Background

I’ve been meaning to implement on-demand transcoding of certain video formats such as ".mkv", ".wmv", ".mov", etc. in order to serve them on a media management server using ASP.NET Core 6.0, C# and ffmpeg.

My Approach

The approach I’ve decided to use is to serve a dynamically generated .m3u8 file which is simply generated using a segment duration of choice e.g. 10s and the known video duration. Here’s how I’ve done it. Note that the resolution is currently not implemented and discarded:

public string GenerateVideoOnDemandPlaylist(double duration, int segment)
{
   double interval = (double)segment;
   var content = new StringBuilder();

   content.AppendLine("#EXTM3U");
   content.AppendLine("#EXT-X-VERSION:6");
   content.AppendLine(String.Format("#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:{0}", segment));
   content.AppendLine("#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:0");
   content.AppendLine("#EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE:VOD");
   content.AppendLine("#EXT-X-INDEPENDENT-SEGMENTS");

   for (double index = 0; (index * interval) < duration; index++)
   {
      content.AppendLine(String.Format("#EXTINF:{0:#.000000},", ((duration - (index * interval)) > interval) ? interval : ((duration - (index * interval)))));
      content.AppendLine(String.Format("{0:00000}.ts", index));
   }

   content.AppendLine("#EXT-X-ENDLIST");

   return content.ToString();
}

[HttpGet]
[Route("stream/{id}/{resolution}.m3u8")]
public IActionResult Stream(string id, string resolution)
{
   double duration = RetrieveVideoLengthInSeconds();
   return Content(GenerateVideoOnDemandPlaylist(duration, 10), "application/x-mpegURL", Encoding.UTF8);
}

Here’s an example of how the .m3u8 file looks like:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:6
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:0
#EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE:VOD
#EXT-X-INDEPENDENT-SEGMENTS
#EXTINF:10.000000,
00000.ts
#EXTINF:3.386667,
00001.ts
#EXT-X-ENDLIST

So the player would ask for 00000.ts, 00001.ts, etc. and the next step is to have them generated on demand:

public byte[] GenerateVideoOnDemandSegment(int index, int duration, string path)
{
   int timeout = 30000;
   int totalWaitTime = 0;
   int waitInterval = 100;
   byte[] output = Array.Empty<byte>();
   string executable = "/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg";
   DirectoryInfo temp = Directory.CreateDirectory(System.IO.Path.Combine(System.IO.Path.GetTempPath(), System.IO.Path.GetRandomFileName()));
   string format = System.IO.Path.Combine(temp.FullName, "output-%05d.ts");

   using (Process ffmpeg = new())
   {
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.FileName = executable;

      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("-ss {0} ", index * duration);
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments += String.Format("-y -t {0} ", duration);
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments += String.Format("-i "{0}" ", path);
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments += String.Format("-c:v libx264 -c:a aac ");
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments += String.Format("-segment_time {0} -reset_timestamps 1 -break_non_keyframes 1 -map 0 ", duration);
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments += String.Format("-initial_offset {0} ", index * duration);
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.Arguments += String.Format("-f segment -segment_format mpegts {0}", format);

      ffmpeg.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = false;
      ffmpeg.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = false;

      ffmpeg.Start();

      do
      {
         Thread.Sleep(waitInterval);
         totalWaitTime += waitInterval;
      }
      while ((!ffmpeg.HasExited) && (totalWaitTime < timeout));

      if (ffmpeg.HasExited)
      {
         string filename = System.IO.Path.Combine(temp.FullName, "output-00000.ts");

         if (!File.Exists(filename))
         {
            throw new FileNotFoundException("Unable to find the generated segment: " + filename);
         }

         output = File.ReadAllBytes(filename);
      }
      else
      {
         // It's been too long. Kill it!
         ffmpeg.Kill();
      }
   }

   // Remove the temporary directory and all its contents.
   temp.Delete(true);

   return output;
}

[HttpGet]
[Route("stream/{id}/{index}.ts")]
public IActionResult Segment(string id, int index)
{
   string path = RetrieveVideoPath(id);
   return File(GenerateVideoOnDemandSegment(index, 10, path), "application/x-mpegURL", true);
}

So as you can see, here’s the command I use to generate each segment incrementing -ss and -initial_offset by 10 for each segment:

ffmpeg -ss 0 -y -t 10 -i "video.mov" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -segment_time 10 -reset_timestamps 1 -break_non_keyframes 1 -map 0 -initial_offset 0 -f segment -segment_format mpegts /var/folders/8h/3xdhhky96b5bk2w2br6bt8n00000gn/T/4ynrwu0q.z24/output-%05d.ts

The Problem

Things work on a functional level, however the transition between segments is slightly glitchy and especially the audio has very short interruptions at each 10 second mark. How can I ensure the segments are seamless? What can I improve in this process?