HLS VOD to MPEG-TS UDP Re-cast

This Rust-based client reads from an HLS M3U8 playlist and rebroadcasts it as MPEG-TS over UDP. It is designed to handle the HLS produced by https://github.com/groovybits/mpegts_to_s3.git and is intended to be used as a relay for replaying that content.

To smooth the output using the LTN TS Tools Bitrate Smoother Rust Bindings https://github.com/LTNGlobal-opensource/libltntstools you must build with the smoother feature flag set.

Features

• Read from HLS M3U8 playlists
• Rebroadcast as MPEG-TS over UDP

Requirements

• Rust (latest stable version)
• Cargo (Rust package manager)
• LibPcap
• LibLTNTSTools (optional) Use the smoother feature flag to enable the Bitrate Smoother --features=smoother

Installation

1. Build the project:

   cargo build --release --features=smoother
   

Live vs. VOD Mode

• Live Mode: The client will read the M3U8 playlist and rebroadcast it as MPEG-TS over UDP.
• VOD Mode: The client will read the M3U8 playlist and rebroadcast it as MPEG-TS over UDP, but will only send the segments between the start_time and end_time parameters.

You need to set the --vod flag to enable VOD mode. The --start-time and --end-time flags are used to specify the start and end times in seconds.

VOD Mode Example

This will playback the hour of 2025/02/05/05 between 10 and 120 seconds for that hour.

hls-to-udp -u "http://127.0.0.1:9000/hls/channel01/2025/02/05/05/index.m3u8/index.m3u8" \
    -o 224.0.0.200:4800 \
    --vod --start-time 10000 
    --end-time 120000

Usage

**hls-to-udp [OPTIONS] --m3u8-url <m3u8_url> --udp-output <udp_output_port:udp_output_ip>**

| Option                                                 | Description                                       | Default |
|--------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|---------|
| **-u, --m3u8-url <m3u8_url>**                          | The URL of the M3U8 playlist                      | (none)  |
| **-o, --udp-output <udp_output>**                      | The destination UDP address                       | (none)  |
| **-p, --poll-ms <poll_ms>**                            | The poll interval in milliseconds                 | 100     |
| **-s, --history-size <history_size>**                  | The number of segments to retain                  | 999999  |
| **-v, --verbose <verbose>**                            | Verbose mode                                      | 0       |
| **-l, --latency <latency>**                            | Additional latency in milliseconds                | 2000    |
| **-c, --pcr-pid <pcr_pid>**                            | PID to use for PCR timestamps                     | 0x00    |
| **--smoother_buffers <count>**                         | Smoother buffer count                             | 5000    |
| **-k, --packet-size <packet_size>**                    | TS packet size in bytes                           | 1316    |
| **-q, --segment-queue-size <segment_queue_size>**      | The queue size for segments                       | 3       |
| **-z, --udp-queue-size <udp_queue_size>**              | The queue size for UDP packets                    | 1       |
| **--use-smoother**                                     | Use the LibLTNTSTools Bitrate Smoother            | false   |
| **--udp-send-buffer <udp_send_buffer>**                | Size of the UDP Send buffer                       | 1358    |
| **--vod**                                              | Use VOD mode                                      | false   |
| **--start-time <start_time>**                          | Start time in seconds                             | 0       |
| **--end-time <end_time>**                              | End time in seconds                               | 0       |
| **-f, --output_file <output_file>**                    | Output file for debugging                         | -       |
| **-h, --help**                                         | Print help                                        | -       |
| **-V, --version**                                      | Print version                                     | -       |

Environment Variables

- `HLS_INPUT_URL`: hls-to-udp input URL (default: `http://127.0.0.1:3001/channel01.m3u8`)
- `UDP_OUTPUT_IP`: hls-to-udp output IP for UDP (default: `224.0.0.200`)
- `UDP_OUTPUT_PORT`: hls-to-udp output port for UDP (default: `10000`)
- `SMOOTHER_LATENCY`: Bitrate Smoother latency in milliseconds (default: `1000`)
- `M3U8_UPDATE_INTERVAL_MS`: M3U8 update interval in milliseconds (default: `100`)
- `HLS_HISTORY_SIZE`: HLS history size (default: `1800`)
- `SEGMENT_QUEUE_SIZE`: Segment queue size (default: `32`)
- `UDP_QUEUE_SIZE`: UDP queue size (default: `1024`)
- `UDP_SEND_BUFFER`: Size of the UDP Send buffer (default: `0` - OS default)
- `USE_SMOOTHER`: Use the LibLTNTSTools Bitrate Smoother (default: `false`) Requires --features=smoother
- `HLS_TO_UDP_OUTPUT_FILE`: Output file for debugging (default: ``)

Example

1. Run the client with the M3U8 URL and UDP address:

   ./target/release/hls-to-udp -u <M3U8_URL> -o <UDP_ADDRESS>
   

   Example:

   ./target/release/hls-to-udp -u http://example.com/playlist.m3u8 -o 224.0.0.200:10000
   

Container Deployment

1. Build the container image:

   # The Dockerfile.replay and docker-compose.yaml are in the mpegts_to_s3 directory ../ below this one
   cd ../
   podman-compose up --build
   

Usage outside of a container

1. Run the client with the M3U8 URL and UDP address:

   ./target/release/hls-to-udp -u <M3U8_URL> -o <UDP_ADDRESS>
   

   Example:

   ./target/release/hls-to-udp -u http://example.com/playlist.m3u8 -o 239.0.0.1:1234 -p 100
   

Author: wizard@groovy.org Date: January 27, 2025