No picture watching Ignite TV through Chrome

[Sigiam]

Anyone have any ideas? I'm only getting audio and a black screen on all channels. It's fine on my tv's . just my macbook. Works fine on other browsers. Re installed Chrome too and have latest version. Chatted with rep and he said he's never heard of any issues. I just prefer using chrome. Seems very odd. 

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[-G-]

https://ignitetv.rogers.com/ works fine for me with Chrome 108.0.5359.71 on macOS 12.6.1

Go to chrome://components/ and make sure that your Widevine CDM is up to date.  If that is not it, try "Clear Browsing Data..." and delete everything but your stored passwords / All Time.

Also, try opening a Guest window and try watching Ignite TV from there.  (Click on the picture icon on the right side of Chrome's address bar and select the Guest profile.)  That will provide a clean browsing environment with no extensions.

Also, are you watching on the MacBook screen or on an external monitor?  (However, if it works with other browsers, I suspect that it's not an HDCP or HDMI handshake issue.)

If you suspect that your Chrome installation is messed up, it's not enough to delete Google Chrome from /Applications; you need to delete the files and directories associated with your Chrome installation that get stored under ~/Library

[Sigiam]

super helpful and detailed thank you very much! will give it a go!

[jaymnoble]

@Sigiam , @-G- 

I'm having the same problem - audio but no video.  Happening on both Mac and Windows laptops running the latest version of Chrome.  Did you ever solve the problem?  If so, how did you fix it?

[-G-]

@jaymnoble  I just did a quick test with an M1 Mac running macOS 13.5 Ventura.  No problems with Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser that uses the Widevine CDM.

Could you go to https://demo.castlabs.com/ and try running the Protected MPEG-DASH Multi-Key DRM test?

Are you also able to play content on Netflix?  That site has even more stringent DRM requirements than the Ignite TV web player.

It's also very odd that the Ignite web player is broken for you on both Mac and Windows.  Are you running any extensions on both platforms could be breaking the site or video downloaders that would break the DRM protections?

[jaymnoble]

Hi @-G- .  Sorry for the delayed reply.  Just saw your note.  

Neither Ignite TV or Netflix are working on my Mac, but it works on my wife's Windows laptop.  I tried on Chrome and Safari, on both my built-in and external monitor.

I can see images in the preview box (when I hover the mouse along the timeline) but otherwise, there's a black screen.  I ran the Castlabs test you suggested - black screen but could see the preview.  I've attached a screen shot of my results.

[57]

@jaymnoble : I just did a test using Chrome on my Mac Mini M2 and have no problems watching live shows or my recordings.  Here's a post with tips for Rogers' websites:

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/MyRogers-Rogers-Apps/Tips-for-Rogers-Websites-amp-Apps/m-p/491...

Most people have issues due to extensions on their browsers like adblockers, or VPNs, or cookies or cache, etc.

I assume you're at your home. 

[-G-]

@jaymnoble  Which model of Mac do you have?  Is it a genuine Apple Mac or is it a Hackintosh?

For whatever reason, Widevine is broken on your Mac and you are not able to play any protected content.  I have never seen that happen with Chrome on macOS on genuine Apple hardware.  The only way that I can see Widevine breaking is that you have hardware or drivers installed that Widevine does not trust, your Google Chrome installation (either the application or your profile) has been corrupted in some way, you have a problematic extension or some other low-level software that is causing problems, or the signing of Google Chrome and the Widevine CDM do not match and that is causing breakage.

What happens when you disable hardware acceleration in your Chrome settings?

Are you able to play any protected content (on Netflix or any other service) in Safari?

There is lots of troubleshooting that we could do but I need to know where to even start.

[jaymnoble · Accepted solution]

@-G- THANK YOU.  Turning off hardware acceleration solved the problem.  

I have a genuine MacBook Pro bought from Apple in 2022.  I tried everything suggested - private browsing, turning off ad blocker, different browsers - and HW acceleration was the magic solution.

Thanks again.  I appreciate it.

[57]

I was not even aware of the "Hardware Acceleration" option in Chrome, however, on my Mac Mini M2 it is turned on and I have no issues watching on my computer monitor.  If I get a chance I'll have a look at my MacBook Air 2020 which I have connected to my 4K TV (or standalone obviously) later.

[-G-]

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@jaymnoble wrote:

@-G- THANK YOU.  Turning off hardware acceleration solved the problem.  

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I'm still not sure why Widevine (or Chrome's compositor/renderer) is unhappy on your Mac.  Disabling hardware acceleration is not a fix, just a temporary work-around.  I would suggest using "Help / Report an Issue" to make Google aware of this problem.  I don't see an open bug, so it's possible that a fix is forthcoming... but if that is not the case, things might stop working for you again when the Chromium devs fix Issue 1456855.

[57]

I just checked my MacBook Air 2020 using Chrome.  There were no issues with HWAccel on, either on my 4K TV via HDMI or standalone MBAir, on recordings or live TV.  Are you on the latest version of Chrome?

[-G-]

@jaymnoble  Did updating to Chrome 117 fix the problem?  If so, great.  If not, I can look into a few other things to try.