[Live-devel] FYI: Initial support for "HTTP Live Streaming" (HLS)

[Ross Finlayson]

For bringing RTSP video (which is relatively latency-insensitive) to web browsers, I now believe that WebRTC (which is extremely complex, and has portability problems) is not the best solution.  Instead, HTTP-based streaming mechanisms (such as MPEG DASH, or Apple’s “HTTP Live Streaming” (HLS)) seem to be easier to implement and deploy.

I have installed a new version of the LIVE555 code that contains - in “testProgs” - a new demo application:
	testH264VideoToHLSSegments
This application converts an H.264 (Elementary Stream) video file - named "in.264" - into a sequence of HLS ("HTTP Live Streaming") segments, plus a ".m3u8" file that can be accessed via a web browser.

To run this:
- Start with an H.264 Elementary Stream file named “in.264”.  (E.g., an output video file from “openRTSP’ could be used.)
- Then, run
	testH264VideoToHLSSegments
   This will generate a set of MPEG Transport Stream files, named “hlsTest<n>.ts”, plus an index file named “hlsTest.m3u8”.
- Copy these files to a directory visible by a web server.
- Create an appropriate “http://“ URL - ending with “hlsTest.m3u8”, and enter this into your web browser.
  (The Safari browser (on Macs) will support “.m3u8” URLs.  Other browsers may need a plugin to support this.)


Ross Finlayson
Live Networks, Inc.
http://www.live555.com/