/flashls

HLS Flash Plugin/Player (Chromeless,OSMF,FlowPlayer,mediaelement.js,video.js)

Primary LanguageActionScriptMozilla Public License 2.0MPL-2.0

flashls

An Open-source HLS Flash plugin that allows you to play HLS streams.

The plugin is compatible with the following players:

Features

Supported M3U8 tags

  • #EXTM3U
  • #EXTINF
  • #EXT-X-STREAM-INF (Multiple bitrate)
  • #EXT-X-ENDLIST (VoD / Live playlist)
  • #EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE
  • #EXT-X-TARGETDURATION
  • #EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY
  • #EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY-SEQUENCE
  • #EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME (optional, used to synchronize time-stamps and sequence number when switching from one level to another)
  • #EXT-X-KEY (AES-128 method supported only)
  • #EXT-X-BYTERANGE

Configuration

The plugin accepts several optional configuration options, such as:

  • hls_debug (default false) - Toggle debug traces, outputted on JS console
  • hls_debug2 (default false) - Toggle verbose debug traces, outputted on JS console
  • hls_minbufferlength (default -1) - Minimum buffer length in seconds that needs to be reached before playback can start (after seeking) or restart (in case of empty buffer)
    • If set to -1 some heuristics based on past metrics are used to define an accurate value that should prevent buffer to stall
  • hls_lowbufferlength (default 3) - Low buffer threshold in seconds. When crossing down this threshold, HLS will switch to buffering state, usually the player will report this buffering state through a rotating icon. Playback will still continue.
  • hls_maxbufferlength (default 60) - Maximum buffer length in seconds (0 means infinite buffering)
  • hls_startfrombitrate (default -1)
  • If greater than 0, specifies the preferred bitrate to start with.
  • If -1, and hls_startfromlevel is not specified, automatic start level selection will be used.
  • This parameter, if set, will take priority over hls_startfromlevel.
  • hls_startfromlevel (default -1)
  • from 0 to 1 : indicates the "normalized" preferred bitrate. As such,
    • if 0, lowest non-audio bitrate is used,
    • if 1, highest bitrate is used,
    • if 0.5, the closest to the middle bitrate will be selected and used first.
  • -1 : automatic start level selection, playback will start from level matching download bandwidth (determined from download of first segment)
  • hls_seekfromlevel (default -1) - If set to true, playback will start from lowest non-audio level after any seek operation. If set to false, playback will start from level used before seeking
  • from 0 to 1 : indicates the "normalized" preferred bitrate. As such,
    • if 0, lowest non-audio bitrate is used,
    • if 1, highest bitrate is used,
    • if 0.5, the closest to the middle bitrate will be selected and used first.
  • -1 : automatic seek level selection, keep level before seek.
  • hls_live_flushurlcache (default false) - If set to true, Live playlist will be flushed from URL cache before reloading (this is to workaround some cache issues with some combination of Flash Player / IE version)
  • hls_seekmode
    • "ACCURATE" - Seek to exact position
    • "KEYFRAME" - Seek to last keyframe before requested position
    • "SEGMENT" - Seek to beginning of segment containing requested position
  • hls_manifestloadmaxretry (default -1): max number of Manifest load retries after I/O Error.
    • if any I/O error is met during initial Manifest load, it will not be reloaded. an HLSError will be triggered immediately.
    • After initial load, any I/O error will trigger retries every 1s,2s,4s,8s (exponential, capped to 64s). please note specific handling for these 2 values :
      • 0, means no retry, error message will be triggered automatically
      • -1 means infinite retry
  • hls_keyloadmaxretry (default -1): max number of key load retries after I/O Error.
    • any I/O error will trigger retries every 1s,2s,4s,8s (exponential, capped to 64s). please note specific handling for these 2 values :
      • 0, means no retry, error message will be triggered automatically
      • -1 means infinite retry
  • hls_fragmentloadmaxretry (default -1): max number of Fragment load retries after I/O Error.
    • any I/O error will trigger retries every 1s,2s,4s,8s (exponential, capped to 64s). please note specific handling for these 2 values :
      • 0, means no retry, error message will be triggered automatically
      • -1 means infinite retry
  • hls_capleveltostage (default false) : limit levels usable in auto-quality by the stage dimensions (width and height)
    • true : level width and height (defined in m3u8 playlist) will be compared with the player width and height (stage.stageWidth and stage.stageHeight). Max level will be set depending on the hls_maxlevelcappingmode option. Note: this setting is ignored in manual mode so all the levels could be selected manually.
    • false : levels will not be limited. All available levels could be used in auto-quality mode taking only bandwidth into consideration.
  • hls_maxlevelcappingmode (default downscale) : defines the max level capping mode to the one available in HLSMaxLevelCappingMode:
    • "downscale" - max capped level should be the one with the dimensions equal or greater than the stage dimensions (so the video will be downscaled)
    • "upscale" - max capped level should be the one with the dimensions equal or lower than the stage dimensions (so the video will be upscaled)
  • hls_usehardwarevideodecoder (default true) : enable/disable hardware video decoding. it could be useful to workaround hardware video decoding issues.

Examples :

Usage

  • Download flashls from https://github.com/mangui/flashls/releases
  • Unzip, extract and upload the appropiate version to your server
  • In the examples directory you will find examples for ChromelessPlayer, Flowplayer, Strobe Media Playback (SMP) and GrindPlayer

Setup

Flowplayer

FlowPlayer/flashls setup is described here : http://flash.flowplayer.org/plugins/streaming/flashls.html please also refer to example below if you want to use specific configuration options:

flowplayer("player", 'http://releases.flowplayer.org/swf/flowplayer-3.2.12.swf', {
  // Flowplayer configuration options
  // ...
  plugins: {
    httpstreaming: {
      // flashls configuration options
      url: 'flashlsFlowPlayer.swf',
      hls_debug: false,
      hls_debug2: false,
      hls_lowbufferlength: 3,
      hls_minbufferlength: 8,
      hls_maxbufferlength: 60,
      hls_startfromlowestlevel: false,
      hls_seekfromlowestlevel: false,
      hls_live_flushurlcache: false,
      hls_seekmode: 'ACCURATE',
      hls_capleveltostage: false,
      hls_maxlevelcappingmode: 'downscale'
    }
  }
});

Strobe Media Playback (SMP) and other OSMF based players

var playerOptions = {
  // Strobe Media Playback configuration options
  // ...
  source: 'http://example.com/stream.m3u8',
  // flashls configuration options
  plugin_hls: "flashlsOSMF.swf",
  hls_debug: false,
  hls_debug2: false,
  hls_minbufferlength: -1,
  hls_lowbufferlength: 2,
  hls_maxbufferlength: 60,
  hls_startfromlowestlevel: false,
  hls_seekfromlowestlevel: false,
  hls_live_flushurlcache: false,
  hls_seekmode: 'ACCURATE',
  hls_capleveltostage: false,
  hls_maxlevelcappingmode: 'downscale'
};

swfobject.embedSWF('StrobeMediaPlayback.swf', 'player', 640, 360, '10.2', null, playerOptions, {
  allowFullScreen: true,
  allowScriptAccess: 'always',
  bgColor: '#000000',
  wmode: 'opaque'
}, {
  name: 'player'
});

Building

Run FLEXPATH=/path/to/flex/sdk sh ./build.sh inside the build directory

FLEXPATH should point to your Flex SDK location (i.e. /opt/local/flex/4.6)

After a successful build you will find fresh binaries in the bin/debug and bin/release directories

License

Donation

If you'd like to support future development and new product features, please make a donation via PayPal. These donations are used to cover my ongoing expenses - web hosting, domain registrations, and software and hardware purchases.

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