Video Playback issues - Stream (SharePoint) barely usable

[DavidSlezak]

Hello,

We’re currently experiencing issues with playback of videos on Microsoft Stream (SharePoint) which we have never had with the Stream (Classic). At this point Stream (SharePoint) is barely usable.

• Around May 2023 we started using the Stream (SharePoint)
  • Since the videos were not processed anymore and are dependent on automatic codec assignment, we couldn’t upload videos from our footages that was by default .mp4 as it wouldn’t play back
  • This is why we had to opt in to using .avi which seemed to work OK at the time
    
    
• However issues were discovered on 14/09/2023 – some videos were playing at a different speed than they should (for example a video that was normally 2 minutes long would only be 1 minute 45 seconds long on stream, making the video look sped up)
  • I've tried uploading several videos but couldn't find patters as to why this is happening
    
    
• It got worse - uploads in .avi format since October 26th won’t playback at all - receiving a generic error message. We didn’t appear to have any issues with the videos that were uploaded prior to this date (we don’t upload videos daily, though). Since this date I was trying to upload a different variety of videos that were playing back with a mixed ratio of success
  • .mp4 videos would still not play at all
  • .avi videos would only play sometimes, these are the differences I found between them
    • Data rate – 4946kbps and 9.52 frames/second and audio bit rate 64kbps - (WORKING)
    • Data rate - 2115kbps and 12.50 frames/second and audio bit rate 32kbps - (NOT WORKING)
  • I wasn't able to report the issue with the 'report' button as it doesn't do anything - once you refresh the page, you get a flash of the 'submit report' page, seeing what you should've seen after pressing the report button
    
    
• The only format that seems to be working fine is at this moment is .mkv (I haven't tested others)
  • This is however not a viable option for us as we need to upload the video in its original and unedited export. Not to mention the extra work with having to convert all videos and other inconveniences that the new Stream is causing compared to Stream (classic)

• 07/11/2023 – As I’m writing this up, I went back to check the videos that had issues with playback speed – they weren’t sped up anymore and play they way they should've. However, when I tried to open them again for the second time they would not playback at all anymore. I’ve tried Edge (Version 119.0.2151.44) and Firefox on the same Windows 10 PC receiving the same results. Sometimes wrong videos would be opened as well (opening video A but video C opens instead in a new tab). In addition, the videos that won't playback don't give any error messages from today's tests - only endlessly spinning loading circle
  • Same results on a separate Windows 11 laptop on Edge (Version 118.0.2088.76)
  • Even more strange is that on an old Surface Go 2 (Intel Pentium 4415Y) Edge (version118.0.2088.76) The videos that were sped up are still sped up and the newly uploaded videos that didn't playback on other Windows PCs, are working on this tablet

[#2]

Dwyane George from Microsoft reached out to help us with the issue. His team found out that the video files that are exported from our Hikvision CCTV cameras have oddities which are causing the issues mentioned in this post. Newer CCTV cameras we bought not too long ago from Hikvision do not cause these problems on Stream, so this is a rare issue when looking at the bigger picture - if I find a workaround for it, I'll try posting it here.