DASHInterpret

DASHInterpret converts video-on-demand dynamic adaptive HTTP streams (MPEG-DASH) to Apple HTTP live stream (HLS), useful when you already have existing MPEG-DASH content and you need to serve it to existing Apple users who don’t want to use a third-party

There are several software out there (e.g. Wowza or Evostream) that takes in live streams in the form of RTSP, RTMP, MPEG-TS, FLV, etc… and they produce many other formats out of that single input. They come in the form of a server (service) listening to ports or connecting to other remote streaming servers. Their purpose is to simply bridge the gap between different streaming format as they serve multiple streaming format output from a single input. These servers are mainly used in 3 use cases, but majority of usage is in live streaming.

Use Cases:

• Takes a live stream (e.g. RTMP, RTSP, MPEG-TS…) as an input, and outputs another live stream which could be the same format or a different format

• Takes a live stream as an input, and outputs a recorded or video on demand stream (e.g. MP4, MPEG-DASH, HLS…) stored as files on disk

• Takes a video on demand stream as an input, and outputs either a live stream or another video on demand stream.

DASHInterpret is not one of these software, although what it solves is similar, it leans more to the video on demand space. It is not a server running on the background listening to ports or making connections and all those networking stuff. It is simply a utility that reads in a video on demand MPEG-DASH and converts it to another video on demand format. The software is portable in that you can move around computers and use it without doing any setup, configuration or installation. Version 1.0.0 release currently supports conversion of DASH-IF compliant Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Http (MPEG-DASH) content to Http Live Streaming (HLS).

So what is the advantage of using DASHInterpret? If you are only converting VODs, you will be able to do this a lot easier and quicker than any of these live streaming servers. Since DASHInterpret does not get its input from the network, it does not have to worry about the performance penalty of going through the network stack, it is also not limited to the meager 1000 Mbit speed of modern networks, rather, it operates on the speed of your hard disk I/O which is a minimum of 6000 Mbit for average computers. You also don’t need to spend a day or week to learn how to use it, 30 seconds is all you need to learn how to use it. You can take it anywhere and be able to use without configuring or some sorts of setup, you can even store it in a USB drive and run directly from there no problem.

Why convert only MPEG-DASH streams? Because MPEG-DASH is the current and next generation technology when it comes to adaptive bit rate streaming over http protocol. Streaming businesses will transition now or in the near future, and part of that transition are users who can’t transition or will not transition quickly. That’s where DASHInterpret will come in, the content provider will use it to translate its MPEG-DASH to the format familiar to the customer like HLS for Apple users. As of this writing, HLS is still the dominant http streaming technology in operation especially for the millions of Apple users.