HOW STRIMM HLS LINK WORKS
What is HLS
The acronym HLS stands for HTTP Live Streaming. HLS has been originally an Apple’s technology for streaming live and pre-recorded video/audio content to various devices including iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Android TV. HLS compresses the video/audio files and can deliver a whole video playlist as a single file to your device.
HLS comes with widespread acceptance on numerous devices and is used in native apps of Roku TV, Fire TV, Apple TV and Smart TV. Since the HLS link output of a daily playlist works in their own apps, for the details on how to add the HLS link and json file in each applicable OTT platform, please refer to their own manuals or contact their support team directly.

How It Works on Strimm
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Video Format
If you plan to create an HLS link output of your Strimm daily playlist, all videos in the HLS playlist must be in .m3u8 format only. We suggest removing all non - .m3u8 videos from your channel, which will be used for the HLS link generation (remove videos like YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, .mp4, etc.) to avoid getting them into your daily TV program by an accident. All videos in the HLS playlist should be pre-recorded.
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Adding .m3u8 videos to your channel
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To add direct .m3u8 video links to your channel, you need to subscribe to a Professional PLUS package. Have your .m3u8 videos stored in your private video server with a decent CDN (Content Delivery Network), to avoid latency and buffering of the videos.
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Turn “Allow Private Videos” ON option in your channel settings and click UPDATE to save it. Then, import/link your .m3u8 videos from your server to your channel by clicking on the following buttons/links: GET NEW VIDEOS >> IMPORT >> IMPORT PRIVATE VIDEOS (checkmark it) and complete the form to add your video.
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IMPORTANT: The video URL should start with HTTPS and end with .m3u8. It is very important to have such format of the video link for the HLS generator to recognize the videos. Example: https://myserver.com/video1.m3u8
Make sure to select “Custom” in the Provider section and set an exact duration of the video. For example, if your video duration is 7 min and 15 sec, then the duration should be 00:07:15
Tip: we recommend to avoid adding a video thumbnail at the time you add your video. The format of that image may be incorrect and it may delay the whole import process. You can always add a thumbnail later.

Scheduling a TV program/Creating a daily playlist
Add your .m3u8 videos to the daily playlist, like you would normally do on Strimm with any other videos. If you have a TV programs being scheduled for days ahead or have an Autopilot being turned ON, the Strimm system will automatically update your embedded HLS link DAILY, to show a unique playlist of every day.
Please note that HLS playlist will not be able to show the time stamp, when the show starts or ends or video descriptions.
Generating an HLS Playlist Link
1. Create a daily TV program first. The HLS link will only broadcast for the scheduled TV programs.
2. Click on the “Get HLS Link” button to open a link generation form.
3. Select a Time Zone. The generated HLS link will refresh daily, at midnight, based on the time zone selected. You can generate multiple HLS links for the different time zones.
4. Click “Generate” to generate HLS link for the selected time zone and JSON file link.
5. Click on the copy-icon below the M3U8 LINK column to copy your generated HLS link to the clipboard and use it where it’s needed. You can repeat the same steps for the JSON Link as well.
6. Create several active, scheduled TV programs, starting from the day of testing the link for the generated HLS link to work.
REMEMBER: the generated HLS link is a playlist of the SCHEDULED TV PROGRAM, not just for the videos in the channel. It will only work if the scheduled and active broadcast has been started.
7. The videos in the playlist will broadcast in real time, per each video schedule and according to the selected time zone.
8. Before using the generated link, test it in the HLS Player: https://www.hlsplayer.org/
