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HLS video streaming has taken over as king of the video formats. Once upon a time, Adobe’s Flash video technology was ubiquitous. But, as quickly as night turns to day, new video standards were adopted. Now, the HLS video streaming protocol combined with the broad use of HTML5 video players has become the new standard for video content delivery.
For both broadcasters and viewers, this is a mostly positive change. Firstly, HTML5 and HLS are open specifications. This means that users can modify them, and anyone can access them. Secondly, the newer HLS and HTML5 streaming protocols are safer, more reliable and faster than earlier technologies. HTML5 and HLS live streaming technologies provide content producers of all kinds significant advantages for today’s content world.
If you aren’t already, you need to get up-to-speed on these rapid changes — the quality of your content depends on it. Whether you’re live event streaming or want to stream live from your website, ensuring your content can be properly viewed across all streaming platforms with the utmost quality is vital.
In this article, we’ll delve deep into the role of HTML5 video streaming with regard to HLS. More specifically, we’ll cover streaming protocol definitions and provide you with the details you need to know. By the end, you’ll be equipped with the understanding and the know-how to get you up to speed on the importance and benefits of HLS streaming as it relates to content today.
Did you know that Mslive is a powerful live-streaming platform with the key features you need to get up and running quickly and effortlessly? Mslive now offers HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) on the Akamai CDN.
What Is HLS Streaming, and How Does it Work?
HLS is a live streaming protocol that is considered the video delivery “technology of now.”
HLS stands for HTTP Live Streaming. In short, HLS is a media streaming protocol for delivering visual and audio media to viewers over the internet. Apple launched the HTTP live streaming (HLS) protocol in the summer of 2009. Apple created the protocol to coincide with the release of the iPhone 3 due to issues with accessing streaming content.
The original iPhone and the iPhone 2 had issues accessing video content due to switching between Wi-Fi and mobile networks while people were watching video content. Before Apple released HLS, most early smartphones used Quicktime Streaming Server as their media streaming standard. Quicktime was an important tool; however, it used non-standard ports for data transfer, which resulted in firewalls blocking the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) used for the Quicktime streaming server.
These limitations, combined with slow internet speeds in smartphones’ early days, resulted in the end of the Quicktime Streaming Server.
HTTP Live Streaming protocols learned from the drawbacks of Quicktime Streaming Services, and the protocol was made so that it wouldn’t get blocked by a firewall. Due to this and many other features, HTTP Live Streaming has become one of the most used streaming protocols.
A Basic Breakdown: How Does HLS Work?
We’ve covered the matter-of-fact definition of HLS, but before we move on to an equally technical overview of how this protocol works, we’re going to go back to the basics. As we’ve mentioned, HLS is an important protocol for live streaming.
The live streaming process compatible with the greatest number of devices and browsers looks a little bit like this:
1. Capturing devices (cameras, microphones, etc.) capture the content.
2. The content is sent to a live video encoder from the capturing device.
3. The encoder transmits the content to the video hosting platform via HTTP.
4. The video hosting platform uses HLS ingest to transmit the content to an HTML5 video player.
This process requires two main software solutions: a live video HLS encoder and a powerful video hosting platform.
If you choose to stream with HLS, you’ll want to ensure that both software offers the protocols and features we mentioned. HTML5 video players powered by HLS are great for reaching the largest audience since this duo is practically universal. Mslive is a feature-rich live video streaming solution that includes HLS streaming and a customizable, white-label HTML5 video player.
Key Benefits of HLS Streaming
HLS streaming is laden with benefits for professional broadcasters and newcomers to the live and on-demand video content world alike.
Many vital benefits come with utilizing HLS streaming, including:
Wide Compatibility
A key benefit of this protocol is its compatibility features. Unlike other streaming formats, HLS is compatible with many devices and firewalls. However, latency (or lag time) tends to be in the 15-30 second range with HLS live streams. You need to use other tools to get quick HLS streaming.
That’s certainly an essential factor to keep in mind. Mslive now offers an HLS direct low latency streaming feature, which works with any HLS-compatible encoder. With a low latency streaming feature, you can overcome the long latency associated with HLS streaming.
Encoding at Multiple Quality Settings
Versatility makes HLS video streaming stand out from the pack. On the server side, content creators often have the option to encode the same live stream at multiple quality settings. In turn, viewers can dynamically request the best option available, given their specific bandwidth at any given moment. In other words, the data quality can differ from chunk to chunk to fit different streaming device capabilities.
That’s known as multi-bitrate streaming and is a tool that helps enhance one’s viewing experience and results in happier viewers of your content.
That’s best explained with an example. Let’s say, in one moment, you’re sending a full high-definition video. Moments later, a mobile user encounters a “dead zone” in which their quality of service declines. With HLS streaming, this is not an issue. The player will detect this decline in bandwidth and instead deliver lower-quality movie chunks at this time. HLS streaming allows you to provide the best viewing experience to your viewers. HLS also supports closed captions embedded in the video stream.
To learn more about the technical aspects of HLS, we recommend the extensive documentation and best practices provided by Apple.
Scalability
HLS is highly scalable for delivering live streams and video content across global content delivery networks (CDNs) using ordinary web servers. CDNs share the workload across a network of servers to accommodate a spike in viewership and larger-than-expected live audiences.
CDNs also cache video and audio segments to help deliver a high-quality video streaming experience and improve the viewer experience.
Other benefits of HLS streaming include ad insertion through the VPAID and VAST interfaces, cross-device compatibility, and piracy protection with extensive support for DRM technologies.
Comparing HLS Streaming to Other Video Streaming Protocols
Over the years, tech companies have introduced several new streaming solutions into the market through media streaming protocols. Generally, each of these solutions aims to expand video streaming possibilities.
However, industry conflicts can arise similar to the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format wars or the even older Betamax vs. VHS showdown. HLS is currently the best option for streaming media protocols, but it wasn’t always that way—nor will it remain so forever. Let’s review several past and current streaming protocols to understand better the innovations of the HLS streaming protocol offers today.
1. Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP)
Macromedia developed RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) in the mid-2000s. Many know this protocol simply as Flash, designed for audio and video streaming. Macromedia later merged with Adobe, which now develops RTMP as a semi-open standard. RTMP streams media over TCP or UDP protocols, unlike HLS, which uses the HTTP protocol. RTMP is no longer the standard for live video streaming, but it still has a place in the process and is mainly used behind the scenes.
For much of the past decade, RTMP was the default video streaming method on the internet. But with the recent rise of HLS, we’ve seen a decline in the usage of RTMP.
Even today, most streaming video hosting services work with RTMP encoders to ingest live streams via HLS.
In other words, broadcasters deliver their streams to their chosen video platform in RTMP stream format. Then, the OVP usually delivers those streams to viewers via HLS, including in-China video hosting, which Mslive now offers. Even this legacy use of RTMP streams is beginning to fade in recent years. More and more CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) are beginning to depreciate RTMP support.
2. Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH)
The newest entry in the streaming protocol format wars is MPEG-DASH. The DASH stands for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming (over HTTP). MPEG-DASH comes with several advantages. First, it is the first international standard streaming protocol based on HTTP. This feature has helped to quicken the process of widespread adoption.
For now, MPEG-DASH is a relatively new protocol and isn’t widely used across the streaming industry. However, like the rest of the industry, we expect MPEG-DASH to become the de facto standard for streaming within a couple of years. One major advantage of MPEG-DASH is that this protocol is “codec agnostic.” Simply put, this means that the video or media files sent via MPEG-DASH can utilize a variety of encoding formats.
These encoding formats include supported standards like H.264 (as with the HLS streaming protocol) and next-gen video formats like HEVC/H.265 and VP10. And like HLS, MPEG-DASH is an adaptive bitrate streaming video method.
So, who wins the MPEG-DASH vs. HLS battle? The truth is that there’s not much difference between the two. Both can deliver high-quality HD streaming, which is the priority for broadcasters. They also support higher resolution video, including 4k video resolution. However, HLS gets an edge over MPEG-DASH because it offers wider compatibility. HLS provides the features and compatibility you need along.
But we’ve mentioned that MPEG-DASH is a relatively new protocol, so maybe we should give it time. Despite its wide adoption and support, HLS has not been published as an international standard. MPEG-DASH is an international standard.
3. Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
Real-time streaming protocol, or RTSP for short, is a protocol that helps manage and control live stream content rather than transmitting the content. It is considered a “presentation layer protocol.” It is a pretty old protocol, initially developed in the late 1990s. RTSP was developed in collaboration with Columbia University, Real Network, and Netscape.
RTSP is known for having extremely low streaming latency, which is undoubtedly a plus. Unfortunately, this protocol comes with a slew of limitations.
Because of its low streaming latency, RTSP requires a constant and stable network connection. Unstable networks will result in dropped frames, macro blocking, and other visual artifacts. Android and iOS devices also don’t have RTSP-compatible players, hence rarely used.
Additionally, RTSP also cannot easily be cached for widespread distribution. That’s why it’s rarely used for internet-based content streaming. It’s best suited for networks where the operator has end-to-end control of the network environment. RTSP remains standard in many surveillance and closed-circuit television (CCTV) architectures because RTSP support is still ubiquitous in IP cameras.
4. Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC)
Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) is a free, open-source technology released by Google and Ericsson in 2011 to enable real-time video, audio, and data communication without plugins. It’s used to allow real-time video and audio communication inside web pages. While still a relatively new protocol, WebRTC has gained the support of major players in the industry, such as Microsoft, Opera, Mozilla, and even Apple, among others.
Its adoption on mobile platforms and in the IoT space has been increasing steadily.
But WebRTC still lacks the scalability that HLS offers. The intense bandwidth configuration required to support multiple peer connections cannot go beyond a few thousand connections.
5. Secure Reliable Transport (SRT)
Like WebRTC, SRT is a relatively new streaming protocol. It was developed by Haivision, a leading player in the online streaming space, in 2017. It’s an open-source technology that aims to minimize the effects of jitter, bandwidth changes, and packet loss to optimize the streaming experience. Industry experts consider it the future of live streaming due to its security, reliability, and low latency streaming.
Haivision created the SRT Alliance, a group of companies in the tech and telecommunications industry, to help bring SRT into the mainstream live-streaming space. Currently, the best way to access SRT is by using technology founded by or backed by any SRT Alliance members.
SRT supports all types of video and audio codecs. It also supports all transport and package formats. However, Haivision does not specify playback support and the segment duration for SRT.
If you want to be on the cutting edge of video streaming protocols, consider adapting SRT. It is considered the future of streaming alongside HLS, WebRTC, and MPEG-DASH. SRT makes it easy to traverse firewalls without needing help, and it’s economical to deploy over the existing network infrastructure.
One Drawback of HLS Streaming
HLS streaming does have one disadvantage, which we mentioned above. Namely, it has a relatively higher latency than some other protocols. That means that HLS streams are not quite as “live” as the term live streaming suggests. Generally, with HLS, viewers can experience delays of up to 30 seconds (or more, in some cases). That means that if you’re streaming a video, it’ll take 30 seconds to reach the viewer, so they see the content as close to live as possible.
That can be an issue if you are streaming something like a sporting event, where people may be commenting on the event, and you don’t want a large delay between what is happening and when your viewers see the content.
However, this delay is manageable with many live streams, such as a conference or a graduation ceremony. That said, this isn’t a problem for most broadcasters. Most live streams can handle that delay without causing user dissatisfaction. One protocol that works well to reduce latency with HLS video streaming is Low-Latency CMAF for DASH. This protocol works with the content delivery network and HTML5 video player to carry the weight where HLS streaming is lacking.
If you’re streaming something such as live sports, you should use this; if you don’t want a long delay, you should use this. Using tools such as CMAF allow you to overcome one of the few drawbacks of using HLS video streaming.
Another (minor) drawback worth noting is that HLS streaming requires at least three segments to remain in the queue before it allows video playback.
HTML5 Video Streaming With HLS
HTML5 video players are essentially the universal, all-device video player.
The HLS protocol has become the go-to approach for streaming content with HTML5 video players. If you’re not familiar with HTML5 video streaming, it’s one of the three main approaches to video streaming today. With HTML5, the content-hosting website uses native HTTP to stream the media directly to viewers. Content tags (e.g., <video> tag) are included as part of the HTML code. As a result, the <video> tag creates a native HTML5 video player within your browser.
These tags provide direction to the HTTP protocol (HLS) and what to do with this content. HTTP displays the text, and an audio player plays audio content.
Like HLS, HTML5 is customizable for broadcasters and free for viewers. To learn more, you can check out our related post on optimizing HTML5 video players with HLS. We’ve also written extensively about the transition from Flash-based video (usually delivered via RTMP) to HTML5 video (usually delivered using HLS). Check out our “Flash is Dead” RTMP-focused blog post for more on that subject, including why it’s important to use an HTML5 video player.
If you’re streaming over the Mslive, you’re already using a fully compatible HTML5 video player. Content delivered via Mslive defaults to HTML5 delivery.
However, it’ll use Flash as a backup method if HTML5 is not supported on a given device or browser. That means that even older devices with flash will have no problem playing your content over your Mslive account. Of course, some broadcasters may prefer to use a custom video player. Luckily, it’s quite simple to embed your HLS stream within any video player.
For example, if you’re using JW Player, insert the M3U8 reference URL into the code for your video player. Here’s a visual example: var playerInstance = jwplayer(“myElement”); playerInstance.setup({ file: “/assets/myVideoStream.m3u8”, image: “/assets/myPoster.jpg” });
Another note about using HLS and an HTML5 video player with Mslive is that Mslive uses the THEOplayer. THEOplayer is a universal video player that can be embedded in websites, mobile apps, and any platform you can think of. As mentioned before, compatibility is critical when choosing video players and protocols since you want to reach the most people possible.
Final Thoughts
There’s no doubt about it, HLS is the new standard. It’s widely supported, provides high-quality video delivery and it’s robust. It runs on almost any server and can be viewed on most devices. It’s a dream for businesses, organizations, and content creators of all kinds.
Now you should have a better grasp of what HLS is, its benefits, and when to use it. Further, you should now better understand HLS streaming technology and its future. Overall, It provides creators and viewers with a vast array of tools for live streaming such as live broadcasting over Mslive’s live streaming platform.
On that, consider delivering your first HLS live stream today with Mslive’s powerful video streaming solution. Try it today. It’s risk-free.
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