Video playback with HLS
HTTP Live Streaming
(HLS)
You can use HLS for live playback. Latency is typically between 3–5 seconds, but it can be
between 1–10 seconds, depending on the use case, player, and network conditions. You can use
a third-party player (such as Video.js
To view a Kinesis video stream using HLS, first create a streaming session using GetHLSStreamingSessionURL. This action returns a URL (containing a session token) for accessing the HLS session. You can then use the URL in a media player or a standalone application to display the stream.
Important
Not all media sent to Kinesis Video Streams can be played back through HLS. See GetHLSStreamingSessionURL for specific uploading requirements.
Topics
Use the AWS CLI to retrieve an HLS streaming session URL
Follow the procedure below to use the AWS CLI to generate an HLS streaming session URL for a Kinesis video stream.
For installation instructions, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. After installation, configure the AWS CLI with credentials and region.
Alternatively, open the AWS CloudShell terminal, which has the AWS CLI installed and configured. See the AWS CloudShell User Guide for more information.
Retrieve the HLS URL endpoint for your Kinesis video stream.
Type the following into the terminal:
aws kinesisvideo get-data-endpoint \ --api-name GET_HLS_STREAMING_SESSION_URL \ --stream-nameYourStreamNameYou'll receive a response that looks like this:
{ "DataEndpoint": "https://b-1234abcd.kinesisvideo.aws-region.amazonaws.com" }Make the HLS streaming session URL request to that returned endpoint.
You'll receive a response that looks like this:
{ "HLSStreamingSessionURL": "https://b-1234abcd.kinesisvideo.aws-region.amazonaws.com/hls/v1/getHLSMasterPlaylist.m3u8?SessionToken=CiAz...DkRE6M~" }Important
Don't share or store this token where an unauthorized entity could access it. The token provides access to the content of the stream. Safeguard the token with the same measures that you would use with your AWS credentials.
You can use this URL and any HLS player to view the HLS stream.
For example, use VLC media player.
You can also play the HLS Stream by entering the HLS streaming session URL in the Location bar of the Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge browsers.
Example: Use HLS in HTML and JavaScript
The following example shows how to use the AWS SDK for JavaScript v2 to retrieve an HLS streaming session for a Kinesis video stream and play it back in a web page. The example shows how to play back video in the following players:
View the complete example code
Code walk through topics:
Import the AWS SDK for JavaScript for browsers
In the web page, include the following script tag to import the AWS SDK for JavaScript v2 into the project.
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/aws-sdk/2.490.0/aws-sdk.min.js"></script>
For more information, refer to the AWS SDK for JavaScript documentation.
Set up the Kinesis Video Streams client
To access streaming video with HLS, first create and configure the Kinesis Video Streams client. See Setting Credentials in a Web Browser for other authentication methods.
const clientConfig = { accessKeyId: 'YourAccessKey', secretAccessKey: 'YourSecretKey', region: 'us-west-2' }; const kinesisVideoClient = new AWS.KinesisVideo(clientConfig);
The application retrieves the necessary values from input boxes on the HTML page.
Retrieve the endpoint for HLS playback
Use the Kinesis Video Streams client to invoke the GetDataEndpoint API to retrieve the endpoint.
const getDataEndpointOptions = { StreamName: 'YourStreamName', APIName: 'GET_HLS_STREAMING_SESSION_URL' }; const getDataEndpointResponse = await kinesisVideoClient .getDataEndpoint(getDataEndpointOptions) .promise(); const hlsDataEndpoint = getDataEndpointResponse.DataEndpoint;
This code stores the endpoint in the hlsDataEndpoint
variable.
Set up the Kinesis Video Streams archived media client
In the client configuration for the Kinesis Video Streams archived media client, specify the endpoint that you obtained in the previous step.
const archivedMediaClientConfig = { accessKeyId: 'YourAccessKey', secretAccessKey: 'YourSecretKey', region: 'us-west-2', endpoint: hlsDataEndpoint } const kinesisVideoArchivedMediaClient = new AWS.KinesisVideoArchivedMedia(archivedMediaClientConfig);
Retrieve the HLS streaming session URL
Use the Kinesis Video Streams archived media client to invoke the GetHLSStreamingSessionURL API to retrieve the HLS playback URL.
const getHLSStreamingSessionURLOptions = { StreamName: 'YourStreamName', PlaybackMode: 'LIVE' }; const getHLSStreamingSessionURLResponse = await kinesisVideoArchivedMediaClient.getHLSStreamingSessionURL(getHLSStreamingSessionURLOptions); const hlsUrl = getHLSStreamingSessionURLResponse.HLSStreamingSessionURL;
Display the HLS stream on the web page
When you have the HLS streaming session URL, provide it to the video player. The method for providing the URL to the video player is specific to the player used.
Troubleshooting HLS issues
This section describes issues that you might encounter when using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) with Kinesis Video Streams.
Issues
Retrieving HLS streaming session URL succeeds, but playback fails in video player
This situation occurs when you can successfully retrieve an HLS streaming session
URL using GetHLSStreamingSessionURL, but the video fails to play back
when the URL is provided to a video player.
To troubleshoot this situation, try the following:
-
Determine whether the video stream plays back in the Kinesis Video Streams console. Consider any errors that the console shows.
-
If the fragment duration is less than one second, increase it to one second. If the fragment duration is too short, the service might throttle the player because it's making requests for video fragments too frequently.
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Verify that each HLS streaming session URL is being used by only one player. If more than one player is using a single HLS streaming session URL, the service might receive too many requests and throttle them.
-
Verify that your player supports all of the options that you're specifying for the HLS streaming session. Try different combinations of values for the following parameters:
-
ContainerFormat -
PlaybackMode -
FragmentSelectorType -
DiscontinuityMode -
MaxMediaPlaylistFragmentResults
Some media players (like HTML5 and mobile players) typically only support HLS with the fMP4 container format. Other media players (like Flash and custom players) might only support HLS with the MPEG TS container format. We recommend experimenting with the
ContainerFormatparameter to start troubleshooting. -
-
Verify that each fragment has a consistent number of tracks. Verify that fragments in the stream are not changing between having both an audio and video track and only a video track. Also verify that the encoder settings (resolution and frame rate) are not changing between fragments in each track.
Latency too high between producer and player
This situation occurs when the latency is too high from when the video is captured to when it is played in the video player.
Video is played back through HLS on a per-fragment basis. Therefore, latency can't
be less than fragment duration. Latency also includes the time needed for buffering
and transferring data. If your solution requires latency of less than one second,
consider using the GetMedia API instead.
You can adjust the following parameters to reduce the overall latency, but adjusting these parameters might also reduce the video quality or increase the rebuffering rate.
-
Fragment duration – The fragment duration is the amount of video between divisions in the stream as controlled by the frequency of keyframes generated by the video encoder. The recommended value is one second. Having a shorter fragment duration means that less time is spent waiting for the fragment to complete before transmitting the video data to the service. Shorter fragments are also faster for the service to process. However, if the fragment duration is too short, the probability increases that the player will run out of content and have to stop and buffer content. If the fragment duration is less than 500 milliseconds, the producer might create too many requests, causing the service to throttle them.
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Bitrate – A video stream with a lower bitrate takes less time to read, write, and transmit. However, a video stream with a lower bitrate usually has a lower video quality.
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Fragment count in media playlists – A latency-sensitive player should only load the newest fragments in a media playlist. Most players start at the earliest fragment instead. By reducing the number of fragments in the playlist, you reduce the time separation between the previous and new fragments. With a smaller playlist size, it's possible for a fragment to be skipped during playback if there's a delay in adding new fragments to the playlist, or if there's a delay in the player getting an updated playlist. We recommend using 3–5 fragments, and to use a player that's configured to load only the newest fragments from a playlist.
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Player buffer size – Most video players have a configurable minimum buffer duration, usually with a 10-second default. For the lowest latency, you can set this value to 0 seconds. However, doing so means that the player rebuffers if there's any delay producing fragments because the player will have no buffer for absorbing the delay.
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Player "catch up" – Video players typically don't automatically catch playback up to the front of the video buffer if the buffer fills up, like when a delayed fragment causes a backlog of fragments to play. A custom player can avoid this by either dropping frames, or increasing the playback speed (for example, to 1.1x) to catch up to the front of the buffer. This causes playback to be choppy or increase in speed as the player catches up, and rebuffering might be more frequent as the buffer size is kept short.
