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Is it possible to do HLS with an Apache web server? Would it be enough to "put here the playlist with data chunks"? Is it that simple? Or is there some module, which can be used for that purpose?

Thanks a lot for the reply

Leonardo Marques
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STeN
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  • The VideoLan wiki has [a how to for HLS streaming](http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo/Streaming_for_the_iPhone#Formats_supported_by_the_iOS), where it relies on a separate web server (could be Apache) to stream the content. I'm planning to try this out to view my HD Homerun on my Roku. I'll edit after I try it out. – technomalogical Mar 21 '12 at 17:33

2 Answers2

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Yes, it's sufficient to merely have the m3u8 and segmented ts files available. The benefit of HLS is that it is bog simple HTTP.

It's possible that you'll have to setup the mime types in Apache, but it's probably correct by default.

vipw
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  • Thanks a lot. Did you done any performance tests? Do you have personal experience with it or any articles about that? Can you compare it to some existing streaming server, e.g. WOWZA? – STeN Jun 13 '11 at 08:37
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    Apache will have far less overhead than Wowza. Wowza segments the source file as needed, before serving it. With static files, there's absolutely no processing overhead. Wowza is of course much more flexible and allows things like live sources, per client encryption, and other streaming types. – vipw Jun 13 '11 at 11:25
  • can you give an example for this. i have m3u8 and ts files but apache is not serving. i couldn't find how to configure it. – Susaj S N Feb 28 '19 at 07:37
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There are surely apache2 modules for doing that. My personal choice for streaming audio and video and especially Video-On-Demand however is vlc. Great funcionality for recoding, adopting your output to what ever client wants to view it, etc. etc. Maybe worth a look.

Hyperboreus
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  • Hi, by mentioning VLC did you mean http://www.videolan.org/vlc/streaming.html? Is it really capable to stream HLS? Do you have any performance analysis for 100 parallel streams, each ~ 3.5 Mbps bitrate? Thanks a lot STeN – STeN May 25 '11 at 17:25
  • Yes, I meant video lan client. What you can recode depends on what codecs you have on your machine. Sorry, I do not have experiences with such high a load, as I only use it at home, so that my children can watch different movies at the same time on their iPads. So my maximum of concurrent streams was the incredibly high number of three until now. – Hyperboreus May 25 '11 at 17:32
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    VLC's http streaming is progressive, not HLS. There is experimental HLS server support available, there are instructions here: http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?p=173028 – vipw Jun 12 '11 at 21:43
  • Hi Hyperboreus and vipw as well. Thanks for great and valuable comments! I will try it. Just in case - do you know some open source HLS implementation? I have very quickly checked the size of IETF HLS draft and it seems to be pretty simple... – STeN Jun 15 '11 at 05:20
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    @STeN ffmpeg has HLS client support. Boxee also. – vipw Nov 16 '11 at 16:22
  • FYI, the HLS support has been rolled into the main product since 1.2 I believe. I posted another answer with more details. – technomalogical Mar 21 '12 at 17:37