dash.as
Dash.as plays MPEG-DASH video on any device supporting Adobe Flash. It is written in Adobe ActionScript and was designed from the ground-up to be lightweight with performance in mind.
MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) became an International Standard in 2011 and is a technique designed specifically for streaming high-quality multimedia over an HTTP server. It works by fragmenting content into a series of small HTTP-based file segments where each contains block of playback time. Content is made available at a variety of different bitrates to account for variations in a connection's bandwidth quality. Upon each download of a segment, the highest bitrate the connection can handle in time for seamless playback is selected. This allows MPEG-DASH to seamlessly adapt to changing network conditions at the highest quality possible for a seamless user experience.
This project is an extension for Open Source Media Framework and released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.
At the same time there is profersional edition of dash.as which integrates nicely with the Adobe Access DRM. For more information please contact with sales department: "sales (at) castlabs (dot) com".
Please visit CHANGELOG for changes history.
For information on a digital rights management (DRM) enabled version, please visit the castLabs website.
Demo
For more information visit examples page.
Features
- An OSMF extension;
- Basic support for manifests with a list [1];
- Basic support for manifests with a template [1];
- Basic support for manifests with a base URL [1][2];
- Basic support for manifests with a time line;
- Audio-video playback [3];
- Adaptive bitrate streaming;
- Live streaming;
- User interface:
- Play/Pause;
- Seeking;
- Fullscreen mode;
- Duration;
- Loaded bytes indicator;
- Buffering indicator;
[1] A server has to have crossdomain.xml file in the root context.
[2] A server has to have custom .htaccess file in the root context.
[3] Adobe Flash Player supports only H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) and HE-AAC (MPEG-4 Part 3) codecs.
For more information about which attributes and tags are required in a manifest please visit unit tests.
Quick start
Input files
Create media input files in different bitrates.
Prerequisites
- ffmpeg is installed with libfdk_aac and libx264 library (tested with version 2.1.3);
Instructions
-
Download source file:
$ wget http://mirrorblender.top-ix.org/movies/sintel-1024-surround.mp4 -
Create video file encoded at 250k 436p, H.264 codec:
$ ffmpeg -i sintel-1024-surround.mp4 -an -b:v 250k -s 1024x436 -vcodec libx264 avc1-sintel-436p-250k.mp4 -
Create video file encoded at 500k 436p, H.264 codec:
$ ffmpeg -i sintel-1024-surround.mp4 -an -b:v 500k -s 1024x436 -vcodec libx264 avc1-sintel-436p-500k.mp4 -
Create video file encoded at 1000k 436p, H.264 codec:
$ ffmpeg -i sintel-1024-surround.mp4 -an -b:v 1000k -s 1024x436 -vcodec libx264 avc1-sintel-436p-1000k.mp4 -
Create audio file encoded at 69k stereo, HE-AAC codec:
$ ffmpeg -i sintel-1024-surround.mp4 -vn -ac 2 -acodec libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_he -f mp4 mp4a-sintel-69k.mp4
Stream
Convert media input files into DASH stream files.
Prerequisites
- MP4Box is installed (tested with version 0.5.1r5152);
Instructions
-
Use following command to generate DASH stream:
$ MP4Box -dash 3000 -bs-switching no -segment-name "%s_" -url-template -out sintel.mpd avc1-sintel-436p-250k.mp4 avc1-sintel-436p-500k.mp4 avc1-sintel-436p-1000k.mp4 mp4a-sintel-69k.mp4
Page
Finally try dash.as locally.
Prerequisites
- apache2 is installed;
Instructions
-
Create a virtual host for localhost;
-
Copy DASH stream files into a document root;
-
Copy crossdomain.xml file into a document root (for more information visit crossdomain page);
-
Copy .htaccess file into a document root (for more information visit htaccess page);
-
Copy contents of the demo directory into a document root;
-
Create
index.htmlfile in a document root (type absolute URL to asintel.mpdfile):<html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="/swfobject/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var flashvars = {}; // absolut URL to sintel.mpd file flashvars.src = encodeURIComponent("<absolute URL to sintel.mpd file>"); // absolut URL to dashas.swf file flashvars.plugin_DashPlugin = encodeURIComponent(location.href + "/production/dashas.swf"); var params = {}; params.allowfullscreen = "true"; params.allownetworking = "true"; params.wmode = "direct"; swfobject.embedSWF("/StrobeMediaPlayback.swf", "placeholder", "640", "360", "10.1", "/swfobject/expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, {}); </script> </head> <body> <div id="placeholder"> <p><span>Please install <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/">Adobe Flash Player</a></span></p> </div> </body> </html> -
Go to
http://localhost/index.html;
TIP: The flash is very aggressive in caching. If you notice that player doesn't respond to your server side changes, please clean browser's cache (i.e. cached images and files).
Development
At the moment project supports only Gradle 1.11. Please read how to install Gradle 1.11 on Linux.
Build
Prerequisites
- gradle is installed (tested with version 1.11);
Instructions
-
Build debug SWF package:
$ cd <project_workspace> $ gradle clean compile -
Build production SWF package:
$ cd <project_workspace> $ gradle -Pprofile=production clean compile
... do you prefer developing in an IDE? Read how to import project into the IntelliJ IDEA.
Test
Prerequisites
- gradle is installed (tested with version 1.11);