This can include sunk costs from prior development, general preferences for certain players and or have a heavy focus on monetization features.Įxamples of prior development can including already having configured a player with a custom look and feel. While the provided solution by IBM Watson Media has a lot of features, from real-time tracking to support for Flash fallback, there can be scenarios where a third party player is preferred. Through using direct HLS, the door can be opened to utilize a player that is not IBM based. This goes beyond desktop software, such as a VLC player, to include online, third party players and the ability to support streaming media devices like Roku. M3U8 manifest files are an important part of using your HLS video stream in additional ways. M3U8 files can reference local content stored on your computer, but for the purpose of HLS they will reference online files. They are actually plain text files that have metadata to describe the content along with location information for each segment file. An M3U8 is a UTF-8 encoded media playlist file.
If you have seen M3U8s mentioned before and were curious how it relates to HLS, it’s the file extension of this technology. This direct method, though, allows content owners to do direct HLS video streaming that can be linked to an associated M3U8 manifest file format. This is what enables our video delivery to iOS, Android, Apple TV and the Safari browser on desktop. HLS is already utilized by IBM Watson Media in our current player solutions, including our web player and player SDK. This process is fleshed out in more detail in this Adaptive Streaming eBook. That way the viewer can keep watching at a lower quality rather than be stuck with endless buffering. For example, if a mobile viewer watching a HD (high definition) stream leaves the range of a WiFi network, the quality can adjust. As a result, the stream can adapt to changes in the connection speed. Switching between quality levels is done using the segmented video chunks as branch points. These combinations can then be dynamically served to the viewer based on their connection speed. This is achieved through the creation of multiple bitrate and resolution combinations. It is also able to adapt to the connection speed of the viewer. One of the strengths of HLS is not just compatibility, though. HLS, which perhaps unsurprisingly was developed by Apple, became this solution. When Apple did not support Flash on their iPhones, resulting in the now famous open letter from Steve Jobs, a large struggle ensued to be able to create video content that could reach virtually any device. Device support is where HLS really carved out its early reputation, though.
This makes the technology compatible across a wide range of devices and more easily supported for firewalls. As the name implies, these chunks are then delivered through HTTP. In terms of video, it functions by taking MPEG-TS content and creating short video chunks, which are typically 10 seconds or less. It can be used to deliver video and/or audio media over the Internet.
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is a media streaming protocol. Provisioning direct HLS video streaming.Using HLS as a source for other workflows.It then covers what features are and are not available in this approach, letting content owners make an informed decision on their delivery strategy. It then outlines the benefits and uses cases for this approach, such as using third party players. To help guide content owners, this article discusses what is HLS and M3U8. Using this approach bypasses other methods from IBM Video Streaming such as our web based player, API based player offerings and our player SDKs. Are you looking for a service that can provide HLS compatible live and on-demand video output? This article provides details around using IBM Video Streaming for direct HLS video streaming and the associated M3U8 manifest file format.
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