caster

This project was created so I can learn a bit about HTTP Live Stream (HLS), the JS/TS HLS library Hls.js (https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js) and video-on-demand as a whole. Note that this is a work in progress (WIP).

Preview (WIP):

This application will allow you to access your personal videos in all devices on in your local network. Example of usage: your personal videos, or the movies and series you have on your Desktop can be accessed in your TV, mobile or any other device that can launch a browser with certain capabilities.

I'll update the page according to the project's progress.

• Current Status

Steps (WIP):

• Loading a m3u8 sample with HLS. Sample is (https://test-streams.mux.dev/x36xhzz/x36xhzz.m3u8).

• Now that our player works, we can setup a local server that will host m3u8 videos and serve it to the HLS client/application. Observe the chunks of the video (.ts) being loaded while we move the video forward:

• The client requests the list of available m3u8 videos and populate the catalog. The picture shows the catalog after all videos were loaded and played. Observe the loaded chunks (.ts files) on the network tab:

Node Express Server:

The idea is to have an express server serving videos (.m3u8) from a local directory in your device. The server will also list, when requested, the available files in the served media directory. At a second iteration the server will not only serve .m3u8 videos but convert mp4 videos such that the user don't have to convert it by him/herself.

Stack: Node.js/Typescript/Express

Client:

The client, a Vue app, will display a catalog of the available videos and stream it through HLS/HTML5. It will first request a list of the available items in the catalog and then populate the catalog accordingly.

The template for the Vue application was genearted via vue-cli (https://cli.vuejs.org/).

Stack: Vue/Typescript/Hls.js/Node.js

Instructions:

To run client with Node.js:

• cd client
• npm install
• npm run serve
• Access app through a web-browser in your local network at http://localhost:8080/.

To run server:

• Before running the server, define PUBLIC_DIRECTORY as the full path of the directory to be served. The constant is at casterserver/src/constants.ts.
• cd casterserver
• npm install
• npm start

Stack: Vue/Typescript/Hls.js/Node.js

References:

• HLS:
  • https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Live_Streaming
  • https://medium.com/canal-tech/how-video-streaming-works-on-the-web-an-introduction-7919739f7e1
  • https://qvault.io/2020/07/28/hls-video-streaming-with-node-js-a-tutorial/
• Express:
  • https://www.atyantik.com/expressjs-server-with-typescript-part-2-the-novice-programmer/
• Vue:
  • https://vuejs.org/
  • https://cli.vuejs.org/