HLS.js Roadmap

[robwalch]

Planned Releases

v1.6

Theme: HLS Interstitials

1.6.0 Milestone

Interstitial Support Overview:

• HLS Interstitials Support #5730
• Interstitial support can be enabled/disabled using a config option
• Interstitial support can removed from the build via compile time option (empty Controller/config option)
• HLS.js handles preloading and streaming of Interstitials via additional instances of HLS.js
  • Interstitial player instances are child instances of the primary player
• Interstitial instances (like the primary player instance) must have an HTMLMediaElement attached to append media to SourceBuffers
  • Primary player may "share" a single element with Interstitial players (on platforms only supporting a single decoder/element), or additional HTMLMediaElements can be attached to Interstitial players for more seamless transitions (providing DOM elements are managed appropriately by the application using HLS.js)
• New HLS.js Interstitial events will signal the Interstitial schedule, updates to the schedule, transitions between schedule blocks or segments
• HLS.js may adopt new methods for supporting client-side Interstitials (insertion of breaks not present in the HLS asset, but rather added by the client at runtime)

v1.7

Theme: I-Frame support and (M)JPEG Loading

1.7.0 Milestone

• Add support for fast forward and rewind by switching to and streaming #EXT-X-FRAME-STREAM-INF variants
• Add support for JPEG-style navigation with "mjpg" or "jpeg" #EXT-X-FRAME-STREAM-INF variants

v1.8

Theme: Low-Latency HLS Improvements

1.8.0 Milestone

Features:

• Support for the EXT-X-PRELOAD-HINT
  • Reduce Low-Latency HLS playback latency
• Fix playback past under-buffering gaps (reduce stalls and stall duration)
• Improve adaptation timing (reduce freeze frames from appends made behind the playhead)
• Adding support to HLS.JS for EXT-X-BITRATE

Stretch goals:

• Crossing "incompatible" discontinuity boundaries (currently supported via browser SourceBuffer.changeType() where available), with more control over resetting MediaSource from a specific time or discontinuity.
• It's a secret

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Past Releases

npm package releases “video-dev/hls.js” updated Jan 16, 2024.

v1.5

Theme: Advanced Media Codecs and Formats (HDR and Multi-Channel Audio)

Release Date: January 8, 2024

Release Notes

1.5.0 Milestone

Features:

• Support for HDR video codec selection, switching, and filtering (Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, SDR/HLG/PQ attributes)
• Support for advance audio codec selection (DD, DD+, ATMOS, xHE-AAC, FLAC, ALAC)
• Multi-channel audio selection / detecting support
• API enhancements for audio and subtitle selection and preferences
• Selection prioritization based on highest codec(s)
• ManagedMediaSource support (available on Safari 17.1 and up)
• MediaCapabilities selection limiting

v1.4

Theme: Content Steering

Release Date: April 10, 2023

Release Notes

Issues Milestone

Features:

• Content Steering 1.3+ support
• EXT-X-DEFINE variable substitution
• Improved network handling policies
• "Penalty Box" Playlist and Pathway error management
• Improve ABR estimations with Low-Latency HLS, small segments, and higher request latency
• EXT-X-GAP tag support (initial adaptation with seek-gap fallback)
• New build process with smaller library payload, ESM output, and simpler worker injection or optional worker script path

v1.3

Theme: DRM Support

Release Date: January 12, 2023

Release Notes

Issues Milestone

Features:

• FairPlay and PlayReady support added to existing Widevine support
• Support Manifest Delivered DRM Keys / EXT-X-KEY URI handling
• License rotation (this is possible now with API config but is not formalized)
• EXT-X-SESSION-KEY preload support
• Playlist filtering and removal based on:
  • HDCP Level capping and restricted-output error handling

Missed stretch goals:

• HDCP Level filtering based on W3C HDCP Version query
• ALLOWED CPC (w/ EXT-X-SESSION-KEY and early key-system selection)
• Transition between clear <-> encryption
• ClearKey support

https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js/releases/tag/v1.3.0

v1.2.0

Theme: Timed Metadata and Captions, fMP4 interoperability

Release Date: July 27, 2022

Release Notes