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ffmpeghttp-live-streamingm3u8

Create m3u8 file from list of ts files

I want to create 'm3u8' file from the list of ts files. How can I do it?

I did search in google & read documentation of ffmpeg but I didn't find anything.

Solution

  • It's not clear which of the following cases you're asking about, so here's a quick answer for both:

    1. If you're starting with a single file that contains your content This is the most common case. In general, there are three steps to creating a playable HlS stream from source material.
    • for each desired output level (let’s say Bitrate for simplicity), you need to create a collection of segmented .ts files.
    • For each output level you need a playlist manifest (m3u8) that contains the list of segment files making up the content.
    • For the whole stream you need a single master manifest (another m3u8) that lists the playlists.

    FFMpeg can do all three of these.

    1. If you're starting with a collection of .ts files If you really are starting with a collection of .ts files, you could either hand-build an m3u8 file as described in the previous answer, or you could write a script to do it.

    In either case, there are some considerations for the .ts files:

    • If the segment files do not belong to an uninterrupted sequence (as they would if they were transcoded from a single source clip for use in HLS), you’ll need to insert EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY tags between segments that don’t have the same encoding characteristics or that don’t have monotonically increasing PTS (presentation timestamp) values.

    • While the segments don't need to all be the same length, the longest one must not exceed the (integer) number of seconds specified in the EXT-X-TARGETDURATION tag.

    • "For VOD content, the average segment bit rate MUST be within 10% of the AVERAGE-BANDWIDTH attribute"

    When you've built your m3u8 file, it helps to run it through a validator to find any problems.This is a lot easier than scratching your head wondering why an HLS stream plays poorly or inconsistently across players/browsers.