MPD contains no periods
There is no <Period>, so the manifest describes no content at all.
What it means
Every MPD needs at least one <Period> containing the adaptation sets that make up the presentation. This one has none.
Why it matters
There is nothing to play. For a live stream this usually means the packager wrote the manifest skeleton before any content arrived; for on-demand it means the packaging job failed part-way.
How to fix it
- For live, check the encoder is actually delivering to the packager.
- For on-demand, confirm the packaging job completed rather than writing a stub.
Check your own stream
The free DASH validator runs this check on every analysis and links each finding straight back here.
Open the DASH validator →Frequently asked questions
- What does "MPD contains no periods" mean?
- Every MPD needs at least one <Period> containing the adaptation sets that make up the presentation. This one has none.
- Why does it matter?
- There is nothing to play. For a live stream this usually means the packager wrote the manifest skeleton before any content arrived; for on-demand it means the packaging job failed part-way.
- How do I fix it?
- 1. For live, check the encoder is actually delivering to the packager. 2. For on-demand, confirm the packaging job completed rather than writing a stub.
- Can a validator catch this before viewers do?
- Yes. The free DASH MPD validator checks this on every run, together with UTCTiming, clock drift and segment addressing — the live problems that only appear on other people's devices.
- What is the first thing to try?
- For live, check the encoder is actually delivering to the packager.
Related DASH checks
- DASH manifest has no UTCTiming elementA live MPD without UTCTiming forces players to trust the device clock, so any skew on the viewer’s machine becomes stalls or missing segments.
- DASH availabilityStartTime is in the futureThe manifest claims the presentation starts later than the current time, so no segment is available yet and playback cannot begin.
- The DASH manifest is not well-formed XMLThe document could not be parsed as XML, so nothing else could be checked.
- The document has no MPD root elementThe XML parsed, but its root is not <MPD>, so it is not a DASH manifest.
- MPD declares no profileWithout @profiles a player cannot tell which DASH feature set the manifest expects.
- MPD declares no minBufferTimePlayers use this required attribute to size the initial buffer before starting playback.