Using the proxy

[akillar]

How do you use this proxy to stream a m3u8 url. i've installed the proxy globally and started the proxy using the command + allowed ports in the firewall. but how do i use my m3u8 url to use this proxy ?

[warren-bank]

using the 24/7 CBS News live stream as a sample m3u8 URL

to obtain a proxied URL in bash:

proxy='127.0.0.1:8080'
URL='https://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsn_header_prod.m3u8'
URL=$(echo "$URL" | base64 --wrap=0)
URL="http://${proxy}/${URL}.m3u8"
echo $URL

to obtain a proxied URL in javascript:

{
  const proxy = '127.0.0.1:8080'
  let URL
  URL = 'https://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsn_header_prod.m3u8'
  URL = window.btoa(URL)
  URL = `http://${proxy}/${URL}.m3u8`
  console.log(URL)
}

tool that can be used to simplify this task:

• Chrome extension that can run in any Chromium-based desktop web browser, and be used to:
  • intercept the URL of (nearly) all videos on any website
  • display these video URLs as a list of links
  • clicking on this icon will transfer the URL of the video to this single-page application (SPA) that can run in any web browser
    • it allows you to specify the location for your running instance of HLS Proxy
    • when you click "Load Player", it will:
    • construct a proxied URL
    • redirect to another SPA
      • this page lets you choose where to redirect this proxied URL:
      • Chromecast sender
        • also includes an in-browser video player to watch the proxied HLS stream
      • AirPlay sender
      • HLS Proxy configuration
        • this link would be redundant, since you've already configured an HLS Proxy

a cheat to use the SPAs without the Chrome extension:

• open this page
  • enter the URL for your HLS manifest
  • example: https://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsn_header_prod.m3u8
  • click "Watch" and a hash is added to the URL in the browser's address bar
  • example: http://webcast-reloaded.surge.sh/1-webcast/index.html#/watch/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY2JzbmV3cy5jb20vY29tbW9uL3ZpZGVvL2Nic25faGVhZGVyX3Byb2QubTN1OA%253D%253D
  • manually modify this URL to replace 1-webcast/index.html with proxy.html
  • example: http://webcast-reloaded.surge.sh/proxy.html#/watch/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY2JzbmV3cy5jb20vY29tbW9uL3ZpZGVvL2Nic25faGVhZGVyX3Byb2QubTN1OA%253D%253D
  • follow the same instructions for using the Chrome extension, beginning at the step immediately after having clicked on this icon

[warren-bank]

PS: since you mentioned opening ports in your server's firewall, I'll mention that you'll want to replace 127.0.0.1 in all of the examples above with an IP that's reachable from your client. For example, on your LAN the IP might look something like 192.168.0.100.

[akillar]

thank you @warren-bank.

[akillar]

@warren-bank is it possible to use a domain name instead of a ip address for the const proxy = '127.0.0.1:8080'

[warren-bank]

yes.. so long as the client that you're using to download the stream through the proxy can use DNS to resolve your domain name to an IP address, then you certainly can.

{
  const proxy = 'https://my-hls-proxy.com:443'
  let URL
  URL = 'https://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsn_header_prod.m3u8'
  URL = window.btoa(URL)
  URL = `${proxy}/${URL}.m3u8`
  console.log(URL)
}

you can play around with this by editing the hosts file on your computer.. to override DNS resolution locally for testing

127.0.0.1  my-hls-proxy.com