hls-client

This is a simple Python HTTP Live Streaming Client. It consumes a list of remote playlists, and saves all needed files to serve the playlist locally: the key, segments, and a modified m3u8 with paths normalized.

It also supports backups, i.e., if the same playlist is available on more than one server, it will track each server status and will switch to the backup if needed.

Through the config.ini it's possible to customize where the files will be saved and what is the URL that provides servers info via JSON.

The JSON must be something like:

{
    "streams": [
        "nasa": {
            "input-path": "/msfc/Edge.m3u8",
            servers: [
                "http://liveips.nasa.gov.edgesuite.net"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Variant Playlist Generation

hlslcient can consume multiple playlists and generate a variant playlists grouping then.

To do so, include a bandwidth for each stream and add an action to combine them in the JSON:

{
    "streams": {
        "Nasa-low": {
            "input-path": "/msfc/Edge.m3u8",
            "servers": ["http://liveips.nasa.gov.edgesuite.net"],
            "bandwidth": 254082
        },
        "Nasa-medium": {
            "input-path": "/msfc/3G.m3u8",
            "servers": ["http://liveips.nasa.gov.edgesuite.net"],
            "bandwidth": 460658
        },
        "Nasa-high": {
            "input-path": "/msfc/Wifi.m3u8",
            "servers": ["http://liveips.nasa.gov.edgesuite.net"],
            "bandwidth": 1080434
        }
    },

    "actions": [
        {
            "type": "combine",
            "input": ["Nasa-low", "Nasa-medium", "Nasa-high"],
            "output": "/msfc/nasa_mbr.m3u8"
        }
    ]
}

Transcoding

hlsclient is also able to create an audio only track from a video stream using FFMPEG.

To do so, add a transcode action an include the new stream on a combine action:

"actions": [
    {
        "type": "combine",
        "input": ["Nasa-audio-only", "Nasa-low", "Nasa-medium", "Nasa-high"],
        "output": "/msfc/nasa_mbr.m3u8"
    },
    {
        "type": "transcode",
        "input": "Nasa-low",
        "output": {
            "audio": {
                "Nasa-audio-only": {
                    "path": "Nasa-audio-only.m3u8",
                    "audio-bitrate": 64000,
                    "bitrate": 65000
                }
            }
        }
    }
]

Encryption

If you set encryption=true in the config file, hlsclient will automatically encrypt all streams with a random AES-128 cipher.

Running

To run the client, simply run:

$ python -m hlsclient

Running tests

You will need ffmpeg and mediainfo installed.

$ ./runtests

FFmpeg Installation

In order to use the current version of hlsclient with transcoding support, you must have ffmpeg installed with libaac and libx264. Download them and compile FFfmpeg like this:

• libaac:

  ./configure && make && sudo make install
  

• libx264:

  ./configure --enable-shared && make && sudo make install
  

• FFmpeg:

  ./configure --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-nonfree --enable-shared && make && sudo make install
  

The tested versions were:

• libaac: faac-1.28
• libx264: x264-snapshot-20121030-2245
• FFmpeg: N-46213-g976175f