On Vimeo, does it make sense to use "HTTP Live Streaming" video file link if your video isn't live streaming?

Question

In my app, I want to display some mp4 tutorial videos for the user using AVPlayerViewController. I upgraded to a Pro account on Vimeo, enabling me to use the direct links to my videos.

It gives you a couple of options for which kind of link to use: high def, standard def, and HTTP Live Streaming. I'm a little bit confused on which to use. My videos aren't live streamed, but I see that HTTP Live Streaming can dynamically adjust the size of the file according to the users internet connection.

I don't know much about video, does HTTP Live Streaming make sense to me here if I'm not streaming anything live or should I just have the user download the entire video?

Answer 1

It's a bit of a misnomer - HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is just the name of the protocol and is not necessarily used for streaming of live content.

HLS is simply a method used for serving the best quality video file (pre-recorded/pre-saved) for the given viewing environment.

Apple's HLS documentation is found here: https://developer.apple.com/streaming/