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https://github.com/t-mullen/hls-server

Middleware for serving HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) compatible media streams.
https://github.com/t-mullen/hls-server

hls hls-live-streaming video-streaming

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Middleware for serving HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) compatible media streams.

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README 

        
# hls-server

[![JavaScript Style Guide](https://img.shields.io/badge/code_style-standard-brightgreen.svg)](https://standardjs.com)

[![Travis](https://travis-ci.org/t-mullen/hls-server.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/t-mullen/hls-server)



Simple HTTP middleware for serving HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) compatible media streams.  



## Usage

First you need a compatible media stream (see [Producing Streams](#producing-streams)).



Fast way:

```javascript

require('hls-server')(8000)

```



Detailed way:

```javascript

var HLSServer = require('hls-server')

var http = require('http')



var server = http.createServer()

var hls = new HLSServer(server, {

  path: '/streams',     // Base URI to output HLS streams

  dir: 'public/videos'  // Directory that input files are stored

})

server.listen(8000)

```



### Producing Streams

HLS can only stream files that have been properly encoded and segmented. FFMPEG is great for this.  

Here is how to do it with [node-fluent-ffmpeg](https://github.com/fluent-ffmpeg/node-fluent-ffmpeg).



```javascript

var ffmpeg = require('fluent-ffmpeg')



function callback() { // do something when encoding is done }



// Below is FFMPEG converting MP4 to HLS with reasonable options.

// https://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-formats.html#hls-2

fmpeg('input.mp4', { timeout: 432000 }).addOptions([

    '-profile:v baseline', // baseline profile (level 3.0) for H264 video codec

    '-level 3.0', 

    '-s 640x360',          // 640px width, 360px height output video dimensions

    '-start_number 0',     // start the first .ts segment at index 0

    '-hls_time 10',        // 10 second segment duration

    '-hls_list_size 0',    // Maxmimum number of playlist entries (0 means all entries/infinite)

    '-f hls'               // HLS format

  ]).output('public/videos/output.m3u8').on('end', callback).run()

```



To create segments from an existing RTMP stream, use the following [node-fluent-ffmpeg](https://github.com/fluent-ffmpeg/node-fluent-ffmpeg) command. You can expect several seconds of latency, depending on hardware.



```javascript

var ffmpeg = require('fluent-ffmpeg')



// host, port and path to the RTMP stream

var host = 'localhost'

var port = '1935'

var path = '/live/test'



function callback() { // do something when stream ends and encoding finshes }



fmpeg('rtmp://'+host+':'+port+path, { timeout: 432000 }).addOptions([

    '-c:v libx264',

    '-c:a aac',

    '-ac 1',

    '-strict -2',

    '-crf 18',

    '-profile:v baseline',

    '-maxrate 400k',

    '-bufsize 1835k',

    '-pix_fmt yuv420p',

    '-hls_time 10',

    '-hls_list_size 6',

    '-hls_wrap 10',

    '-start_number 1'

  ]).output('public/videos/output.m3u8').on('end', callback).run()

```



## Using In-Memory Streams

By default, this module assumes files are kept in a directory on the local filesystem. If you want to stream files from another source (or don't want to relate URL paths to filesystem paths), you can specify a provider in the options like so:



```javascript

var hls = new HLSServer(server, {

  provider: {

    exists: function (req, callback) { // check if a file exists (always called before the below methods)

      callback(null, true)                 // File exists and is ready to start streaming

      callback(new Error("Server Error!")) // 500 error

      callback(null, false)                // 404 error

    },

    getManifestStream: function (req, callback) { // return the correct .m3u8 file

      // "req" is the http request

      // "callback" must be called with error-first arguments

      callback(null, myNodeStream)

      // or

      callback(new Error("Server error!"), null)

    },

    getSegmentStream: function (req, callback) { // return the correct .ts file

      callback(null, myNodeStream)

    }

  }

})

```



See `src/fsProvider.js` for the default provider using the local filesystem.



## CLI Tool



This package includes a CLI tool that can be installed globally with `npm install -g hls-server`.



To use, navigate to the directory where your `.ts` files are stored and run `hlsserver` in a command prompt. This will start a server on port 8000. (Use `hlsserver --help` to see additional options.)



The CLI tool will efficiently make use of multiple processors via the `cluster` module and can be used as an example of how to use the base module in the same way.



## Notes



To publish from an RTMP client like OBS, use a RTMP server like [rtmp-server-nodejs](https://github.com/RationalCoding/rtmp-server-nodejs) to echo the stream (direct streaming from that module is being worked on).



*NOTE: Transcoding live streams is very CPU-intensive. Most consumer hardware won't be able to handle transcoding more than a few streams.*