Add support for embed an external HLS video

[mattsqd]

Will come from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/mediastore/latest/ug/cdns-allowing-cloudfront-to-access-mediastore.html.
An example from last year: https://d474nuifpska.cloudfront.net/holiday-special.m3u8
Best case is to allow this as a media type so it can be embedded in the body of any content.

[mattsqd]

https://www.drupal.org/project/videojs seems to support this, but it might only be a local m3u8 file.

[mejiaj]

@mattsqd is the m3u8 format the best (quality/performance) for HLS video?

Thinking of this similar to how we favored WEBP over traditional formats.

[mattsqd]

@mattsqd is the m3u8 format the best (quality/performance) for HLS video?

Thinking of this similar to how we favored WEBP over traditional formats.

I'm not sure, I'm just going based on the previous year's Christmas party stream. This was a request from John Franklin.
What is the preferred format for streaming?

[mejiaj]

@mattsqd I found this MDN resource Setting up adaptive streaming media sources - Web media technologies

The top two formats are:

• MPEG-DASH
• HLS

This article Video Streaming Protocols - RTMP vs RTSP vs HLS vs WebRTC vs SRT which is best? has a nice FAQs section at the bottom.

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TL;DR Seems like HLS has several encodings like MP4. The extension .m3u8 is the format Apple uses.

I might be better to convert to MP4 or WebM to avoid issues with non-Apple users. It'd also make supporting it in Drupal easier.

[mattsqd]

Thanks for the resources @mejiaj ! I'll pass this along.

[jlfranklin]

We're using HLS because it's supported by AWS MediaLive and allows for "live" streaming. That is, no matter when you start watching the stream, you'll be watching the same point (plus or minus about 6 seconds) as everyone else.

HLS supports multiple streams at different sizes and bitrates. We have four defined: 240p30, 480p30, 720p30 and 1080p30. The player will automatically switch streams based on the screen size and network lag. They're all MP4 (H264) in the bitstream itself.

Safari is the only browser that supports HLS natively. The VideoJS player bridges the gap for other players.