Suitable approach for serving HLS playlist from GCP using node.js server

Question

I have a dilemma in serving dynamic hls playlists to users, since all hls files will have to be served from GCP storage. Since index file is static, I can simply serve it using express static as outlined in one answer in here but it is limited to file directory (in my opinion). For streaming HLS playlist from GCP, I tried the following approach

For serving dynamic index files from GCP

router.get('/segments-list', (req, res) => {
  const playlistName = req.query;
  const remoteFile = hlsPlaylistBucket.file('${playlistName}.m3u8'); 
  remoteFile.download().then((data) => {
    const contents = data[0];
    res.send(contents);
  });
});

For serving individual segment files (.ts) to users

router.get('/segments/:segment', (req, res) => {
  const { segment } = req.params;
  //* Gets specific segment files from GCP cloud in request of particular segments
  const remoteFile = hlsPlaylistBucket.file(`${segment}`);

  remoteFile.download().then((data) => {
    const contents = data[0];
    res.send(contents);
  });
});

Here is the manifest file

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:8
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:0
#EXTINF:8.341667,
segments/file000.ts
#EXTINF:8.341667,
segments/file001.ts
#EXTINF:8.341667,
segments/file002.ts
#EXTINF:8.341667,
segments/file003.ts
#EXTINF:5.572233,
segments/file004.ts
#EXT-X-ENDLIST

Now this approach seems to work but this is a flawed approach due to downloading small chunks for files in memory every time user requests. And serving signed urls for each segment files is also not a suitable way was well as one video might contain 200 segments files. Is my approach correct or do I have to serve HLS playlists like this in GCP. The real problem arises in serving base url segments files and I have been stuck for the past couple of days in this problem but I cannot find a suitable way to serve VOD file to users by serving HLS playlist Any help will be appreciated

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 30 '21 at 22:36

1

I think the best option here is to serve them from a GCP bucket using CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing), here you can find a guide on how to configure CORS for a GCP bucket 1.

Even further, you could render the conversion and packaging of the original video files to the Transcoder API Google service 2, which can generate and store the HLS manifest and files into a GCP bucket, to later be used by any Video Streaming Player, take a look at this Quickstart guide 3.

answered Dec 30 '21 at 22:36

Gabriel Robledo Ahumada

1,542
2
14

Thanks for the suggestion, although atm it wont be possible for me to incorporate changes due to time constraint so I have tweaked my approach from downloading to streaming each file segment, although it works atm but in future I shall follow your suggestion for a more streamlined approach – dev_2k20 Jan 03 '22 at 06:22
Can I help you with other information? If you think that my answer helped you, please consider accepting it by clicking the checkmark (✔️) on the left side under the vote arrows. Should change the color to green. – Gabriel Robledo Ahumada Jan 05 '22 at 15:25

Suitable approach for serving HLS playlist from GCP using node.js server

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