Streaming

This module is a service that transcodes a .mp4 video into an adaptive bitrate streaming format. This module supports transcoding to the two most popular formats: HLS and DASH.

Two dependencies are used for transcoding video files:

• the Drupal php_ffmpeg module;
• the PHP-FFmpeg-video-streaming library (if you like this project, please ⭐️ Star it on Github).

Note: this is a backend module and it does video conversion.
For the frontend player you can build it easily with the tools provided by Drupal,
or you can reuse the player provided by the streaming_media_views sub-moule.

The module has several options:

• Repository, you can choose where to save the encoded video in a local location (public:// or private://), or on a cloud.
• Choice of HLS or DASH streaming technique.
• Choice of bit-rates in which each video will be fragmented (144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 2k or 4k).
• Duration in seconds of each video fragment.
• Extraction of thumbnails (.jpg and .gif) for each video segment.
• Choice of output video format: .ts, .fmp4 or .mp4.
• Choice of encoding: H.264 or VP9.
• Support of subtitles (WebVTT) in different languages.

1 - Installation

1. Install FFMpeg in your system.
2. Install and enable PHP FFmpeg Drupal module.

$ composer require drupal/php_ffmpeg
$ drush en php_ffmpeg

3. correctly configure the php_ffmpeg module (/admin/config/development/php-ffmpeg).
For example if you use a common Linux distribution:

ffmpeg_library: /usr/bin/ffmpeg
ffprobe_binary: /usr/bin/ffprobe
timeout: 3600
threads: 12

4. Install PHP-FFmpeg-video-streaming library

$ composer require aminyazdanpanah/php-ffmpeg-video-streaming

5. Install and enable this module

$ composer require drupal/streaming
$ drush en streaming

2 - How to use

You can use this module in different ways and in different scenarios.

2.1 - The simplest way

1. Install and enable this module;
2. activate the Streaming Media Views sub-module (Media and Views modules are used to build the UI);
3. Add new video: "Content" -> "Media" -> "Add Media" -> "Streaming Video", leave the `playlist` and` poster` fields blank, save;
4. from "Content -> Media" you can convert your videos;
5. choose the poster if necessary and save;
6. use streaming/modules/streaming_media_views/templates/media--streaming-video.html.twig as an example of a player for the frontend (VideoJS 7).

2.2 - Players

If you want to customize the frontend, below is a list of compatible players.

2.2.1 - Web players

DASH and HLS

• Video.js >8 (Recommended)
• Plyr
• DPlayer
• MediaElement.js
• Clappr
• Shaka Player
• Flowplayer

Only DASH

• dash.js

Only HLS

• hls.js

2.2.2 - Android player

ExoPlayer DASH and HLS

2.2.3 - IOS player

DASH

• MPEGDASH IOS Player
• Viblast SDK

HLS
Player

2.2.4 - GNU/Linux Distro, MacOsX, Windows

DASH and HLS

• VLC media Player
• FFmpeg (ffplay)

2.3 - Customizations

If you need to create a more complex user interface or have a more complex infrastructure, you can use this module as a service.

Prepare the data to be sent as follows:

$settings = [
  'video-data' => [
    'uri'  => path|url,      // /path/v.mp4 or https://example.com/v.mp4
    'name' => string,        // movie.mp4
    'id'   => null|string    // "1" or "video-id"
    'uuid' => null|string    // uuid string
  ],
  'subtitles' => [
    'key-language' => [      // 'italian', 'english', 'spanish', 'chinese'
      'path' => string,       // /pat/to/sub/*.vtt (WebVTT format)
      'lang-name' => string,  // 'Italiano', 'English', 'Español', '中文'
      'lang-code' => string,  // 'it', 'en', 'es', 'ch'
      'default' => bool
    ],
    ...
  ],
  'custom-settings' => null|Drupal\Core\Config\Config,
  'refresh-if-exists' => null|true|false,
];

Send the data to the streaming.transcode service

$result = \Drupal::service('streaming.transcode')->video($settings);

You will receive the results in the following format:

[
  'status' => bool,
  'message' => string
  'playlist' => [
    'file_name' => string
    'path' => [
      'relative_base_path' => string
      'real_base_path' => string
      'module_folder' => string
      'video_folder' => string
      'folder_relative_path' => string
      'folder_real_path' => string
      'playlist_relative_path' => string
      'playlist_real_path' => string
    ],
    'url' => [
      'base_url' => string
      'folder_relative' => string
      'folder_real' => string
      'playlist_real_url' => string
    ],
  ],
  'thumbnails' => [
    'jpg' => [
      [ 'relative_path' => string, 'real_path' => string, 'url' => string ]
      [ ... ]
    ],
    'gif' => [
      [ 'relative_path' => string, 'real_path' => string, 'url' => string ]
      [ ... ]
    ],
  ],
  'settings' => [ ... ]
];

If you want to delete saved data, use the delete() method in the same way as video().

$result = \Drupal::service('streaming.transcode')->delete($settings);

3 - Similar module

• Cloudflare Stream, require Cloudflare account, only HLS and Cloudflare encode video
• Rokka, require Rokka account, only HLS and Rokka encode video and generate thumbnails.

4 - Working Example