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Design principle

design idea is pretty simple :

  • main functionalities are split into several subsystems
  • all subsystems are instantiated by the Hls instance.
  • each subsystem heavily relies on events for internal/external communications.
  • Events are handled using EventEmitter3
  • bundled for the browser by webpack

Code structure

  • src/config.js

    • definition of default Hls Config. entry point for conditional compilation (altaudio/subtitle)

  • src/errors.js

    • definition of Hls.ErrorTypes and Hls.ErrorDetails

  • src/event-handler.ts

    • helper class simplifying Hls event handling, event error catching

  • src/events.js

    • definition of Hls.Events

  • src/hls.js

    • definition of Hls Class. instantiate all subcomponents. conditionally instantiate optional subcomponents.

  • src/index.js

    • needed for ES6 export

  • src/controller/abr-controller.js

    • in charge of determining auto quality level.
    • auto quality switch algorithm is bitrate based : fragment loading bitrate is monitored and smoothed using 2 exponential weighted moving average (a fast one, to adapt quickly on bandwidth drop and a slow one, to avoid ramping up too quickly on bandwidth increase)
    • in charge of monitoring fragment loading speed (by monitoring the amount of data received from fragment loader stats.loaded counter)
    • "expected time of fragment load completion" is computed using "fragment loading instant bandwidth".
    • this time is compared to the "expected time of buffer starvation".
    • if we have less than 2 fragments buffered and if "expected time of fragment load completion" is bigger than "expected time of buffer starvation" and also bigger than duration needed to load fragment at next quality level (determined by auto quality switch algorithm), current fragment loading is aborted, and a FRAG_LOAD_EMERGENCY_ABORTED event is triggered. this event will be handled by stream-controller.

  • src/controller/audio-stream-controller.js

    • audio stream controller is in charge of filling audio buffer in case alternate audio tracks are used
    • if buffer is not filled up appropriately (i.e. as per defined maximum buffer size, it will trigger the following actions:
      • retrieve "not buffered" media position greater then current playback position. this is performed by comparing audio sourcebuffer.buffered and media.currentTime.
      • retrieve URL of fragment matching with this media position, and appropriate audio track
      • trigger KEY_LOADING event (only if fragment is encrypted)
      • trigger FRAG_LOADING event
      • trigger fragment demuxing on FRAG_LOADED
      • trigger BUFFER_CODECS on FRAG_PARSING_INIT_SEGMENT
      • trigger BUFFER_APPENDING on FRAG_PARSING_DATA
      • once FRAG_PARSED is received an all segments have been appended (BUFFER_APPENDED) then audio stream controller will recheck whether it needs to buffer more data.

  • src/controller/audio-track-controller.js

    • audio track controller is handling alternate audio track set/get ((re)loading tracks/switching)

  • src/controller/buffer-controller.js

    • in charge of:
      • resetting media buffer upon BUFFER_RESET event reception
      • initializing SourceBuffer with appropriate codecs info upon BUFFER_CODECS event reception
      • appending MP4 boxes in SourceBuffer upon BUFFER_APPENDING
      • trigger BUFFER_APPENDED event upon successful buffer appending
      • flushing specified buffer range upon reception of BUFFER_FLUSHING event
      • trigger BUFFER_FLUSHED event upon successful buffer flushing

  • src/controller/cap-level-controller.js

    • in charge of determining best quality level to actual size (dimensions: width and height) of the player

  • src/controller/fps-controller.js

    • in charge of monitoring frame rate, and fire FPS_DROP event in case FPS drop exceeds configured threshold. disabled for now.

  • src/controller/id3-track-controller.js

    • in charge of creating the id3 metadata text track and adding cues to that track in response to the FRAG_PARSING_METADATA event. the raw id3 data is base64 encoded and stored in the cue's text property.

  • src/controller/level-controller.js

    • handling quality level set/get ((re)loading stream manifest/switching levels)
    • in charge of scheduling playlist (re)loading
    • monitors fragment and key loading errors. Performs fragment hunt by switching between primary and backup streams and down-shifting a level till fragLoadingMaxRetry limit is reached.
    • monitors level loading errors. Performs level hunt by switching between primary and backup streams and down-shifting a level till levelLoadingMaxRetry limit is reached.
    • periodically refresh active live playlist

    Feature: Media Zigzagging

    If there is a backup stream, Media Zigzagging will go through all available levels in primary and backup streams. Behavior has a dual constraint, where fragment retry limits and level limits are accounted in the same time. When the lowest level has been reached, zigzagging will be adjusted to start from the highest level until retry limits are not reached.

    Media Zigzagging Explanation

    Where: F - Bad Fragment, L - Bad Level

    Retry Recommendations

    By not having multiple renditions, recovery logic will not be able to add extra value to your platform. In order to have good results for dual constraint media hunt, specify big enough limits for fragments and levels retries.

    • Level: don't use total retry less than 3 - 4
    • Fragment: don't use total retry less than 4 - 6
    • Implement short burst retries (i.e. small retry delay 0.5 - 4 seconds), and when library returns fatal error switch to a different CDN

  • src/controller/stream-controller.js

    • stream controller is in charge of:
      • triggering BUFFER_RESET on MANIFEST_PARSED or startLoad()
      • ensuring that media buffer is filled as per defined quality selection logic.
    • if buffer is not filled up appropriately (i.e. as per defined maximum buffer size, or as per defined quality level), stream controller will trigger the following actions:
      • retrieve "not buffered" media position greater then current playback position. this is performed by comparing video.buffered and video.currentTime.
        • if there are holes in video.buffered, smaller than config.maxBufferHole, they will be ignored.
      • retrieve appropriate quality level through hls.nextLoadLevel getter
      • then setting hls.nextLoadLevel (this will force level-controller to retrieve level details if not available yet)
      • retrieve fragment (and its URL) matching with this media position, using binary search on level details
      • trigger KEY_LOADING event (only if fragment is encrypted)
      • trigger FRAG_LOADING event
      • trigger fragment demuxing on FRAG_LOADED
      • trigger BUFFER_CODECS on FRAG_PARSING_INIT_SEGMENT
      • trigger BUFFER_APPENDING on FRAG_PARSING_DATA
      • once FRAG_PARSED is received an all segments have been appended (BUFFER_APPENDED) then buffer controller will recheck whether it needs to buffer more data.
      • monitor current playback quality level (buffer controller maintains a map between media position and quality level)
      • monitor playback progress : if playhead is not moving for more than config.lowBufferWatchdogPeriod although it should (video metadata is known and video is not ended, nor paused, nor in seeking state) and if we have less than 500ms buffered upfront, one of two things will happen.
        • if there is a known malformed fragment then hls.js will jump over the buffer hole and seek to the beginning the next playable buffered range.
        • hls.js will nudge currentTime until playback recovers (it will retry every seconds, and report a fatal error after config.maxNudgeRetry retries) 500 ms is a "magic number" that has been set to overcome browsers not always stopping playback at the exact end of a buffered range. these holes in media buffered are often encountered on stream discontinuity or on quality level switch. holes could be "large" especially if fragments are not starting with a keyframe. if playhead is stuck for more than config.highBufferWatchdogPeriod second in a buffered area, hls.js will nudge currentTime until playback recovers (it will retry every seconds, and report a fatal error after config.maxNudgeRetry retries)
    • convert non-fatal FRAG_LOAD_ERROR/FRAG_LOAD_TIMEOUT/KEY_LOAD_ERROR/KEY_LOAD_TIMEOUT error into fatal error when media position is not buffered and max load retry has been reached
    • stream controller actions are scheduled by a tick timer (invoked every 100ms) and actions are controlled by a state machine.

  • src/controller/subtitle-stream-controller.js

    • subtitle stream controller is in charge of processing subtitle track fragments
    • subtitle stream controller takes the following actions:
      • once a SUBTITLE_TRACK_LOADED is received, the controller will begin processing the subtitle fragments
      • trigger KEY_LOADING event if fragment is encrypted
      • trigger FRAG_LOADING event
      • invoke decrypter.decrypt method on FRAG_LOADED if frag is encrypted
      • trigger FRAG_DECRYPTED event once encrypted fragment is decrypted

  • src/controller/subtitle-track-controller.js

    • subtitle track controller handles subtitle track loading and switching

  • src/controller/timeline-controller.js

    • Manages pulling CEA-708 caption data from the fragments, running them through the cea-608-parser, and handing them off to a display class, which defaults to src/utils/cues.js

  • src/crypt/aes-crypto.js

    • AES 128 software decryption routine, low level class handling decryption of 128 bit of data.

  • src/crypt/aes-decrypter.js

    • AES 128-CBC software decryption routine, high-level class handling cipher-block chaining (CBC), handles PKCS7 padding when the option is enabled.

  • src/crypt/decrypter.js

    • decrypter interface, use either WebCrypto API if available and enabled, or fallback on AES 128 software decryption routine.

  • src/demux/aacdemuxer.js

    • AAC ES demuxer
      • extract ADTS samples from AAC ES

  • src/demux/adts.js

    • ADTS header parser helper, extract audio config from ADTS header. used by AAC ES and TS demuxer.

  • src/demux/demuxer.js

    • demuxer abstraction interface, that will either use a Worker to demux or demux inline depending on config/browser capabilities.
    • also handle fragment decryption using WebCrypto API (fragment decryption is performed in main thread)
    • if Worker are disabled. demuxing will be performed in the main thread.
    • if Worker are available/enabled,
      • demuxer will instantiate a Worker
      • post/listen to Worker message,
      • and redispatch events as expected by hls.js.
    • Fragments are sent as transferable objects in order to minimize message passing overhead.

  • src/demux/demuxer-inline.js

    • inline demuxer.
    • probe fragments and instantiate appropriate demuxer depending on content type (TSDemuxer, AACDemuxer, ...)

  • src/demux/demuxer-worker.js

    • demuxer web worker.
    • listen to worker message, and trigger DemuxerInline upon reception of Fragments.
    • provides MP4 Boxes back to main thread using transferable objects in order to minimize message passing overhead.

  • src/demux/exp-golomb.js

    • utility class to extract Exponential-Golomb coded data. needed by TS demuxer for SPS parsing.

  • src/demux/id3.js

    • utility class that detect and parse ID3 tags, used by AAC demuxer

  • src/demux/tsdemuxer.js

    • highly optimized TS demuxer:
    • parse PAT, PMT
    • extract PES packet from audio and video PIDs
    • extract AVC/H264 NAL units,AAC/ADTS samples, MP3/MPEG audio samples from PES packet
    • trigger the remuxer upon parsing completion
    • it also tries to workaround as best as it can audio codec switch (HE-AAC to AAC and vice versa), without having to restart the MediaSource.
    • it also controls the remuxing process :
    • upon discontinuity or level switch detection, it will also notifies the remuxer so that it can reset its state.

  • src/demux/sample-aes.js

    • sample aes decrypter

  • src/helper/aac.js

    • helper class to create silent AAC frames (useful to handle streams with audio holes)

  • src/helper/buffer-helper.js

    • helper class, providing methods dealing buffer length retrieval (given a media position, it will return the upfront buffer length, next buffer position ...)

  • src/helper/level-helper.js

    • helper class providing methods dealing with playlist sliding and fragment duration drift computation : after fragment parsing, start/end fragment timestamp will be used to adjust potential playlist drifts and live playlist sliding.

  • src/helper/fragment-tracker.js

    • in charge of checking if a fragment was successfully loaded into the buffer
    • tracks which parts of the buffer is not loaded correctly
    • tracks which parts of the buffer was unloaded by the coded frame eviction algorithm

  • src/loader/fragment-loader.js

    • in charge of loading fragments, use xhr-loader if not overrided by user config

  • src/loader/key-loader.js

    • in charge of loading decryption key

  • src/loader/playlist-loader.js

    • in charge of loading manifest, and level playlists, use xhr-loader if not overrided by user config.

  • src/remux/dummy-remuxer.js

    • example dummy remuxer

  • src/remux/mp4-generator.js

    • in charge of generating MP4 boxes
      • generate Init Segment (moov)
      • generate samples Box (moof and mdat)

  • src/remux/mp4-remuxer.js

    • in charge of converting AVC/AAC/MP3 samples provided by demuxer into fragmented ISO BMFF boxes, compatible with MediaSource
    • this remuxer is able to deal with small gaps between fragments and ensure timestamp continuity. it is also able to create audio padding (silent AAC audio frames) in case there is a significant audio 'hole' in the stream.
    • it notifies remuxing completion using events (FRAG_PARSING_INIT_SEGMENT, FRAG_PARSING_DATA and FRAG_PARSED)

  • src/utils/attr-list.js

    • Attribute List parsing helper class, used by playlist-loader

  • src/utils/binary-search.js

    • binary search helper class

  • src/utils/cea-608-parser.js

    • Port of dash.js class of the same name to ECMAScript. This class outputs "Screen" objects which contain rows of characters that can be rendered by a separate class.

  • src/utils/cues.js

    • Default CC renderer. Translates Screen objects from cea-608-parser into HTML5 VTTCue objects, rendered by the video tag

  • src/utils/ewma.js

  • [src/utils/ewma-bandwidth-estimator.js][]

    • Exponential Weighted Moving Average bandwidth estimator, heavily inspired from shaka-player
      • Tracks bandwidth samples and estimates available bandwidth, based on the minimum of two exponentially-weighted moving averages with different half-lives.
      • one fast average with a short half-life: useful to quickly react to bandwidth drop and switch rendition down quickly
      • one slow average with a long half-life: useful to slowly react to bandwidth increase and avoid switching up rendition to quickly
      • bandwidth estimate is Math.min(fast average,slow average)
      • average half-life are configurable , refer to abrEwma* config params

  • src/utils/hex.js

    • Hex dump utils, useful for debug

  • src/utils/logger.js

    • logging utils, useful for debug

  • src/utils/polyfill.js

    • ArrayBuffer.slice polyfill

  • src/utils/url.js

    • convert base+relative URL into absolute URL

  • src/utils/xhr-loader.js

    • XmlHttpRequest wrapper. it handles standard HTTP GET but also retries and timeout.
    • retries : if xhr fails, HTTP GET will be retried after a predetermined delay. this delay is increasing following an exponential backoff. after a predetemined max number of retries, an error callback will be triggered.
    • timeout: if load exceeds max allowed duration, a timeout callback will be triggered. it is up to the callback to decides whether the connection should be cancelled or not.

Error detection and Handling

  • MANIFEST_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal only after manifestLoadingMaxRetry has been reached and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.loadSource(manifestURL) could help recover it.
  • MANIFEST_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.loadSource(manifestURL) could help recover it.
  • MANIFEST_PARSING_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js if Manifest parsing fails (no EXTM3U delimiter, no levels found in Manifest, ...)
  • LEVEL_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal only after levelLoadingMaxRetry has been reached and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • LEVEL_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • LEVEL_SWITCH_ERROR is raised by src/controller/level-controller.js if user tries to switch to an invalid level (invalid/out of range level id)
  • AUDIO_TRACK_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • AUDIO_TRACK_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • FRAG_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/fragment-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js.
    • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, or if media.currentTime is buffered, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
    • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled and media.currentTime is not buffered, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • FRAG_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/fragment-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js.
    • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
    • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • FRAG_DECRYPT_ERROR is raised by src/demux/demuxer.js upon fragment decrypting error. this error is fatal.
  • FRAG_PARSING_ERROR is raised by src/demux/tsdemuxer.js upon TS parsing error. this error is not fatal.
  • REMUX_ALLOC_ERROR is raised by src/remux/mp4-remuxer.js upon memory allocation error while remuxing. this error is not fatal if in auto-mode and loaded frag level is greater than 0. in that case a level switch down will occur.
  • KEY_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/key-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js.
    • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
    • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • KEY_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/key-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js.
    • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
    • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
  • BUFFER_ADD_CODEC_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js when an exception is raised when calling mediaSource.addSourceBuffer(). this error is non fatal.
  • BUFFER_APPEND_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js when an exception is raised when calling sourceBuffer.appendBuffer(). this error is non fatal and become fatal after config.appendErrorMaxRetry retries. when fatal, a call to hls.recoverMediaError() could help recover it.
  • BUFFER_APPENDING_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js after SourceBuffer appending error. this error is fatal and a call to hls.recoverMediaError() could help recover it.
  • BUFFER_STALLED_ERROR is raised by src/controller/stream-controller.js if playback is stalling because of buffer underrun
  • BUFFER_FULL_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js if sourcebuffer is full
  • BUFFER_SEEK_OVER_HOLE is raised by src/controller/stream-controller.js when hls.js seeks over a buffer hole after playback stalls
  • BUFFER_NUDGE_ON_STALL is raised by src/controller/stream-controller.js when hls.js nudge currentTime (when playback is stuck for more than 1s in a buffered area)
  • INTERNAL_EXCEPTION is raised by [src/event-handler.js][] when a runtime exception is triggered by an internal Hls event handler. this error is non-fatal.