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So I have a Wii U now and tested Youtube Live streaming... and it worked flawlessly. Wow, I thought, I have to find out what kind of codec, container format, protocol, etc is used, but I kinda failed at that task.
I tried using Chrome to access the Youtube Live version but before a <video>
tag that would give me this kind of information in it's source
parameter could even appear in the DOM, it told me that the browser doesn't support any of the available video formats. I tried the same using different browsers (Opera, FF, IE9). Deactivating Flash, thus forcing the html5 player to kick in. I always got the same message.
Wow, so the HTML5 streaming, so far, only works on my Wii U... And probably the IOS devices, but I don't have one of those.
Okay, so basically what I would like to know: How do they realize the <video>
live streaming? What container format, codecs, etc is used? I can't really access that info with my knowledge.
And any tips on how to replicate said format. I am not trying to broadcast something to the whole world - I'm rather trying to just broadcast something to my Wii U, anything otherwise wouldn't make much sense at this stage. I basically only need anything that accepts a DirectShow input on Windows.
YouTube Live Streaming for the desktop still uses Flash-based streaming, not HTML5. Probably like Adobe's Flash streaming, which also uses "normal" Flash for desktop and HTTP Live Streaming for iOS (which is Apple-specific). About the Wii U, no idea, there doesn't seem to be any specification on what it does.
– slhck – 2012-12-01T06:34:53.673@slhck which is the crazy part. I tried researching for hours yesterday without any real success. I just found out about Apple's live streaming and that mp4 can't be live streamed without modification. The only thing I know about Wii U's browser is that it supports only h.264 in the mp4 container... Though this brought me an idea. I'm going to surf to the site with Safari and Flash disabled. Since it's an Apple product maybe it works... And if it does, maybe I can prove that it's Apple's HTTP Live Streaming what I am actually after. – sinni800 – 2012-12-01T12:12:15.843
No dice, it doesn't work. Even when I installed quicktime (which is another 36 Megabytes just to make this browser support <video> with h.264) it didn't work. So yeah, I think it's really the Apple Http Live Streaming technique that's sitting behind there. And it seems to only work on iDevices - and probably Wii U... See, this is the trouble with videos through html5. It's beautifully enclosed with standards... until some part isn't standardized and it just goes all over the place. And people think that html5 is the death for flash. Not in it's current state. – sinni800 – 2012-12-01T12:25:53.903
Using VLC and an elaborate command line (http://pastebin.com/x5fqPrK5) I actually got to reproduce the whole Apple HLS thing... And it didn't work on my Wii U. Awesome. Now I don't know what I can do.
– sinni800 – 2012-12-01T15:40:24.353>
Sorry I couldn't follow up really since I can't test it, but it's nice you documented it here. If you like we can close this question as "too localized" or something, or you can simply answer it and explain what you did for future reference? – slhck – 2012-12-02T12:37:09.287
I answered it myself and I can accept in 7 hours. I theorized that this is actually the technique that Youtube uses... And I hope I am right. Maybe someone else will find this and find it helpful! – sinni800 – 2012-12-02T14:20:25.687