HTTP Live Streaming

HTTP Live Streaming playlist
Filename extension .m3u8
Internet media type application/vnd.apple.mpegurl[1]
Developed by Apple Inc.
Initial release May 2009
Extended from extended M3U

HTTP Live Streaming (also known as HLS) is an HTTP-based media streaming communications protocol implemented by Apple Inc. as part of its QuickTime, Safari, OS X, and iOS software. It resembles MPEG-DASH in that it works by breaking the overall stream into a sequence of small HTTP-based file downloads, each download loading one short chunk of an overall potentially unbounded transport stream. As the stream is played, the client may select from a number of different alternate streams containing the same material encoded at a variety of data rates, allowing the streaming session to adapt to the available data rate. At the start of the streaming session, HLS downloads an extended M3U playlist containing the metadata for the various sub-streams which are available.[2]

An example HLS live feed from a camera pointed at a fish tank with multiple stream encoding qualities
HLS Live Stream Example http://fish.schou.me

Since its requests use only standard HTTP transactions, HTTP Live Streaming can traverse any firewall or proxy server that lets through standard HTTP traffic, unlike UDP-based protocols such as RTP. This also allows content to be offered from conventional HTTP servers as origin and delivered over widely available HTTP-based content delivery networks.[3]

HLS also specifies a standard encryption mechanism[4] using AES and a method of secure-key distribution using HTTPS with either a device-specific realm login or HTTP cookie which together provide a simple DRM system. Later versions of the protocol also provide for trick-mode fast-forward and rewind and for integration of subtitles. upLynk has also added the AES scrambling and base-64 encoding of the DRM content-key with a 128-bit device-specific key for registered commercial SWF applications together with a sequential initialization Vector for each chunk to its implementation of the standard.[5]

Apple has documented HTTP Live Streaming as an Internet Draft (Individual Submission), the first stage in the process of submitting it to the IETF as an Informational Request for Comments. However, while Apple has submitted occasional minor updates to the draft, no additional steps appear to have been taken towards IETF standardization.[6]

Architecture

HTTP Live Streaming uses a conventional web server to distribute audiovisual content and requires specific software to fit into the proper format transmission in real time. The service architecture comprises:

Server
Codify and encapsulate the input video flow in a proper format for the delivery. Then, it is prepared for distribution by segmenting it into different files. In the process of intake, the video is coded and segmented to generate video fragments and index file.
  • Encoder: codify video files in H.264 format and audio in MP3, HE-AAC or AC-3. This is encapsulated by MPEG-2 Transport Stream to carry it
  • Segmenter: divides the MPEG-2 TS file into fragments of equal length, kept as .ts files. It also creates an index file that contains references of the fragmented files, saved as .m3u8
Distributor
Formed by standard web Server, accepts requests from clients and delivers all the resources needed for streaming.
Client
Request and download all the files and resources, assembling them so that they can be presented to the user as a continuous flow video. The client software downloads first the index file through a URL and then the several media files available. The playback software assembles the sequence to allow continued display to the user.

Features

HTTP Live Streaming provides mechanisms to provide a scalable and adaptable to network, allowing playback quality in wireless networks with high bandwidth and low quality playback on 3G networks, where the bandwidth is reduced. HTTP Live Streaming also provides protection against errors, generating alternative different flows video to use them if there are any errors in segment.

HLS streams can carry generic ID3 data as a separate pid in the transport stream (see [7]). ID3 metadata is specified by Apple in separate audio streams for the purposes of synchronisation with video. Timed ID3 metadata in the base streams can be used to carry generic timed metadata with the stream; for example Screen Systems have used ID3 information to reference the time that the frame on the client's system was encoded, allowing code external to the player to act in sync with the video. The number of players able to export the ID3 information is growing, examples being hls.js, flashls (flash plugin which works with a number of flash players), and JWPlayer (paid version).

Scalability

To make the system scalable and adaptable to the bandwidth of the network, the video flow is coded in different qualities. Thus, depending on the bandwidth and transfer network speed, the video will play at different qualities.

To implement this, the system must encode the video in different qualities and generate an index file that contains the locations of the different quality levels.

The client software internally manages the different qualities, making requests to the highest possible quality within the bandwidth of the network. Thus always play the video the highest possible quality, viewing lower quality on 3G networks and highest quality in Wi-Fi broadband.

One issue that can arise by relying on the client-side system is that a user may experience different bitrates throughout the duration of playback. This can be avoided by delaying the responsiveness of the player to changes in client-side bandwidth.

Availability

To keep a stream available HLS includes features to recover from outages. To achieve this, multiple flows are listed in the index file for the same quality level. If the client can't load a flow it tries the next, repeating until either a working flow is found or all flows fail.

This can be combined with scalability by listing multiple flows for each separate quality.

Using fragmented MP4

On WWDC2016 Apple announced[8] the inclusion of byte-range addressing for fragmented MP4 files, or fMP4, allowing content to be played in HLS without the need to multiplex it into MPEG-2 Transport Stream. The industry considered this as a step towards compatibility between HLS and MPEG-DASH.[9][10]

Server implementations

Usage

Supported players and servers

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

HTTP Live Streaming is natively supported in the following operating systems: Windows 10 (Microsoft Edge), OS X 10.6+ (Safari and QuickTime), iOS 3.0+ (Safari), and Android 4.1+[23] (Google Chrome).

Clients

Product Platform Live Streaming DRM As of Version Editor
Safari (web browser) OS X, iOS Yes Yes 6.0+
Has full HLS support.
Apple
Google Chrome (web browser) Windows, OS X, Android, iOS Partial Yes 30+
Supported on Android and iOS. Unsupported on desktop OSes.
Google
Microsoft Edge (web browser) Windows 10 Yes Yes Microsoft
QuickTime Player (media player) OS X Yes Yes 10.0+
Has full HLS support.
Apple
iTunes (music player) Windows, OS X Yes Yes 10.1+[24]
Has full HLS support. To play a HLS stream, go to File > Open Stream and replace "http://" with "itls://" (for video streams) or "itals://" (for audio streams) in the stream URL.
Apple
VLC media player (media player) Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone Partial No 2.0[25]
Has partial HLS support. VLC may load the playlist as individual chunks instead of a gapless live stream for some server configurations. This causes a slight pause or missing audio between each file segment.[26]
VideoLAN
Media Player Classic Home Cinema (media player) Windows Yes Yes Gabest, Doom9 forum users
PotPlayer (media player) Windows Yes Yes Daum Communications
MPlayer / SMPlayer / mpv (media player) Windows, Linux Yes Yes Ricardo Villalba
GOM Player (media player) Windows Yes Yes Gretech
Audacious (software) (music player) Windows, Linux Yes Yes Audacious
Radio Tray (radio player) Linux Yes Yes Carlos Ribeiro
Kodi (software) (home entertainment application) Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS Yes Partial 12.0 Alpha 5 and later
DRM support requires a monthly/nightly build
XBMC Foundation
MythTV (home entertainment application) Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD Yes Yes 0.26 MythTV
JRiver Media Center (home entertainment application) Windows, OS X Yes Yes JRiver
XiiaLive (radio player) Android, iOS Yes Yes 3.0+
Plays internet radio streams (audio only).
Visual Blasters LLC
Tunein radio (radio player) Android, iOS Yes Yes 3.3+
Plays internet radio streams (audio only).
TuneIn
myTuner Radio (radio player) Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows 8, OS X Yes Yes AppGeneration Software
Internet Radio Player (radio player) Android Yes Yes MuserTech
GuguRadio (radio player) iOS Yes Yes Leon Fan
MX Player (media player) Android, iOS Yes Yes J2 Interactive
RockPlayer (media player) Android, iOS Yes Yes Shanghai ChangeTech Co. Ltd.
DicePlayer (media player) Android 2.2+ Yes Yes Diceplayer 1.0+ INISOFT
HP Touchpad WebOS Yes Yes 3.0.5 HP
Amino x4x STB Amino set-top boxes Yes Yes 2.5.2 Aminet Aminocom.com
Dune HD TV Dune HD set-top boxes Yes Yes TV Series dunehd.com
nangu.TV Motorola set-top boxes Yes Yes 2.0 nangu.TV
Roku Digital Video Player Roku set-top boxes Yes Yes Roku OS / SDK 2.6 Roku
Telebreeze Player (online service) HTML, Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, Roku STB, MAG250, Samsung SmartTV, LG SmartTV, T503, Enigma Yes Yes 3.2 Telebreeze
bitdash (SDK) HTML5 or Flash, Web and Mobile Yes Yes Version 3.0+ bitmovin
3ivx (SDK) Windows 8, Windows Phone 8[27] & Xbox One[28] Yes Yes 2.0 3ivx
THEOplayer (SDK)[29] HTML5 Yes Yes OpenTelly
Viblast Player (SDK) HTML5, iOS, Android Yes Partial Viblast Ltd
Flowplayer (SDK) Adobe Flash, iOS, Android Yes Yes The Flash HLS plugin is available from GitHub. Flowplayer Ltd
JW Player (SDK) Adobe Flash, iOS, Android Yes Yes A Premium or Enterprise license is required for HLS support. JW Player
Radiant Media Player (SDK) Adobe Flash, HTML5 Yes Yes 1.5.0[30] Radiant Media Player
Yospace (SDK) Adobe Flash Yes Yes 2.1 Yospace
Onlinelib (SDK) Adobe Flash Yes Yes 2.0 Onlinelib.de
VODOBOX HLS Player (online service) Adobe Flash, HTML5, iOS, Android Yes Yes Vodobox
NexPlayer (SDK) iOS, Android, Windows Phone Yes Yes NexStreaming
ffplay/avplay (multimedia framework) Yes Partial FFmpeg/Libav
GPAC (multimedia framework) Yes No 0.5.0 Telecom ParisTech inc.
QuickPlayer (SDK) Android, iOS, Windows 7, 8, 8,1 and 10 Yes Yes Squadeo
hls.js (MSE) MSE Browsers Yes Unknown Daily Motion open source [20][21]
hasplayer.js (MSE) MSE Browsers Yes Unknown open source [22]
Hola Player (video player) HTML5, Adobe Flash, iOS, Android Yes Yes All versions Hola Ltd open source [31]

Servers

Product Technology As Of Version Editor Free Notes
Keepixo Genova Live Bundled software for transcoding to H.264 & HEVC, and packaging to HLS, MPEG-DASH, MS Smooth Streaming Keepixo No
bitcodin SaaS bitmovin No[32]
VLC 1.2 Yes
Once SaaS Brightcove No
IIS Media Services 4.0[17] Microsoft No
Antik Media Streamer Ingest Module (UDP/HTTP Transport Stream, Backup Stream with auto-switching, stream status monitoring and logging), Stream replication UDP/HTTP, HLS streaming, Video archive with snapshots, Server-side Timeshift, Timezone Shifting with multi-timezones, Stream Encryption using AES and key-rotation (with Antik Key Server) 3.0 Antik technology No
Adobe Media Server Live and VOD streaming as origin and edge server 5.0 Adobe No
Evostream Media Server Cross-platform including embedded systems such as encoders, IP cameras, DVRs, and more. Supports: Adobe Flash RTMP, RTMPS, LiveFLV, full transcoder for creating lower bitrate streams, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) for streaming to iPhones, iPads and Androids, HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) for Adobe Air, Microsoft Smooth Streaming (MSS) for Microsoft devices, RTSP with RTP or MPEG-TS, MPEG-TS (unicast/multicast), compatible Live Encoding, strong security for your content ( Verimatrix DRM, HLS AES encryption, Stream Aliasing, Watermarking), built-in clustering mechanism and more. 1.6.5 EvoStream No
MythTV 0.25 MythTV Yes
MACNETIX VOD-Server 3.0 MACNETIX No
Anevia ViaMotion Servers Transcapsulation: from one input, several outputs
(HLS, MS Smooth Streaming, ADS Flash, MPEG DASH)
Anevia No
Packet Ship OverView:Origin Server Capture from IPTV multicast and chunking to HLS for multi-bandwidth live streams, with AES encryption 2.1 Packet Ship No
nangu.TV Streamers on-the-fly adaptation: content is stored once enabling several outputs
(HLS, MS Smooth Streaming, ADS Flash, MPEG DASH)
nangu.TV No
TVersity Media Server 1.9 TVersity No Pro Edition only
Helix Universal Server Live + VOD HLS with Verimatrix DRM integration, ABR, Multi-Resolution, AES encryption 15.0+ RealNetworks No High performance HLS (12,000+ concurrent devices)
Wowza Streaming Engine Live and VOD streaming as origin and edge server with DVR, DRM Integration and Transcoding for adaptive delivery. Outputs to MPEG-DASH, HLS, HDS, Smooth Streaming, RTMP, and RTSP 2.0+ Wowza Media Systems No
Unified Streaming Platform Muxes media content from one unified source to multiple outputs (Smooth Streaming, HDS, HLS and MPEG DASH) Unified Streaming No
VODOBOX Live Server Outputs HTTP Live Streaming with Adaptive bitrate streaming (up to 6 simultaneous qualities).
Video codecs : AVC H.264 / HEVC H.265
Audio codecs : MP3 / AAC
Transport layers : HTTP / FTP / Amazon AWS S3 / Microsoft Azure Web Storage / writing to disk (NetBios / Samba)
Hostings : internal HTTP Web server and/or external Web servers (ex: Apache HTTP server, Microsoft IIS, Nginx, etc.)
1.0 Vodobox Yes Supports input live streams from DVB-T devices, satellite receivers (Dreambox), IP streams (RTSP, RTMP, MMS, HTTP), Microsoft DirectShow drivers (video capture cards, live production software, camera). Encoder is compliant with Intel Quick Sync Video and Nvidia NVENC hardware acceleration.
Flixwagon Platform Video Server Flixwagon No
StreamCoder Live Encoder Realtime video encoder (inputs : DVB/IP stream or video signal). Supports multi-bitrates and multi-languages Ektacom No
Apache HTTP Server Apache Software Foundation Yes
Unreal Media Server 9.5 Unreal Streaming Technologies No Latency of live streams can be as low as 2.5 seconds over the Internet
Nimble Streamer RTMP / RTSP / Icecast / MPEG-TS to ABR HLS. MP4 / MP3 to VOD HLS 1.0.0-x WMSPanel No
Nginx-rtmp-module Free module for nginx server with support of HLS live streaming. Compliant with iOS and Android. 0.9.x Roman Arutyunyan Yes
Nginx Plus VOD HLS as origin NGINX, Inc. No
Flussonic Media Server Multi-platform support for HTTP, RTSP, RTMP, DASH, Time Shifting, DVR Functions with Unlimited Rewind Capabilities HLS streaming specific to iOS platform support. 3.0+ Flussonic, LLC. No Supporting a magnitude of features with full HTTP support.
VBrick Distributed Media Engine ("DME") 2.0 VBrick Systems, Inc. No Live and stored HLS. Live can be transmuxed from several input mux including RTP, RTMP, and MPEG-TS using H.264 encoding
Telebreeze Coder / Media Server HLS, MPEG-TS, RTMP, TimeShift, VoD, DVR, Hardware Acceleration 2.0 Telebreeze No
LEADTOOLS Media Streaming Server SDK Converts files on the fly to Adobe HDS, Apple HLS, MPEG-DASH, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, RTSP. 19.0 LEAD Technologies No
MC-ROUTE Multifunctional software for live stream routing and protocol conversion 4.4 Teracue No Supported protocols: TS over UDP, RTP, TCP, HLS, HTTP, RTSP/RTP

Live Encoders

Product Technology As Of Version Editor Free Notes
ENC-400 Series Live hardware encoder with SDI or HDMI 1.0 Teracue No Supported protocols: TS over UDP,RTP, TCP, RTP/RTSP, RTMP push, HLS

VOD encoders

Product Technology As Of Version Editor Free Notes
VODOBOX HLS Encoder Converts video files into pre-encoded HLS Adaptive bitrate streaming, ready to be hosted and broadcast through Apache HTTP server / Microsoft IIS / Nginx Web servers. Supports AVC H.264 / HEVC H.265 / Alternate Audio / Alternate Subtitles. 1.0 Vodobox Yes Transcode classic video files (avi, mp4, m2ts, mkv, ...) into HLS streams with multi-qualities for VOD or replay usage. Hardware encoding can be accelerated by Intel Quick Sync Video and Nvidia NVENC technologies.

See also

References

  1. Pantos, R.P. (April 2016). "HTTP Live Streaming draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-19". Network Working Group: 1.
  2. Jordan, Larry (10 June 2013). "The Basics of HTTP Live Streaming". Larry's Blog. Larry Jordan & Associates. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  3. MPEG-DASH vs. Apple HLS vs. Smooth Streaming vs. Adobe HDS
  4. Pantos, R. (30 September 2011). "HTTP Live Streaming". Internet Engineering Task Force. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  5. "Application keys". Digital rights management (DRM). upLynk Support. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  6. Compare: van Kesteren, Anne (2010-09-01). "Internet Drafts are not Open Standards". annevankesteren.nl. Self-published. Retrieved 2015-03-22. There is no Working Group around this item and its intended status is 'Informational' which is far away from 'Standards Track.'
  7. https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/AudioVideo/Conceptual/HTTP_Live_Streaming_Metadata_Spec/2/2.html ID3 in PES
  8. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2016/504/ What's New in HTTP Live Streaming
  9. http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=111796 HLS Now Supports Fragmented MP4, Making it Compatible With DASH
  10. https://bitmovin.com/hls-news-wwdc-2016/ WWDC16: HLS supports Fragmented MP4 – and gets MPEG-DASH compatible!
  11. http://flussonic.com/
  12. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/flussonic/XYav4KX6StY
  13. "Limelight Orchestrate Video Support". Limelight Networks. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  14. "Android 3.0 Platform Highlights".
  15. "webOS 3.0.5 Updates".
  16. Simplified Adaptive Video Streaming: Announcing support for HLS and DASH in Windows 10
  17. 1 2 "First Look: Microsoft IIS Media Services 4". StreamingMedia.com. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  18. Blogcritics, November 26, 2010. iPad App Review: SlingPlayer (Retrieved April 14, 2014)
  19. Scott, Andrew (27 Feb 2015). "Audio Factory: an overview". Internet Blog. BBC. the only on-demand assets will be AAC HLS. ... We are still talking to manufacturers and many are confident that they will be able to provide their users with access to all 57 of our HLS AAC streams at 320kb/s within a few weeks or months.
  20. 1 2
  21. 1 2 hls.js demo page
  22. 1 2 https://github.com/Orange-OpenSource/hasplayer.js/tree/master
  23. Supported Media Formats | Android Developers
  24. Hints of 'iTunes Live Stream' Service Found in iTunes 10.1 - Mac Rumors
  25. https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/2943 VLC Ticket #2943 (Support for HTTP Live Streaming as a client)
  26. https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=113275
  27. http://www.3ivx.com/technology/windows/metro/http_live_streaming.html
  28. http://www.3ivx.com/xbox/
  29. THEOplayer | HLS Support
  30. Radiant Media Player version history
  31. http://holacdn.com/#/opensource
  32. StreamingMedia Review bitcodin
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