Step-by-Step Guide: Creating and Streaming M3U8 Files

Please check this video if you need to have some ideas on how to create a M3U playlist on a single file and play it on any app that can play M3U files, especially VLC, on any devices, either a computer, smart TV, or smart phone.

We are going to use free software for this tutorial.

We are going to use Notepad++, for adding your playlist of streaming media.

We also going to use Mist server, which is also free software, to get some sample M3u8  streaming media which  is played from OBS

We are going also to use OBS as an encoder to encode the video for using it as a sample in our tutorial.

Lastly, we are going to use VLC Player for checking if our playlist is played or not.

and we will test it on a computer and smart phone.

So let's start.

Open your Notepad plus plus, ready for adding your list.

Just copy the M3U code that I use on it. I also attached the file for easy copying; you can download it from the link below.

That negative 1 you saw is for time; once you put it, it can play a lot without checking time. In other words, you can say unlimited, depending on the length of the clips.

TVG-ID and Name are used for EPG and other table details. If you want to add EPG and other details to your list, these are unique identities to use to allocate these tables.

And last one after a comma is the name of the media that will appear on your playlist.

So after that line of code to be used as format on adding playlist, press enter to start a new line, and then from that is where you can place your link for that where your video is allocated or played from.

For example, if the media is on your PC, you can place the directory of that media, and with the format of that media, for example, if its in MP4 or MP3 format, you can place it like I show it.

So let's start by adding the HLS link to our playlist files.

As I said before,. We are going to generate our own HLS link first by using Mist Server and OBS, both free to use. If your not good with it, please check my tutorial on how to use it.

So open Mist Server first. After it opened and everything went fine, go to the browser to add some settings and monitor our streaming from OBS.

We are going to push the stream on stream name video from OBS encoder.

We are going to use the SRT link to push the stream from OBS to the Mist server. its easy and has a lot of advantages compared with the RTMP link.

So open OBS and paste the SRT link you copied from the Mist server.

The sources for OBS you can put anything you want. for me, I put some source of news channel . that is easy for me to get it.

After that, start your streaming.

Go to your Mistserver to see if your streaming is active.

Perfect. The stream is active and working perfect.

Then go to the protocol stream urls and copy the HLS protocol and paste it on your Notepad++ Playlist.

You can paste as many as the media stream you want.

For today, lets just add only two media to the list.

So I just copy and paste and change some parameter value's.

But for the second one, I am going to use some media from my PC, so for that, I am going to copy the directory of the media locally from the PC.

So we have two media on our playlist, one is from Mistserver, which is an HLS link, and the other is the media from the local PC.

After finishing that, just save your file. Don't forget to add the extension of the file, which is dot M3U.

Go to the saved file and open it with VLC Media player 

and see if you get all the playlist files on it.

Perfect, the file plays well, and as you can see, all two files are shown on the playlist.

The first one is from Mist Server, and the second one is from PC.

Send also the file to your smart phone or smart TV to see if it works fine.

For me, I can send it to my Android phone for this testing.

But on this testing, my PC and smartphone are both on local networks.

So I send the file via Bluetooth.

Then I'm going to open it by VLC media player, which is my favourite player on my mobile phone for the whole time.

perfect it works fine too on  my mobile phone, like you see it.

There is some little bit of delay on the phone compared to the PC, and this is a normal thing on the streaming.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy it. If you found any difficulties, don't hesitate to check me on comment. 

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MASTERING RTMP MINI-SERVER : STREAM LIKE A PRO !

Just download the software and install it.

You can google it and download the trial setup. or you can have the cracked one, but it is not advised to use it.

On my side, I already download it and install it.

Go to the shortcut icon and double-click the application.

Once opened you will see  the interface of the miniRTMP server

it contains 8 channels, which means you can transmit 8 channels simultaneously.

At the top left, there is an option to stream via a local network, which means you can stream the video on your local network device without any issue. There is also an internet option, in which you can stream it through the internet. However, there is a proxy option, whereby you can use a dedicated server to stream it, and this is the best option to use if you want to stream it outside your local network. 

On the right, there is a multiviewer option, which you can use to monitor all 8 streams.

 So go to the power button and turn the platform ON. You will start to see the green button.

 We are going to use OBS as our encoder in this tutorial.

So let's start our OBS and put the parameters.

I already added the source to my OBS; it's a news channel.

So let's create our stream of it by using the MiniRTMP server.

So let's start with the local network.

Copy the parameters of the local network and paste them on OBS. then copy the KEY. Each key is dedicated to one channel.

So if you want channel one, copy the first key to the OBS.

then start the stream and see.

you can monitor your stream from either a multiviewer or use an NDI monitor to check it.

Done. 

As you see it all works fine NDI monitor and Multiviewer.

On part of the internet it gives some issues like you see it, so let's use the proxy option.

Click the Proxy button, select the server you need, and then click Connect to get your streaming server to use on OBS.

Copy the public address and paste it on OBS.

Works fine on both the Multiviewer and the NDI monitor.

Once the video is on the NDI monitor, you can use it on any Encoder platform, either OBS, V-MIX or another streaming encoder brand.

Thank you, if you found any difficulties check me in the Comment section

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