Create m3u8 file from list of ts files

Question

I want to create 'm3u8' file from the list of ts files. How can I do it?

I did search in google & read documentation of ffmpeg but I didn't find anything.

Answer 1

You probably want a HLS structure. There's a lot of documentation at Apple (IIRC it was invented by Apple and then got adopted widely), e.g. a draft RFC and a page with example streams.

HLS consists of two levels: a master M3U8 which references other M3U8 which in turn reference the .ts files. You can omit the master M3U8 and just provide the "second level".

As a starting point, it may look something like this:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:1
#EXTINF:10, no desc
media-000001.ts
#EXTINF:10, no desc
media-000002.ts
#EXTINF:10, no desc
media-000003.ts

The EXT-X-TARGETDURATION specifies how long each .ts file is (they must all be of the same length). It may either be a relative or absolute path.

Answer 2

It's not clear which of the following cases you're asking about, so here's a quick answer for both:

1. If you're starting with a single file that contains your content This is the most common case. In general, there are three steps to creating a playable HlS stream from source material.

• for each desired output level (let’s say Bitrate for simplicity), you need to create a collection of segmented .ts files.
• For each output level you need a playlist manifest (m3u8) that contains the list of segment files making up the content.
• For the whole stream you need a single master manifest (another m3u8) that lists the playlists.

FFMpeg can do all three of these.

2. If you're starting with a collection of .ts files If you really are starting with a collection of .ts files, you could either hand-build an m3u8 file as described in the previous answer, or you could write a script to do it.

In either case, there are some considerations for the .ts files:

• If the segment files do not belong to an uninterrupted sequence (as they would if they were transcoded from a single source clip for use in HLS), you’ll need to insert EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY tags between segments that don’t have the same encoding characteristics or that don’t have monotonically increasing PTS (presentation timestamp) values.

• While the segments don't need to all be the same length, the longest one must not exceed the (integer) number of seconds specified in the EXT-X-TARGETDURATION tag.

• "For VOD content, the average segment bit rate MUST be within 10% of the AVERAGE-BANDWIDTH attribute"

When you've built your m3u8 file, it helps to run it through a validator to find any problems.This is a lot easier than scratching your head wondering why an HLS stream plays poorly or inconsistently across players/browsers.

• mediaStreamValidator on macOS is very good https://developer.apple.com/documentation/http_live_streaming/about_apple_s_http_live_streaming_tools
• Also consider the online tool at Theo: http://inspectstream.theoplayer.com/