Shaka Player is an open-source JavaScript library for adaptive media. It plays adaptive media formats (such as DASH and HLS) in a browser, without using plugins or Flash. Instead, Shaka Player uses the open web standards MediaSource Extensions and Encrypted Media Extensions.
Shaka Player also supports offline storage and playback of media using IndexedDB. Content can be stored on any browser. Storage of licenses depends on browser support.
Our main goal is to make it as easy as possible to stream adaptive bitrate video and audio using modern browser technologies. We try to keep the library light, simple, and free from third-party dependencies. Everything you need to build and deploy is in the sources.
For details on what's coming next, see our development roadmap.
Maintained branches
See maintained-branches.md for the up-to-date list of maintained branches of Shaka Player.
Platform and browser support matrix
| Browser | Windows | Mac | Linux | Android | iOS >= 13 | ChromeOS | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome¹ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Native | Y | - |
| Firefox¹ | Y | Y | Y | untested⁵ | Native | - | - |
| Edge¹ | Y | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Edge Chromium | Y | Y | Y | untested⁵ | Native | - | - |
| IE | N | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Safari¹ | - | Y | - | - | iPadOS 13 Native |
- | - |
| Opera¹ | untested⁵ | untested⁵ | untested⁵ | untested⁵ | Native | - | - |
| Chromecast² | - | - | - | - | - | - | Y |
| Tizen TV³ | - | - | - | - | - | - | Y |
| WebOS⁶ | - | - | - | - | - | - | Y |
| Xbox One | - | - | - | - | - | - | Y |
| Playstation 4⁷ | - | - | - | - | - | - | Y |
| Playstation 5⁷ | - | - | - | - | - | - | Y |
NOTES:
- ¹: On macOS, only Safari 13+ is supported. On iOS, only iOS 13+ is supported. Older versions will be rejected.
- ²: The latest stable Chromecast firmware is tested. Both sender and receiver can be implemented with Shaka Player.
- ³: Tizen 2017 model is actively tested and supported by the Shaka Player team. Tizen 2016 model is community-supported and untested by us.
- ⁵: These are expected to work, but are not actively tested by the Shaka Player team.
- ⁶: These are expected to work, but are community-supported and untested by
us.
- Official support for LG WebOS TV: https://github.com/shaka-project/shaka-player/issues/1330
- ⁷: These are expected to work, but are community-supported and untested by us.
We support iOS 13+ through Apple's native HLS player. We provide the same
top-level API, but we just set the video's src element to the manifest/media.
So we are dependent on the browser supporting the manifests.
Shaka Player Embedded (for native iOS)
We have another project called Shaka Player Embedded which offers the same features and similar APIs for native apps on iOS. This project uses its own media stack, which allows it to play content that would otherwise not be supported. This supports both DASH and HLS manifests.
Manifest format support matrix
| Format | Video On-Demand | Live | Event | In-Progress Recording |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DASH | Y | Y | - | Y |
| HLS | Y | Y | Y | - |
You can also create a manifest parser plugin to support custom manifest formats.
DASH features
DASH features supported:
- VOD, Live, and In-Progress Recordings (dynamic VOD content)
- MPD@timeShiftBufferDepth for seeking backward in Live streams
- Multi-period content (static and dynamic)
- Xlink elements (actuate=onLoad only, resolve-to-zero, fallback content)
- All forms of segment index info: SegmentBase@indexRange, SegmentTimeline, SegmentTemplate@duration, SegmentTemplate@index, SegmentList
- Multi-codec/multi-container manifests (we will negotiate support with the browser and choose the best ones)
- Encrypted content (including custom ContentProtection schemas, PSSH in the manifest)
- Key rotation
- Trick mode tracks
- WebVTT and TTML
- CEA-608/708 captions
DASH features not supported:
- Xlink with actuate=onRequest
- Manifests without any segment info: https://github.com/shaka-project/shaka-player/issues/1088
- Changing codecs during a presentation (unsupported by MSE)
- Multiple trick mode tracks for the same resolution at varying framerates or bitrates
- Timescales so large that timestamps cannot be represented as integers in JavaScript (2^53): https://github.com/shaka-project/shaka-player/issues/1667
HLS features
Only supported on browsers with SourceBuffer.mode=sequence support
HLS features supported:
- VOD, Live, and Event types
- Low-latency streaming with partial segments, preload hints, and delta updates
- Discontinuity
- ISO-BMFF / MP4 / CMAF support
- MPEG-2 TS support (transmuxing provided by mux.js v6.2.0+, must be separately included)
- WebVTT and TTML
- CEA-608/708 captions
- Encrypted content with PlayReady and Widevine
- Encrypted content with FairPlay (Safari on macOS and iOS 13+ only)
- Key rotation
- Raw AAC, MP3, etc (without an MP4 container)
HLS features not supported:
- I-frame-only playlists: https://github.com/shaka-project/shaka-player/issues/742
- Low-latency streaming with blocking playlist reload
MPEG-5 Part2 LCEVC Support
Only supported on browsers with Media Source Extensions SourceBuffer support
-
MPEG-5 Part2 LCEVC decoding support (decoding provided by lcevc_dil.js, must be separately included)
-
Integration documentation : docs
-
More on MPEG-5 Part2 LCEVC
DRM support matrix
| Browser | Widevine | PlayReady | FairPlay | ClearKey⁶ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome¹ | Y | - | - | Y |
| Firefox² | Y | - | - | Y |
| Edge³ | - | Y | - | - |
| Edge Chromium | Y | Y | - | Y |
| Safari | - | - | Y | - |
| Opera | untested⁵ | - | - | untested⁵ |
| Chromecast | Y | Y | - | untested⁵ |
| Tizen TV | Y | Y | - | untested⁵ |
| WebOS⁷ | untested⁷ | untested⁷ | - | untested⁷ |
| Xbox One | - | Y | - | - |
| Playstation 4⁷ | - | untested⁷ | - | untested⁷ |
| Playstation 5⁷ | - | untested⁷ | - | untested⁷ |
Other DRM systems should work out of the box if they are interoperable and compliant to the EME spec.
NOTES:
- ¹: Only official Chrome builds contain the Widevine CDM. Chromium built from source does not support DRM.
- ²: DRM must be enabled by the user. The first time a Firefox user visits a site with encrypted media, the user will be prompted to enable DRM.
- ³: PlayReady in Edge does not seem to work on a VM or over Remote Desktop.
- ⁵: These are expected to work, but are not actively tested by the Shaka Player team.
- ⁶: ClearKey is a useful tool for debugging, and does not provide actual content security.
- ⁷: These are expected to work, but are community-supported and untested by us.
| Manifest | Widevine | PlayReady | FairPlay | ClearKey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DASH | Y | Y | - | Y |
| HLS | Y | Y | Y ¹ | - |
NOTES:
- ¹: By default, FairPlay is handled using Apple's native HLS player, when on
Safari. We do support FairPlay through MSE/EME, however. See the
streaming.useNativeHlsOnSafariconfiguration value.
Media container and subtitle support
Shaka Player supports:
- ISO-BMFF / CMAF / MP4
- Depends on browser support for the container via MediaSource
- Can parse "sidx" box for DASH's SegmentBase@indexRange and SegmentTemplate@index
- Can find and parse "tfdt" box to find segment start time in HLS
- WebM
- Depends on browser support for the container via MediaSource
- Can parse cueing data elements for DASH's SegmentBase@indexRange and SegmentTemplate@index
- Not supported in HLS
- MPEG-2 TS
- With help from mux.js v6.2.0+, can be played on any browser which supports MP4
- Can find and parse timestamps to find segment start time in HLS
- WebVTT
- Supported in both text form and embedded in MP4
- TTML
- Supported in both XML form and embedded in MP4
- CEA-608
- Supported embedded in MP4
- With help from mux.js v6.2.0+, supported embedded in TS
- CEA-708
- Supported embedded in MP4
- With help from mux.js v6.2.0+, supported embedded in TS
- SubRip (SRT)
- UTF-8 encoding only
- LyRiCs (LRC)
- UTF-8 encoding only
- SubStation Alpha (SSA, ASS)
- UTF-8 encoding only
- SubViewer (SBV)
- UTF-8 encoding only
Subtitles are rendered by the browser by default. Applications can create a text display plugin for customer rendering to go beyond browser-supported attributes.
Documentation & Important Links
- Demo(sources)
- API documentation
- Tutorials
- Hosted builds on Google Hosted Libraries
- Hosted builds on jsDelivr
- Development roadmap
- Announcement list (join for infrequent announcements and surveys)
- Subscribe to releases by following instructions from this blog
FAQ
For general help and before filing any bugs, please read the FAQ.
Contributing
If you have improvements or fixes, we would love to have your contributions. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for more information on the process we would like contributors to follow.
Framework Integrations
The Shaka team doesn't have the bandwidth and experience to provide guidance and support for integrating Shaka Player with specific frameworks, but some of our users have successfully done so and created tutorials to help other beginners.
Shaka + ReactJS Library
Shaka + ReactJS integrations:
- https://github.com/matvp91/shaka-player-react
- https://github.com/amit08255/shaka-player-react-with-ui-config
Shaka + Next.js integration:
Shaka + Vue.js integrations:
Shaka + Nuxt.js integration:
Shaka + video.js integration:
Shaka + Angular integration:
If you have published Shaka Integration code/tutorials, please feel free to submit PRs to add them to this list, we will gladly approve!