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Shaka Player

Shaka Player is an open-source JavaScript library for adaptive media. It plays adaptive media formats (such as DASH and HLS) in a browser, without using plugins or Flash. Instead, Shaka Player uses the open web standards MediaSource Extensions and Encrypted Media Extensions.

Shaka Player also supports offline storage and playback of media using IndexedDB. Content can be stored on any browser. Storage of licenses depends on browser support.

Our main goal is to make it as easy as possible to stream adaptive bitrate video and audio using modern browser technologies. We try to keep the library light, simple, and free from third-party dependencies. Everything you need to build and deploy is in the sources.

For details on what's coming next, see our development roadmap.

Platform and browser support matrix

Browser Windows Mac Linux Android iOS ChromeOS Other
Chrome¹ Y Y Y Y Native Y -
Firefox¹ Y Y Y untested⁵ Native - -
Edge¹ Y - - - - - -
IE ≤ 10 N - - - - - -
IE 11 Y ⁴ - - - - - -
Safari¹ - Y - - Native - -
Opera¹ untested⁵ untested⁵ untested⁵ untested⁵ Native - -
Chromecast² - - - - - - Y
Tizen TV³ - - - - - - Y

NOTES:

  • ¹: Only the latest stable version is tested and supported. Older releases may still be usable, and we will accept pull requests for them, but they will not be officially tested or supported.
  • ²: Latest stable Chromecast firmware is tested. Both sender and receiver can be implemented with Shaka Player.
  • ³: Tizen 2017 model is actively tested and supported by the Shaka Player team. Tizen 2016 model is community-supported and untested by us.
  • ⁴: IE 11 offers PlayReady support on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 only. IE 11 can play clear content on Windows 8.0. IE 11 does not support adaptive playback on Windows 7 and under.
  • ⁵: These are expected to work, but are not actively tested by the Shaka Player team.

We support iOS through Apple's native HLS player. We provide the same top-level API, but we just set the video's src element to the manfiest/media. So we are dependent on the browser supporting the manifests.

Shaka Player Embedded (for native iOS)

We have another project called Shaka Player Embedded that offers the same features and similar APIs for native apps on iOS. This project uses its own media stack, which allows it to play content that would otherwise not be supported. This supports both DASH and HLS manifests.

Manifest format support matrix

Format Video On-Demand Live Event In-Progress Recording
DASH Y Y - Y
HLS Y Y Y -

You can also create a manifest parser plugin to support custom manifest formats.

DASH features

DASH features supported:

  • VOD, Live, and In-Progress Recordings (dynamic VOD content)
  • MPD@timeShiftBufferDepth for seeking backward in Live streams
  • Multi-period content (static and dynamic)
  • Xlink elements (actuate=onLoad only, resolve-to-zero, fallback content)
  • All forms of segment index info: SegmentBase@indexRange, SegmentTimeline, SegmentTemplate@duration, SegmentTemplate@index, SegmentList
  • Multi-codec/multi-container manifests (we will negotiate support with the browser and choose the best ones)
  • Encrypted content (including custom ContentProtection schemas, PSSH in the manifest)
  • Key rotation
  • Trick mode tracks

DASH features not supported:

  • Xlink with actuate=onRequest
  • Manifests without any segment info: shaka-project#1088
  • Changing codecs during a presentation (unsupported by MSE)
  • Multiple trick mode tracks for the same resolution at varying framerates or bitrates
  • Timescales so large that timestamps cannot be represented as integers in JavaScript (2^53): shaka-project#1667

HLS features

HLS features supported:

  • VOD, Live, and Event types
  • Encrypted content with Widevine
  • ISO-BMFF / MP4 / CMAF support
  • MPEG-2 TS support (transmuxing provided by mux.js v5.1.3+, must be separately included)
  • WebVTT and TTML
  • CEA-608/708 captions
  • Encrypted content with FairPlay (Safari on macOS and iOS only)

HLS features not supported:

DRM support matrix

Browser Widevine PlayReady FairPlay ClearKey⁶
Chrome¹ Y - - Y
Firefox² Y - - Y
Edge³ - Y - -
IE 11⁴ - Y - -
Safari - - Y -
Opera untested⁵ - - untested⁵
Chromecast Y Y - untested⁵
Tizen TV Y Y - untested⁵

Other DRM systems should work out of the box if they are interoperable and compliant to the EME spec.

NOTES:

  • ¹: Only official Chrome builds contain the Widevine CDM. Chromium built from source does not support DRM.
  • ²: DRM must be enabled by the user. The first time a Firefox user visits a site with encrypted media, the user will be prompted to enable DRM.
  • ³: PlayReady in Edge does not seem to work on a VM or over Remote Desktop.
  • ⁴: IE 11 offers PlayReady support on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 only.
  • ⁵: These are expected to work, but are not actively tested by the Shaka Player team.
  • ⁶: ClearKey is a useful tool for debugging, and does not provide actual content security.

Media container and subtitle support

Shaka Player supports:

  • ISO-BMFF / CMAF / MP4
    • Depends on browser support for the container via MediaSource
    • Can parse "sidx" box for DASH's SegmentBase@indexRange and SegmentTemplate@index
    • Can find and parse "tfdt" box to find segment start time in HLS
  • WebM
    • Depends on browser support for the container via MediaSource
    • Can parse cueing data elements for DASH's SegmentBase@indexRange and SegmentTemplate@index
    • Not supported in HLS
  • MPEG-2 TS
    • With help from mux.js v5.1.3+, can be played on any browser which supports MP4
    • Can find and parse timestamps to find segment start time in HLS
  • WebVTT
    • Supported in both text form and embedded in MP4
  • TTML
    • Supported in both XML form and embedded in MP4

Subtitles are rendered by the browser by default. Applications can create a text display plugin for customer rendering to go beyond browser-supported attributes.

Important Links

Contributing

If you have improvements or fixes, we would love to have your contributions. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for more information on the process we would like contributors to follow.

FAQ

For general help and before filing any bugs, please read the FAQ.