[Icecast] Icecast support for HLS or MPEG-DASH

[Fred Gleason]

On Mar 16, 2022, at 06:55, Chip <chiapas at aktivix.org> wrote:

> I do not know anything about the technical issues involved but would the Icecast developers ever consider support for streaming over HLS <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Live_Streaming> or MPEG-DASH <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_over_HTTP>? Or is support for these protocols available now?
> 
> HLS provides mechanisms for players to adapt to unreliable network conditions without causing playback stalling and I believe has some advantages in terms of low latency.

The main advantage of HLS/DASH _vis-a-vis_ the ICY/ice protocols is that they are *much* more CDN-friendly. If you’re needing to reach an audience of millions, then HLS/DASH is what you need to be using (along with an appropriately scaled CDN). The way that HLS/DASH achieves that is by pushing design complexity from the ’server’ to the encoder and player components. The ’server’ part of an HLS/DASH setup is, relatively speaking, dead simple. In fact, one can build a perfectly usable HLS ’server’ using stock Apache httpd.

I cannot of course speak for the Icecast developers, but FWIW I’d be frankly shocked to see HLS/DASH support ever happen in Icecast.

Cheers!


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| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. |             Chief Developer             |
|                           |             Paravel Systems             |
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