jellyfin-web/dashboard-ui/bower_components/hls.js/design.md

##design principle

design idea is pretty simple :

• main functionalities are splitted into several subsystems
• each subsystem heavily relies on events for internal/external communications.

##code structure

• src/hls.js

  • definition of Hls Class. instantiate all subcomponents.

• src/events.js

  • definition of Hls.Events

• src/errors.js

  • definition of Hls.ErrorTypes and Hls.ErrorDetails

• src/controller/stream-controller.js

  • stream controller actions are scheduled by a tick timer (invoked every 100ms) and actions are controlled by a state machine.
  • stream controller is in charge of:
    • ensuring that buffer is filled as per defined quality selection logic.
  • if buffer is not filled up appropriately (i.e. as per defined maximum buffer size, or as per defined quality level), buffer controller will trigger the following actions:
    • retrieve "not buffered" media position greater then current playback position. this is performed by comparing video.buffered and video.currentTime.
      • if there are holes in video.buffered, smaller than config.maxBufferHole, they will be ignored.
    • retrieve URL of fragment matching with this media position, and appropriate quality level
    • trigger FRAG_LOADING event
    • monitor fragment loading speed (by monitoring data received from FRAG_LOAD_PROGRESS event)
    • "expected time of fragment load completion" is computed using "fragment loading instant bandwidth".
    • this time is compared to the "expected time of buffer starvation".
    • if we have less than 2 fragments buffered and if "expected time of fragment load completion" is bigger than "expected time of buffer starvation" and also bigger than duration needed to load fragment at next quality level (determined by auto quality switch algorithm), current fragment loading is aborted, stream-controller will trigger an emergency switch down.
    • trigger fragment demuxing on FRAG_LOADED
    • trigger BUFFER_RESET on MANIFEST_PARSED or startLoad()
    • trigger BUFFER_CODECS on FRAG_PARSING_INIT_SEGMENT
    • trigger BUFFER_APPENDING on FRAG_PARSING_DATA
    • once FRAG_PARSED is received an all segments have been appended (BUFFER_APPENDED) then buffer controller will recheck whether it needs to buffer more data.
    • monitor current playback quality level (buffer controller maintains a map between media position and quality level)
    • monitor playback progress : if playhead is not moving anymore although it should (video metadata is known and video is not ended, nor paused, nor in seeking state) and if we have less than 400ms buffered upfront, and if there is a new buffer range available upfront, less than config.maxSeekHole from currentTime, then hls.js will jump over the buffer hole and seek to the beginning of this new buffered range, to "unstuck" the playback. 400 ms is a "magic number" that has been set to overcome browsers not always stopping playback at the exact end of a buffered range. these holes in media buffered are often encountered on stream discontinuity or on quality level switch. holes could be "large" especially if fragments are not starting with a keyframe.

• src/controller/buffer-controller.js

  • in charge of:
    • resetting media buffer upon BUFFER_RESET event reception
    • initializing SourceBuffer with appropriate codecs info upon BUFFER_CODECS event reception
    • appending MP4 boxes in SourceBuffer upon BUFFER_APPENDING
    • trigger BUFFER_APPENDED event upon successful buffer appending
    • flushing specified buffer range upon reception of BUFFER_FLUSHING event
    • trigger BUFFER_FLUSHED event upon successful buffer flushing

• src/controller/fps-controller.js

  • in charge of monitoring frame rate, and fire FPS_DROP event in case FPS drop exceeds configured threshold. disabled for now.

• src/controller/level-controller.js

  • in charge of scheduling playlist (re)loading and monitoring of fragment loading bitrate
  • a timer is armed to periodically refresh active live playlist.

• src/controller/abr-controller.js

  • in charge of determining auto quality level.
  • auto quality switch algorithm is pretty naive and simple ATM and similar to the one that could be found in google StageFright

• src/crypt/aes.js

  • AES 128 software decryption routine, low level class handling decryption of 128 bit of data.

• src/crypt/aes128-decrypter.js

  • AES 128-CBC software decryption routine, high-level class handling cipher-block chaining (CBC), and that should also handle padding (TODO).

• src/crypt/decrypter.js

  • decrypter interface, use either WebCrypto API if available and enabled, or fallback on AES 128 software decryption routine.

• src/demux/aacdemuxer.js

  • AAC ES demuxer
    • extract ADTS samples from AAC ES

• src/demux/adts.js

  • ADTS header parser helper, extract audio config from ADTS header. used by AAC ES and TS demuxer.

• src/demux/demuxer.js

  • demuxer abstraction interface, that will either use a Worker to demux or demux inline depending on config/browser capabilities.
  • also handle fragment decryption using WebCrypto API (fragment decryption is performed in main thread)
  • if Worker are disabled. demuxing will be performed in the main thread.
  • if Worker are available/enabled,
    • demuxer will instantiate a Worker
    • post/listen to Worker message,
    • and redispatch events as expected by hls.js.
  • Fragments are sent as transferable objects in order to minimize message passing overhead.

• src/demux/demuxer-inline.js

  • inline demuxer.
  • probe fragments and instantiate appropriate demuxer depending on content type (TSDemuxer, AACDemuxer, ...)

• src/demux/demuxer-worker.js

  • demuxer web worker.
  • listen to worker message, and trigger DemuxerInline upon reception of Fragments.
  • provides MP4 Boxes back to main thread using transferable objects in order to minimize message passing overhead.

• src/demux/exp-golomb.js

  • utility class to extract Exponential-Golomb coded data. needed by TS demuxer for SPS parsing.

• src/demux/id3.js

  • utility class that detect and parse ID3 tags, used by AAC demuxer

• src/demux/tsdemuxer.js

  • highly optimized TS demuxer:
  • parse PAT, PMT
  • extract PES packet from audio and video PIDs
  • extract AVC/H264 NAL units and AAC/ADTS samples from PES packet
  • trigger the remuxer upon parsing completion
  • it also tries to workaround as best as it can audio codec switch (HE-AAC to AAC and vice versa), without having to restart the MediaSource.
  • it also controls the remuxing process :
  • upon discontinuity or level switch detection, it will also notifies the remuxer so that it can reset its state.

• src/helper/level-helper.js

  • helper class providing methods dealing with playlist sliding and fragment duration drift computation : after fragment parsing, start/end fragment timestamp will be used to adjust potential playlist drifts and live playlist sliding.

• src/loader/fragment-loader.js

  • in charge of loading fragments, use xhr-loader if not overrided by user config

• src/loader/playlist-loader.js

• in charge of loading manifest, and level playlists, use xhr-loader if not overrided by user config.

• src/loader/key-loader.js

• in charge of loading decryption key

• src/remux/dummy-remuxer.js

• example dummy remuxer

• src/remux/mp4-generator.js

• in charge of generating MP4 boxes

  • generate Init Segment (moov)
  • generate samples Box (moof and mdat)

• src/remux/mp4-remuxer.js

• in charge of converting AVC/AAC samples provided by demuxer into fragmented ISO BMFF boxes, compatible with MediaSource

• this remuxer is able to deal with small gaps between fragments and ensure timestamp continuity.

• it notifies remuxing completion using events (FRAG_PARSING_INIT_SEGMENTand FRAG_PARSING_DATA)

• src/utils/attr-list.js

  • Attribute List parsing helper class, used by playlist-loader

• src/utils/binary-search.js

  • binary search helper class

• src/utils/hex.js

  • Hex dump utils, useful for debug

• src/utils/logger.js

  • logging utils, useful for debug

• src/utils/url.js

  • convert base+relative URL into absolute URL

• src/utils/xhr-loader.js

  • XmlHttpRequest wrapper. it handles standard HTTP GET but also retries and timeout.
  • retries : if xhr fails, HTTP GET will be retried after a predetermined delay. this delay is increasing following an exponential backoff. after a predetemined max number of retries, an error callback will be triggered.
  • timeout: if load exceeds max allowed duration, a timeout callback will be triggered. it is up to the callback to decides whether the connection should be cancelled or not.

Error detection and Handling

• MANIFEST_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• MANIFEST_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• MANIFEST_PARSING_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js if Manifest parsing fails (no EXTM3U delimiter, no levels found in Manifest, ...)
• LEVEL_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• LEVEL_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/playlist-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js. this error is marked as fatal and will not be recovered automatically. a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• LEVEL_SWITCH_ERROR is raised by src/controller/level-controller.js if user tries to switch to an invalid level (invalid/out of range level id)
• FRAG_LOAD_ERROR is raised by src/loader/fragment-loader.js upon xhr failure detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js.
  • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
  • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• FRAG_LOOP_LOADING_ERROR is raised by src/controller/stream-controller.js upon detection of same fragment being requested in loop. this could happen with badly formatted fragments.
  • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
  • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• FRAG_LOAD_TIMEOUT is raised by src/loader/fragment-loader.js upon xhr timeout detected by src/utils/xhr-loader.js.
  • if auto level switch is enabled and loaded frag level is greater than 0, this error is not fatal: in that case src/controller/level-controller.js will trigger an emergency switch down to level 0.
  • if frag level is 0 or auto level switch is disabled, this error is marked as fatal and a call to hls.startLoad() could help recover it.
• FRAG_PARSING_ERROR is raised by src/demux/tsdemuxer.js upon TS parsing error. this error is not fatal.
• FRAG_DECRYPT_ERROR is raised by src/demux/demuxer.js upon fragment decrypting error. this error is fatal.
• BUFFER_APPEND_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js when an exception is raised when calling sourceBuffer.appendBuffer(). this error is non fatal and become fatal after config.appendErrorMaxRetry retries. when fatal, a call to hls.recoverMediaError() could help recover it.
• BUFFER_APPENDING_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js after SourceBuffer appending error. this error is fatal and a call to hls.recoverMediaError() could help recover it.
• BUFFER_STALLED_ERROR is raised by src/controller/stream-controller.js if playback is stalling because of buffer underrun
• BUFFER_FULL_ERROR is raised by src/controller/buffer-controller.js if sourcebuffer is full