What is HLS (Https Live Streaming), and what can it be used for?
In: Technology
Back in the day if you wanted to stream audio or video, it required proprietary server software and proprietary user software, including popular options from RealNetworks. The media came in on various ports, not used for normal web browsing, and were frequently blocked by network administrators.
Apple developed HLS as an alternative based on open industry standards. It breaks the media into a series of short chunks, which are then downloaded over regular HTTP(S), just like other web traffic. It’s similar to a podcast in that there’s a main URL with links to the individual episodes, except in this case each episode is a *very* short chunk, and it’s refreshing with new links as the live broadcast continues.
It’s a way to deliver video, either live video (likes live sports game) or not (like a music video or something from YouTube), over the Internet or any computer network really.
It’s clever because it splits the video up in to small chunks and sends them one by one very quickly and the receiving computer pieces then back together to display the video.
It all happens so quick that if one chunk gets missed, it can be resent without the person watching the video noticing even in a live broadcast (which carry a few seconds delay to allow for this).
It’s also clever because it’s adaptive which means that if the network between the sender and receiver is slow, it can send lower quality video automatically. The video looks worse but will actually play without stuttering out having to stop the video and pick another smaller one.
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