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m3u8

m3u8 provides generation and parsing of m3u8 playlists used the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) specification created by Apple. This is useful if you wish to generate m3u8 playlists on the fly in your web application (to integrate authentication, do something custom, etc) while of course serving up the actual MPEG transport stream files (.ts) from a CDN. You could also use m3u8 to generate playlist files as part of an encoding pipeline. You can also parse existing playlists, add content to them and generate a new output.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'm3u8'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install m3u8

Usage (Generation)

require 'm3u8'

#create a master playlist and add child playlists for adaptive bitrate streaming:
playlist = M3u8::Playlist.new
options = { :width => 1920, :height => 1080, :profile => 'high', :level => 4.1, :audio => 'aac-lc'}
playlist.add_playlist '2', 'http://playlist_url_or_path_file', 50000, options

#create a standard playlist and add TS segments:
playlist = M3u8::Playlist.new
playlist.add_segment 11.344644, "1080-7mbps00000.ts"

#you can also add PlaylistItem or SegmentItem instances directly to the array of items in the playlist (new in v.2.0):
item = SegmentItem.new(duration: 11, segment: 'test.ts')
playlist.items.push item

#just get the codec string for custom use
options = { :profile => 'baseline', :level => 3.0, :audio => 'aac-lc' }
codecs = M3u8::Playlist.codecs options
 => "avc1.66.30,mp4a.40.2"

#specify options for playlist, these are ignored if playlist becomes a master playlist (child playlist added):
options = { :version => 1, :cache => false, :target => 12, :sequence => 1}
playlist = M3u8::Playlist.new options

#You can pass an IO object to the write method
require 'tempfile'
f = Tempfile.new 'test'
playlist.write f

#You can also access the playlist as a string
playlist.to_s

#values for :audio (Codec name)
#aac-lc, he-aac, mp3

#values for :profile (H.264 Profile)
#baseline, main, high

#values for :level
#3.0, 3.1, 4.0, 4.1

#not all Levels and Profiles can be combined, consult H.264 documentation

Parsing Usage (new in v.2.0)

file = File.open 'spec/fixtures/master.m3u8'
reader = M3u8::Reader.new
playlist = reader.read file
playlist.master?
 => true

#acess items in playlist:
playlist.items

playlist.items.first
  => #<M3u8::PlaylistItem:0x007fa569bc7698 @program_id="1", @resolution="1920x1080", @codecs="avc1.640028,mp4a.40.2", @bandwidth="5042000", @playlist="hls/1080-7mbps/1080-7mbps.m3u8">

Features

  • Distinction between segment and master playlists is handled automatically (no need to use a different class).
  • Automatically generates the audio/video codec string based on names and options you are familar with.
  • Provides validation of input when adding playlists or segments.
  • Allows all options to be configured on a playlist (caching, version, etc.)
  • Can write playlist to an IO object (StringIO/File, etc) or access string via to_s.
  • Can read playlists into a model (Playlist and Items) from an IO object.

Missing (but planned) Features

  • Support for encryption keys and DRM.
  • Support for more obscure tags.

Contributing

  1. Fork it ( https://github.com/sethdeckard/m3u8/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Run the specs, make sure they pass and that new features are covered
  4. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  5. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  6. Create a new Pull Request