Officially re-supporting Legacy HLS (version 3+)

[getroot]

Many people have been asking for a legacy HLS (HLS version 3+) over the years. HLS based on MPEG-2 TS containers is still useful because it provides high compatibility, including support for older devices. Therefore, OvenMediaEngine decided to officially support HLS version 7+ based on fragmented MP4 containers, called LL-HLS, as well as HLS version 3+ based on MPEG-2 TS containers (Audio and Video muxed into a single TS file).

We have completely re-written the MPEG-2 TS container and HLS Publisher, so now we officially support ABR, DVR and in the future we will provide all the features like LL-HLS.

You can test HLS Publisher now with the master branch and the following method. Please give us your feedback.
(We haven't integrated all the features into HLS Publisher yet, so things like AdmissionWebhooks, SignedPolicy and statistics don't work. These will be added soon.)

HLS Publisher creates a playlist.m3u8 playlist by default using the first video track and the first audio track. Since we need to distinguish between LLHLS and HLS playback address, we can play HLS by following these rules:

Add the ts: keyword in front of the filename:
http[s]://domain[:port]/<app name>/<stream name>/ts:<playlist file name>.m3u8

Or add format=ts to the querystring:
http[s]://domain[:port]/<app name>/<stream name>/<playlist file name>.m3u8?format=ts

To use HLS, include <HLS> in your Server.xml configuration as follows:

<Server version="8">
  <Bind>
    <Publishers>
      <HLS>
        <Port>13333</Port>
        <TLSPort>13334</TLSPort>
        <WorkerCount>1</WorkerCount>
      </HLS>
    </Publishers>
  </Bind>
  <VirtualHosts>
    <VirtualHost>
      <Applications>
        <Application>
          <Publishers>
            <HLS>
              <SegmentCount>5</SegmentCount>
              <SegmentDuration>4</SegmentDuration>
              <DVR>
                <Enable>true</Enable>
                <EventPlaylistType>false</EventPlaylistType>
                <TempStoragePath>/tmp/ome_dvr/</TempStoragePath>
                <MaxDuration>600</MaxDuration>
              </DVR>
              <CrossDomains>
                <Url>*</Url>
              </CrossDomains>
            </HLS>
          </Publishers>
        </Application>
      </Applications>
    </VirtualHost>
  </VirtualHosts>
</Server>

Playlists for HLS ABR must specify TS packaging by adding the EnableTsPackaging option. See the example below. When EnableTsPackaging is turned on in a Playlist, HLS Publisher will use this Playlist to package TS files and prepare them for streaming.

<Playlist>
    <Name>abr</Name>
    <FileName>abr</FileName>
    <Options>
      <HLSChunklistPathDepth>0</HLSChunklistPathDepth>
      <EnableTsPackaging>true</EnableTsPackaging>
    </Options>
    <Rendition>
      <Name>SD</Name>
      <Video>video_360</Video>
      <Audio>aac_audio</Audio>
    </Rendition>
    <Rendition>
      <Name>HD</Name>
      <Video>video_720</Video>
      <Audio>aac_audio</Audio>
    </Rendition>
    <Rendition>
      <Name>FHD</Name>
      <Video>video_1080</Video>
      <Audio>aac_audio</Audio>
    </Rendition>
  </Playlist>

To play this playlist using HLS, use the following URL:

http[s]://domain[:port]/<app name>/<stream name>/ts:abr.m3u8
or
http[s]://domain[:port]/<app name>/<stream name>/abr.m3u8?format=ts

For more details, please refer to the manual.

https://airensoft.gitbook.io/ovenmediaengine/v/dev/streaming/hls