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@mharsch
Last active February 8, 2024 02:43
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serve HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) content from node.js

HLS streaming from node

Provided that you already have a file or stream segmenter generating your .m3u8 playlist and .ts segment files (such as the ffmpeg 'hls' muxer), this little node server will serve up those files to an HLS compatible client (e.g. Safari). If you're using node for your streaming app already, this obviates the need to serve the HLS stream from a separate web server.

loosely based on https://gist.github.com/bnerd/2011232

// loosely based on https://gist.github.com/bnerd/2011232
// requires node.js >= v0.10.0
// assumes that HLS segmenter filename base is 'out'
// and that the HLS playlist and .ts files are in the current directory
// point Safari browser to http://<hostname>:PORT/player.html

var http = require('http');
var fs = require('fs');
var url = require('url');
var path = require('path');
var zlib = require('zlib');

PORT = 8000;

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
	var uri = url.parse(req.url).pathname;

	if (uri == '/player.html') {
		res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
		res.write('<html><head><title>HLS Player fed by node.js' +
		    '</title></head><body>');
		res.write('<video src="http://' + req.socket.localAddress +
		    ':' + PORT + '/out.M3U8" controls autoplay></body></html>');
		res.end();
		return;
	}

	var filename = path.join("./", uri);
	fs.exists(filename, function (exists) {
		if (!exists) {
			console.log('file not found: ' + filename);
			res.writeHead(404, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
			res.write('file not found: %s\n', filename);
			res.end();
		} else {
			console.log('sending file: ' + filename);
			switch (path.extname(uri)) {
			case '.M3U8':
				fs.readFile(filename, function (err, contents) {
					if (err) {
						res.writeHead(500);
						res.end();
					} else if (contents) {
						res.writeHead(200,
						    {'Content-Type':
						    'application/vnd.apple.mpegurl'});
						var ae = req.headers['accept-encoding'];
						if (ae.match(/\bgzip\b/)) {
							zlib.gzip(contents, function (err, zip) {
								if (err) throw err;

								res.writeHead(200,
								    {'content-encoding': 'gzip'});
								res.end(zip);
							});
						} else {
							res.end(contents, 'utf-8');
						}
					} else {
						console.log('emptly playlist');
						res.writeHead(500);
						res.end();
					}
				});
				break;
			case '.ts':
				res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type':
				    'video/MP2T' });
				var stream = fs.createReadStream(filename,
				    { bufferSize: 64 * 1024 });
				stream.pipe(res);
				break;
			default:
				console.log('unknown file type: ' +
				    path.extname(uri));
				res.writeHead(500);
				res.end();
			}
		}
	});
}).listen(PORT);
@renedufe
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renedufe commented Apr 2, 2021

Shouldn't the code for player.html be included somewhere in this?

@DanieleSalatti
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It's in there:

res.writeHead(200,` { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
res.write('<html><head><title>HLS Player fed by node.js' + '</title></head><body>');
res.write('<video src="http://' + req.socket.localAddress + ':' + PORT + '/out.M3U8" controls autoplay></body></html>');
res.end();
return;

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