No Audio in m3u8 link

[Frieman44]

I have gotten multiple m3u8 links from this specific streamer (Twitch) this year and I would insert the link into VLC and it would play fine and there was always audio, no problems. However, for this month, all their broadcasts m3u8 link appears to have no audio. I tried an older VOD link from 1 month ago, and the m3u8 link did have audio. But if I try a m3u8 link from this week, there is zero audio. And I do want to note that they do use a Twitch feature called SoundTrack for background music, but they have been using this feature throughout the year, reason I'm stating this is because in some other threads, it appears SoundTrack feature causes VODs to lose all sound. But I doubt this is the case since it worked fine previously. When I tried converting the m3u8 link into mp4 via VLC, I checked the file properties and it appears that the bit rate for audio is 2kbps, which means zero audio basically, versus when it does work it would say something like 289kbps.

Now when I use streamlink to pull from the broadcast when its LIVE, there is sound in the final mp4 file. So I find it strange how it can pull audio with streamlink but not within the actual m3u8 link. I looked around for solutions and I tried changing the VLC audio output from unset to stereo, doesn't work. I changed the output audio codec to MPEG 4 Audio (AAC) and the sample rate to 48000 hz, doesn't work. I tried using ffmpeg to grab the audio from the m3u8 link, did not work. Does anyone know how to grab the audio or get the audio to work within VLC? I find it strange how all of a sudden their VODs contain no audio anymore. Is it on their end? Perhaps they changed codecs or changed the way their audio gets captured?

Another thing is when I play the m3u8 link in VLC and check the Current Media Information, Under Audio, it shows that Audio Decoded is changing blocks, and same with Audio Played, its changing buffers. Does that mean there is audio happening? I also want to note that their sample rate is 44100 Hz. I checked another persons stream and they have 48000 Hz. Does that play into why it's not working? Something along the lines of audio bitrate not matching? However, even in their old VODs they have the same sample rate of 44100 Hz, so I doubt that's the case.

Sorry I am not experienced with how VLC, codecs, and m3u8 links work properly. I appreciate it if anyone knows what's going on and how to potentially fix it.

[Frieman44]

I guess if there is no audio within the m3u8 link (the VOD link) then I imagine its impossible to retrieve any audio huh? Because its not just within VLC, but even opening the link in a browser, it plays no audio.

[LZAA]

Url?