Create m3u8 file from list of ts files
Solution 1
It's not clear which of the following cases you're asking about, so here's a quick answer for both:
- 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.
- 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:
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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.
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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.
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"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.
- mediaStreamValidator on macOS is very good https://developer.apple.com/documentation/http_live_streaming/about_apple_s_http_live_streaming_tools
- Also consider the online tool at Theo: http://inspectstream.theoplayer.com/
Solution 2
You probably want a HLS structure. There's a lot of documentation at Apple (IIRC it was invented by Apple and then got adopted widely), e.g. a draft RFC and a page with example streams.
HLS consists of two levels: a master M3U8 which references other M3U8 which in turn reference the .ts
files. You can omit the master M3U8 and just provide the "second level".
As a starting point, it may look something like this:
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:1
#EXTINF:10, no desc
media-000001.ts
#EXTINF:10, no desc
media-000002.ts
#EXTINF:10, no desc
media-000003.ts
The EXT-X-TARGETDURATION
specifies how long each .ts
file is (they must all be of the same length). It may either be a relative or absolute path.
Mohammad Hossein Gerami
Linked-In Profile Java, Scala, Python, Android, Node.Js
Updated on June 21, 2022Comments
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Mohammad Hossein Gerami almost 2 years
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.