButton");
startButton.onclick = () => {
if (!audioStream) {
getUserAudioStream();
} else {
// mute/disable stream
audioStream.getAudioTracks()[0].enabled = true;
}
}
var stopButton = document.getElementById("stopButton");
stopButton.onclick = () => {
// unmute/enable stream
audioStream.getAudioTracks()[0].enabled = false;
}
function getUserAudioStream(): Promise<any> {
return navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({
audio: true
} as MediaTrackConstraints,
}).then((stream: MediaStream) => {
audioStream = stream;
startRecording();
}).catch((e) => { ... });
}
const startRecording = () => {
const ctx = (window as any).AudioContext || (window as any).webkitAudioContext;
if (!ctx) {
console.error("No Audio Context available in browser.");
return;
} else {
audioContext = new ctx();
}
const inputPoint = audioContext.createGain();
const microphone = audioContext.createMediaStreamSource(audioStream);
scriptProcessor = inputPoint.context.createScriptProcessor(4096, 1, 1);
microphone.connect(inputPoint);
inputPoint.connect(scriptProcessor);
scriptProcessor.connect(inputPoint.context.destination);
scriptProcessor.addEventListener("audioprocess", streamCallback);
};
const streamCallback = (e) => {
const samples = e.inputBuffer.getChannelData(0);
// Here I stream audio chunks to the server and
// observe that buffer sometimes only contains empty bytes...
}
I hope the snippet makes sense to you, because I let some stuff out to keep it readable. I think I made clear that this is only one of many attempts and actually my question is: Is there some kind of special characteristic in WebRTC/getUserMedia on iOS that I missed so far? Why does iOS treat MediaStream differently than Chrome/Firefox on Windows? As a last comment: I know that the ScriptProcessorNode is no longer recommended. Actually, I'd like to use MediaRecorder for that but this is also not yet supported on iOS. Also, the polyfill I know is not really suitable because it only support ogg for streaming audio and which also leads to problems because I would need to set the sample rate for that to a fixed value.

Change sample rate of AudioContext (getUserMedia)

Im trying to record a 48000Hz recording via getUserMedia. But without luck. The returned audio MediaStream returns 44100Hz. How can i set this to 48000Hz?
Here are snippets of my code:
var startUsermedia = this.startUsermedia;
navigator.getUserMedia({
audio: true,
//sampleRate: 48000
}, startUsermedia, function (e) {
console.log('No live audio input: ' + e);
});
The startUsermedia function:
startUsermedia: function (stream) {
var input = audio_context.createMediaStreamSource(stream);
console.log('Media stream created.');
// Uncomment if you want the audio to feedback directly
//input.connect(audio_context.destination);
//__log('Input connected to audio context destination.');
recorder = new Recorder(input);
console.log('Recorder initialised.');
},
I tried changing the property sampleRate of the AudioContext, but no luck.
How can i change the sampleRate to 48000Hz?
EDIT : We are also now okay with a flash solution that can record and export wav files at 48000Hz

As far as I know, there is no way to change the sample rate within an audio context. The sample rate will usually be the sample rate of your recording device and will stay that way. So you will not be able to write something like this:
var input = audio_context.createMediaStreamSource(stream);
var resampler = new Resampler(44100, 48000);
input.connect(resampler);
resampler.connect(audio_context.destination);
However, if you want to take your audio stream, resample it and then send it to the backend (or do sth. else with it outside of the Web Audio API), you can use an external sample rate converter (e.g. https://github.com/taisel/XAudioJS/blob/master/resampler.js).
var resampler = new Resampler(44100, 48000, 1, 2229);
function startUsermedia(stream) {
var input = audio_context.createMediaStreamSource(stream);
console.log('Media stream created.');
recorder = audio_context.createScriptProcessor(2048);
recorder.onaudioprocess = recorderProcess;
recorder.connect(audio_context.destination);
}
function recorderProcess(e) {
var buffer = e.inputBuffer.getChannelData(0);
var resampled = resampler.resampler(buffer);
//--> do sth with the resampled data for instance send to server
}

It looks like there is an open bug about the inability to set the sampling rate:
https://github.com/WebAudio/web-audio-api/issues/300
There's also a Chrome issue:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=432248
I checked the latest Chromium code and there is nothing in there that lets you set the sampling rate.
Edit: Seems like it has been implemented in Chrome, but is broken currently - see the comments in the Chromium issue.

it's been added to chrome:
var ctx = new (window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext)({ sampleRate:16000});
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/AudioContext/AudioContext

audioContext = new AudioContext({sampleRate: 48000})
Simply Set sample rate when created AudioContext object, This worked for me

NOTE: This answer is outdated.
You can't. The sample rate of the AudioContext is set by the browser/device and there is nothing you can do to change it. In fact, you will find that 44.1kHz on your machine might be 48kHz on mine. It varies to whatever the OS picks by default.
Also remember that not all hardware is capable of all sample rates.

You can use an OfflineAudioContext to essentially render your audio buffer to a different sample rate (but this is batch operation).
So you would record your recording using the normal audio context, and then use an OfflineAudioContext with a different sample rate to render your buffer. There is an example on the Mozilla page.

It is now in the spec but not yet implemented in Chromium.
Also in bugs.chromium.org, "Status: Available" does not mean it is implemented. It just means that nobody is working on it and that it is available for anyone who wants to work on it. So "Available" means "Not assigned".

Detect if audio is playing in browser Javascript

Is there a global way to detect when audio is playing or starts playing in the browser.
something like along the idea of if(window.mediaPlaying()){...
without having the code tied to a specific element?
EDIT: What's important here is to be able to detect ANY audio no matter where the audio comes from. Whether it comes from an iframe, a video, the Web Audio API, etc.

No one should use this but it works.
Basically the only way that I found to access the entire window's audio is using MediaDevices.getDisplayMedia().
From there a MediaStream can be fed into an AnalyserNode that can be used to check the if the audio volume is greater than zero.
Only works in Chrome and maybe Edge (Only tested in Chrome 80 on Linux)
JSFiddle with <video>, <audio> and YouTube!
Important bits of code (cannot post in a working snippet because of the Feature Policies on the snippet iframe):
var audioCtx = new AudioContext();
var analyser = audioCtx.createAnalyser();
var bufferLength = analyser.fftSize;
var dataArray = new Float32Array(bufferLength);
window.isAudioPlaying = () => {
analyser.getFloatTimeDomainData(dataArray);
for (var i = 0; i < bufferLength; i++) {
if (dataArray[i] != 0) return true;
}
return false;
}
navigator.mediaDevices.getDisplayMedia({
video: true,
audio: true
})
.then(stream => {
if (stream.getAudioTracks().length > 0) {
var source = audioCtx.createMediaStreamSource(stream);
source.connect(analyser);
document.body.classList.add('ready');
} else {
console.log('Failed to get stream. Audio not shared or browser not supported');
}
}).catch(err => console.log("Unable to open capture: ", err));

I read all MDN docs about Web Audio API but I didn't find any global flag on window that shows audio playing. But I have found a tricky way that shows ANY audio playing, no matter an iframe or video but about Web Audio API:
const allAudio = Array.from( document.querySelectorAll('audio') );
const allVideo = Array.from( document.querySelectorAll('video') );
const isPlaying = [...allAudio, ...allVideo].some(item => !item.paused);
Now, by the isPlaying flag we can detect if any audio or video is playing in the browser.

There is a playbackState property (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MediaSession/playbackState), but not all browsers support it.
if(navigator.mediaSession.playbackState === "playing"){...

I was looking for a solution in Google, but i didn't find anything yet.
Maybe you could check some data that has X value only when audio is playing. If you have some button that start playing the audio file, maybe you can be sure that the audio is playing by adding some event listener on the rep. button...
Maybe something like adding an event listener to the "audio" tag? If i remember correctly, audio tag has a "paused" attribute...
And now i just remember that the audio has "paused" attribute...
Also, you may want to check this topic HTML5 check if audio is playing?
i jus find it five seconds ago jaja

Record Audio Stream from getUserMedia

In recent days, I tried to use javascript to record audio stream.
I found that there is no example code which works.
Is there any browser supporting?
Here is my code
navigator.getUserMedia = navigator.getUserMedia || navigator.webkitGetUserMedia ||
navigator.mozGetUserMedia || navigator.msGetUserMedia;
navigator.getUserMedia({ audio: true }, gotStream, null);
function gotStream(stream) {
msgStream = stream;
msgStreamRecorder = stream.record(); // no method record :(
}

getUserMedia gives you access to the device, but it is up to you to record the audio. To do that, you'll want to 'listen' to the device, building a buffer of the data. Then when you stop listening to the device, you can format that data as a WAV file (or any other format). Once formatted you can upload it to your server, S3, or play it directly in the browser.
To listen to the data in a way that is useful for building your buffer, you will need a ScriptProcessorNode. A ScriptProcessorNode basically sits between the input (microphone) and the output (speakers), and gives you a chance to manipulate the audio data as it streams. Unfortunately the implementation is not straightforward.
You'll need:
getUserMedia to access the device
AudioContext to create a MediaStreamAudioSourceNode and a ScriptProcessorNode
MediaStreamAudioSourceNode to represent the audio stream
ScriptProcessorNode to get access to the streaming audio data via an onaudioprocessevent. The event exposes the channel data that you'll build your buffer with.
Putting it all together:
navigator.getUserMedia({audio: true},
function(stream) {
// create the MediaStreamAudioSourceNode
var context = new AudioContext();
var source = context.createMediaStreamSource(stream);
var recLength = 0,
recBuffersL = [],
recBuffersR = [];
// create a ScriptProcessorNode
if(!context.createScriptProcessor){
node = context.createJavaScriptNode(4096, 2, 2);
} else {
node = context.createScriptProcessor(4096, 2, 2);
}
// listen to the audio data, and record into the buffer
node.onaudioprocess = function(e){
recBuffersL.push(e.inputBuffer.getChannelData(0));
recBuffersR.push(e.inputBuffer.getChannelData(1));
recLength += e.inputBuffer.getChannelData(0).length;
}
// connect the ScriptProcessorNode with the input audio
source.connect(node);
// if the ScriptProcessorNode is not connected to an output the "onaudioprocess" event is not triggered in chrome
node.connect(context.destination);
},
function(e) {
// do something about errors
});
Rather than building all of this yourself I suggest you use the AudioRecorder code, which is awesome. It also handles writing the buffer to a WAV file. Here is a demo.
Here's another great resource.

for browsers that support MediaRecorder API, use it.
for older browsers that does not support MediaRecorder API, there are three ways to do it
as wav
all code client-side.
uncompressed recording.
source code --> http://github.com/mattdiamond/Recorderjs
as mp3
all code client-side.
compressed recording.
source code --> http://github.com/Mido22/mp3Recorder
as opus packets (can get output as wav, mp3 or ogg)
client and server(node.js) code.
compressed recording.
source code --> http://github.com/Mido22/recordOpus

You could check this site:
https://webaudiodemos.appspot.com/AudioRecorder/index.html
It stores the audio into a file (.wav) on the client side.

There is a bug that currently does not allow audio only. Please see http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=112367

Currently, this is not possible without sending the data over to the server side. However, this would soon become possible in the browser if they start supporting the MediaRecorder working draft.