Handling DASH streams - Generation, Consumption & Clipping

Arnav Kumar

What is DASH

• Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP
• Uses TCP, delivered over conventional HTTP servers
• codec-agnostic
• DRM support (Widevine)

MPD

• media presentation description
• segment information (timing, URL, media characteristics like video resolution and bit rates)
• static, dynamic (live)

Production Strategy

• Using ffmpeg to generate DASH stream
• Using any HTTP server to serve them statically

Consumption Strategy

• Fetch the MPD continually
• Maintain the segment tree and timestamp association
• Mux the required segments

Mirroring Stream

• Combining the consumption strategy and production strategy to deliver fresh set of MPD

Clipping Stream

• Identifying the segments and timestamps
• Cropping the start and end segment
• Mux them appropriately