HLS Playlist Generator

Calculates HLS segment lengths using key frames and optionally generates m3u8 playlist.

Background

When direct streaming a video via HLS, the segment lengths are determined by the keyframes.

In order to generate an accurate playlist, hls-playlist-generator first extracts keyframes using ffprobe, mp4box, or matroska depending on the container, then selects correct segments lengths that ffmpeg would use based on target segment length.

.mp4 files will use mp4box to extract keyframes (takes < 1s)
.mkv files will use matroska to extract keyframes (takes < 1s)
all other containers will use ffprobe (takes 1 - 30s)

(Thanks to Ivshti/retrieve-keyframes for the fast .mp4 and .mkv keyframe extraction)

Requirements

ffprobe

Installation

npm install hls-playlist-generator

or for CLI

npm install -g hls-playlist-generator

or use CLI without installing via NPX

npx hls-playlist-generator 'path-to/media-file.mkv'

Usage

var hpg = require('hls-playlist-generator')

// Write the .m3u8 playlist to the output file - Returns number of segments
hpg('./path-to/media-file.mkv', './path-to/playlist.m3u8')

// Return an array of segment lengths with target length 6
hpg('./path-to/media-file.mkv', null, { segmentLength: 6 })

// or target length defaults to 3
hpg('./path-to/media-file.mkv')


// If generating multiple playlists for multiple qualities, keyframes only need to be fetched once, so you should use this method:
var segments = await hpg.segments('./path-to/media-file.mkv', { segmentLength: 3 })
// Last parameter specifies name of segments, i.e. "720p" will create 720p1.ts, 720p2.ts, 720p3.ts, ...
var v480p = hpg.generate(segments, './streams/480p.m3u8', '480p')
var v720p = hpg.generate(segments, './streams/720p.m3u8', '720p')
var v1080p = hpg.generate(segments, './streams/1080p.m3u8', '1080p')
await Promise.all([v480p, v720p, v1080p])

// If you just want keyframes
var keyframes = await hpg.extract('./path-to/media.mkv')

CLI Usage

# Write the .m3u8 playlist to the output file
hls-playlist-generator "C:/Path with spaces/movie.mkv" "./playlist.m3u8"

# Return an array of segment lengths
hls-playlist-generator "C:/Path with spaces/movie.mkv"

# or specify segment length
hls-playlist-generator "C:/Path with spaces/movie.mkv" --segment-length 6

# Get all available options
hls-playlist-generator -h

License

MIT