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1. Drew DeVault (sir@cmpwn.com)'s status on Thursday, 26-Sep-2019 02:35:59 CEST Drew DeVault

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   Let's talk about HTML5 live streaming. There are two competing technologies for it: DASH and HLS. They are terrible.

   When both were implemented, there already existed several established, simple, standardized, and broadly supported options for live streaming video. Browsers wanted none of it.

   Instead, Apple came up with HLS. It splits your video and audio into separate streams and then cuts them up into N second chunks (usually 5-30 seconds). Then it uses JavaScript to poll a playlist file for the list of upcoming segments, then munges them into a non-live <video> and <audio> element in real time.

   This garbage is patent encumbered.

   Therefore, Google made basically the exact same thing except they used XML, fucking XML, for the manifest.

   This is what's happening behind the scenes of all live video you watch on the internet. This is also in no small part responsible for livestreaming video murdering any low-powered devices you try to play it on. Because JavaScript is king and standards are for losers.

   • Polychrome :clockworkheart:, Jacky Alciné (Miami 🛫 New Yo) and open source crispr cat ears repeated this.
   • Polychrome :clockworkheart: (polychrome@cybre.space)'s status on Thursday, 26-Sep-2019 02:39:04 CEST Polychrome :clockworkheart:

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     in reply to

     @sir you've had me at "They are terrible".

   • Drew DeVault (sir@cmpwn.com)'s status on Thursday, 26-Sep-2019 02:44:38 CEST Drew DeVault

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     in reply to

     Just imagine, just for a brief moment, the sheer scale of reliability and syncronization problems inherent in this design.

   • Lynne (lynne@ichii.moe)'s status on Thursday, 26-Sep-2019 02:45:00 CEST Lynne

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     in reply to

     @sir You missed the reason why they exist - because web people wanted to use their existing caching infrastructure for streaming.
     Guess what - they don't use files at all anymore and keep all chunks in memory, since otherwise the latency is too great. Something that could have easily been done with existing UDP streaming setups long ago - just cache GOPs.
     So now the reason why streaming sucks is purely historical.
     Oh, and here's a depressing bit of news: Twitch are planning to replace RTMP for user->server streaming with WebRTC. Something that's now xml or m3u based but is just as bad. Not something rational like RIST.

     Drew DeVault repeated this.
   • Haelwenn /ɛlwən/ :bzh: (lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me)'s status on Thursday, 26-Sep-2019 05:32:52 CEST Haelwenn /ɛlwən/ :bzh:

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     • i am warm and powerful
     @xj9 @sir I think you can still do sane things but just… stay as far as possible from the web, which isn't really something new.
     Drew DeVault repeated this.