Setting up a HLS or MPEG-DASH-compatible media player requires pointing it to a live stream via a playback URL. This playback URL may be constructed using either of the following types of URL:
Edge CNAME URL: Use this type of URL to generate a friendlier playback URL.
Add TLS support to an edge CNAME to allow live streams to be served over HTTPS.
To construct a playback URL (CDN URL)
Navigate to the Dynamic Cloud Packaging - Live page.
If the encoder was configured to publish to a relative path, append the same relative path to the playback URL.
Replace "<streamName>" with the stream name defined in the encoder's publishing session.
If a stream name contains a suffix, then it should be appended after the last comma.
A media player can request a stream generated from a single H.264 bit rate stream or it can analyze a user's environment at frequent intervals and dynamically choose from a set of streams of varying quality the one that will provide the best user experience. The number of streams referenced in the player URL determines the media player's behavior.
Multiple Streams
Use the following syntax to playback multiple streams of varying quality (i.e., bit rates):
Verify that the playback URL looks similar to one of the following URLs:
HTTP Live Streaming (Dynamic Streaming):
MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Streaming):
To construct a playback URL (Edge CNAME URL)
Create an edge CNAME configuration.
Make sure that the Origin Directory option is set to:
Construct a playback URL using the following syntax:
Replace InstanceName with the name of the desired instance.
View a list of instance names from the Dynamic Cloud Packaging - Live page.
If the encoder was configured to publish to a relative path, then insert it into the playback URL as indicated below.
Replace StreamName with the stream name defined in the encoder's publishing session.
If a stream name contains a suffix, then it should be appended after the last comma.
A media player can request a stream generated from a single H.264 bit rate stream or it can analyze a user's environment at frequent intervals and dynamically choose from a set of streams of varying quality the one that will provide the best user experience. The number of streams referenced in the player URL determines the media player's behavior.
Multiple Streams
Use the following syntax to playback multiple streams of varying quality (i.e., bit rates):
Replace ext with the file extension corresponding to the desired streaming solution.
HLS playback:
MPEG-DASH playback:
Verify that the playback URL looks similar to one of the following URLs:
HTTP Live Streaming (Dynamic Streaming):
MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Streaming):
Live streams may be served over HTTPS. The two main benefits of streaming content over HTTPS are:
An important caveat to HTTPS streaming is that only certain media players (e.g., iOS devices and QuickTime) support this capability. Refer to the media player's documentation to find out whether it supports streaming over HTTPS.
Use encrypted HLS to apply additional security to your live streams.
Learn more.
Setting up HTTPS streaming involves the following steps:
Perform one of the following steps:
Certificate Provisioning System
Create a TLS certificate for the HTTP Large platform.
Legacy HTTPS
Contact your CDN account manager to request a TLS certificate for the HTTP Large platform.
Once the TLS certificate has been installed on our network, create or update an edge CNAME for the HTTP Large platform.
Set the edge CNAME's Origin Directory option to:
From your DNS service provider, update a CNAME record to point the edge CNAME to the hostname provided by your CDN account manager.
Point the desired media player to a playback URL that leverages the above edge CNAME.
Basic information on playback URLs is provided below.
A unique playback URL is assigned to each instance.
View an instance's playback URL (CDN URL) from the Dynamic Cloud Packaging - Live page.
An encoder may publish to either of the following locations:
Publishing Location | Description |
---|---|
Root Folder |
An encoder may publish to the default publishing point location as defined by an instance's publishing point URL. Sample publishing point URL: rtmp://fso.oxr.0001.{Base Domain}/240001/myinstance
|
Relative Path |
An encoder may publish to a subdirectory of the location defined by the instance's publishing point URL. This type of setup requires that an identical relative path be appended to the playback URL. Sample publishing point URL: rtmp://fso.oxr.0001.{Base Domain}/240001/myinstance/sales/videos
Sample playback URL: http://wpc.0001.{Base Domain}/240001/myinstance/sales/videos
|
The player's URL file extension determines the streaming solution that will be leveraged by the media player.
HTTP Live Streaming:
MPEG-DASH:
Configure a media player to playback a specific stream by modifying the desired instance's playback URL to point to the stream generated by the encoder. This stream name should exclude the specified live authentication key.
Encoder's Stream Name:
Playback URL's Stream Name:
Encoding multiple streams of varying quality and then referencing them within a playback URL allows a media player to vary the stream's bit rate quality to provide an optimal viewing experience. Specifically, the media player will analyze a user's environment at frequent intervals and dynamically choose the stream that provides the highest bit rate quality that the client can support without causing buffering or stuttering.
This capability requires the following:
The player URL for multiple streams must identify each stream generated by the encoder. Multiple streams can be specified within a single URL by following the file naming conventions described below.
The terms prefix and suffix refer to the portions of the stream name that appear before and after, respectively, the %b parameter.
Filename Conventions:
All streams must have a common prefix.
Example:
The end of the prefix should be indicated with a comma. This should be followed by a comma-delimited list of the bit rate values used to identify each unique stream. Append a comma after the final bit rate level.
Example:
Each specified bit rate stream should only include the total bit rate quality in Kbps. Including any other data or using different units will generate a malformed playlist.
A suffix identifies the portion of the stream name that extends beyond the comma-delimited list of bit rate values used to identify each unique stream. If a suffix has been specified, then it may be appended after the last comma.
The suffix for the following sample streams is "kbps."
Append the suffix after the last comma.
Example:
CDN URL:
CDN URL:
http://wpc.ANThis term represents your customer account number (e.g., 0001) which can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the MCC..{Base Domain}/24ANThis term represents your customer account number (e.g., 0001) which can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the MCC./Instance/Path/Prefix,BitRate1,BitRate2,BitRateN,Suffix.FilenameExtension
In this example, an encoder is configured as follows:
Configuration | Description |
---|---|
Stream Name |
mystream%b?myglobalkey |
Streams |
The total bit rate for each stream generated by the encoder is listed below.
|
The base stream name is:
The following value should be appended to the base stream name:
After inserting this name into the playback URL, it should look like:
The playback URL should now be similar to one the following URLs:
HTTP Live Streaming:
MPEG-DASH: