Multirate HLS and DASH Setup

Drastic conversion and capture software support single rate and multirate file recording and conversion.  Up to 10 different bitrate/fps/size variants are supported per multirate output.  The actual files may be TS, MP4 or DASH/Fragmented MP4 with associated MDP and HLS files for live replay of recording files, and automatic adaptation to varying connection conditions. The outputs are not set up by default, but can be added manually.

Low level setup

To set up the various levels of an adaptive bit rate set for HLS or DASH, use the DDRConfig application included with the videoQC install. 

Right click on DDRConfig and select Run As Administrator.

Select the Advanced tab.  In the config tree, go to 

/MediaReactor/PlugIns

Select the Plugins folder. Click the New button, and use the Type pulldown menu to select Sub Key.

Type "MultiRate" into the Name field, and press Accept.

Under the MultiRate key, there are 3 settings, all numeric. They are added by selecting the MultiRate folder, pressing the New button, and selecting Numeric as the Type.

HLSfMP4 - if set to 0, HLS will use TS (transport streams), otherwise it will use fragmented MPEG-4 files TotalMultiRateFiles - the total number of files to create for each multirate output UseDIrs - if this is not 0, then different rate files will each be put in their own subdirectories.  Otherwise they will be in the output directory with the M3U8

Output Folders

For each of the active multirate outputs, as specified by TotalMultiRateFiles, a File# sub key must be made, starting with File0 and going up to File# where the # is the TotalMultiRateFiles - 1

Making New File# Folders

Here is how to create a folder for each output type.

Select the MultiRate folder.
Click the New button, then use the Type pulldown menu to select Sub Key.
Type "File0" into the Name field, and press Accept. This will create the first output folder.
Repeat this procedure to create additional folders.

Within each File# directory you will set up the bitrate/fps/size for that adaptation. These are numeric settings.

Setting Up the Output for Each Folder

Here is how to assign the necessary values for each output folder.

Select the folder.
Click the New button.
Type in the Name of the Value.
Click Numeric.
Enter the value as specified.
Click Accept.

Here are brief descriptions of the values that are required.

• AudioBitRate - AAC audio bit rate as kilobits per second (e.g. 128k == 128 decimal)
• BitRateAvg - the average bit rate in kilobits per second (e.g. 5mbs == 5000kbs)
• BitRatePeak - the highest allowable peak bit rate in kilobits per second
• FPSDivisor - 1 == original frames per second, 2 == half, 3 == one third
• Height - the target height (ideally a multiple of the input height)
• Level - the h.264 level for the target compression (e.g. 100 == 100 decimal)
• Profile - the h.264 profile for the target compression (e.g. 4.1 == 41 decimal)
• Width - the target width (ideally a multiple of the input width)

Example Settings

These settings assume a 1920x1080 source stream/SDI:

File0 AudioBitRate = 128; BitRateAvg = 7800; BitRatePeak = 8600; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 1080; // 4:3 - 1440 Level = 41; // Profile = 100; // High Width = 1920;
File1 AudioBitRate = 128; BitRateAvg = 6000; BitRatePeak = 6500; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 720; // 4:3 - 960 Level = 40; // Profile = 100; // High Width = 1280;
File2 AudioBitRate = 128; BitRateAvg = 4500; BitRatePeak = 5000; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 720; // 4:3 - 960 Level = 41; // Profile = 100; // High Width = 1280;
File3 AudioBitRate = 96; BitRateAvg = 3000; BitRatePeak = 3300; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 720; // 4:3 - 960 Level = 40; // Profile = 77; // Main Width = 1280;
File4 AudioBitRate = 96; BitRateAvg = 2000; BitRatePeak = 2200; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 540; // 4:3 - 720 Level = 40; // Profile = 77; // Main Width = 960;
File5 AudioBitRate = 96; BitRateAvg = 1100; BitRatePeak = 1200; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 432; // 4:3 - 480 Level = 30; // Profile = 77; // Main Width = 768;
File6 AudioBitRate = 64; BitRateAvg = 730; BitRatePeak = 800; FPSDivisor = 1; Height = 360; // 4:3 - 480 Level = 31; // Profile = 77; // Width = 640;
File7 AudioBitRate = 64; BitRateAvg = 365; BitRatePeak = 400; FPSDivisor = 2; Height = 270; // 4:3 - 360 Level = 31; // Profile = 77; // Main Width = 480;
File8 AudioBitRate = 64; BitRateAvg = 145; BitRatePeak = 200; FPSDivisor = 3; Height = 234; // 4:3 - 300 Level = 30; // Profile = 77; // Main Width = 416; // 4:3 - 400