OK, solved the problem. In short, I created two PHP pages that modify the involved playlists as desired and use the PHP as tvheadend URLs for the network.
A little bit more detailed:
I have:
* A m3u8 playlist that I use as network, which contains the services the TV station offers. I'll call it the network playlist below.
* A m3u8 playlist that contains a sequence of transport streams, in my case 180 of them, which I will call the MUX playlist below.
The network playlist URL is like this:
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/master.m3u8
and its content is (shortened):
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=184000,RESOLUTION=320x180,CODECS="avc1.66.30, mp4a.40.2"
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/index_184_av-p.m3u8?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=184000,RESOLUTION=320x180,CODECS="avc1.66.30, mp4a.40.2"
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/index_184_av-b.m3u8?sd=10&rebase=on
[...]
My first PHP script, m3u8redirect.php, now changes each line of this playlist like this:
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=184000,RESOLUTION=320x180,CODECS="avc1.66.30, mp4a.40.2"
http://127.0.0.1:8000/m3u8shorten.php?Keep=5&TargetURL=http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/index_184_av-p.m3u8?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID=1,BANDWIDTH=184000,RESOLUTION=320x180,CODECS="avc1.66.30, mp4a.40.2"
http://127.0.0.1:8000/m3u8shorten.php?Keep=5&TargetURL=http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/index_184_av-b.m3u8?sd=10&rebase=on
[...]
So, basically the part http://127.0.0.1:8000/m3u8shorten.php?Keep=5&TargetURL= was added in front of each URL, which causes TVheadend, when it collects the MUXes to enter these new URLs into the MUX URL, and when it checks the services, the MUX playlists will each be run through my second php script, m3u8shorten.php.
This second script then strips the unwanted sequences from the MUX playlist, et voilá, Live-TV is suddenly live. The original MUX playlist looks like this (again - shortened):
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE:YES
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:148753965
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148753965_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148753966_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148753967_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
[...]
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754141_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754142_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
And after m3u8shorten.php (this time complete file):
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-ALLOW-CACHE:YES
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:148754138
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754138_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754139_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754140_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754141_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
#EXTINF:10.000,
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/segment148754142_184_av-b.ts?sd=10&rebase=on
Notice also the updated line #EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:148754138.
And here in detail everything to get it up and running
My description for XBian 20170203-0. All steps done as root/sudo:
First, install webserver and php:
apt-get install lighttpd php5-cgi
Next: Configure lighttp - edit
/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf@:
@server.port = 8000
This is to keep port 80 open for web interfaces. Now add the following lines to
/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf@:
@fastcgi.server += ( ".php" => ((
"bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi",
"socket" => "/var/run/php.sock"
)))
Activates PHP. Now put the following two PHP scripts into
/var/www/html@:
@m3u8redirect.php@:
<?php
/*
This script adds to each URL in a m3u8-playlist a redirect-URL to the PHP-script that
shortens the transport stream playlist to a given number of sequences.
Hand over two GET variables:
Keep Number of sequences to keep in the rolling playlists
TargetURL URL of the MUX playlist that contains the rolling playlists for the services
Written by Hauke Feb 2017
*/
// Set correct content type
header('Content-Type: application/x-mpegURL');
// Get GET-Variables
$SequencesToKeep = $_GET['Keep'];
$M3u8URL = $_GET['TargetURL'];
// Download original M3U8
$M3u8 = file_get_contents($M3u8URL);
// Add redirect-URL to each URL in playlist and send it out
echo str_replace("http", "http://127.0.0.1:8000/m3u8shorten.php?Keep=" . $SequencesToKeep . "&TargetURL=http", $M3u8);
?>
And @m3u8shorten.php@:
<?php
/*
This script takes a m3u8 playlist that contains a sequence of transport streams. It
drops all sequence URLs but the last ones - how many can be configured via GET variable.
It adjusts the starting sequence number accordingly.
Input GET variables:
Keep Number of sequences to keep
TargetURL URL of the original playlist
Written by Hauke Feb 2017
*/
// Set correct content type
header('Content-Type: application/x-mpegURL');
// Read GET variables
$M3u8URL = $_GET['TargetURL'];
$SequencesToKeep = $_GET['Keep'];
// Download original playlist
$M3u8 = file_get_contents($M3u8URL);
// Split playlist into individual lines
$M3u8Lines = explode("\n", $M3u8);
// Arrays that will contain the individual transport stream URLs and the m3u8 EXTINF information
$EXTINFs = [];
$URLs = [];
// Count sequences processed
$Sequences = 0;
// Loop through all lines
foreach($M3u8Lines as $line) {
if (strtoupper(substr($line, 0, 8)) == "#EXTINF:") {
// EXTINF found --> Add to array
$EXTINFs[] = $line;
} else if (strtoupper(substr($line, 0, 4)) == "HTTP") {
// URL found --> Add to array and count sequences +1
$URLs[] = $line;
$Sequences++;
} else if (strtoupper(substr($line, 0, 22)) == "#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:") {
// Filter out current sequence start number - needs to be updated later
$MediaSequenceStart = substr($line, 22);
} else if (strlen(trim($line)) > 0) {
// Each other non-empty line is just echoed (assume it's a header line)
echo $line . "\n";
}
}
// Adjust the starting sequence number and send it out
echo "#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:" . ($MediaSequenceStart + $Sequences - $SequencesToKeep) . "\n";
// now send out the desired number of sequence URLs from the end of the list
for ($SequenceCounter = $Sequences - $SequencesToKeep; $SequenceCounter < $Sequences; $SequenceCounter++) {
echo $EXTINFs[$SequenceCounter] . "\n";
echo $URLs[$SequenceCounter] . "\n";
}
?>
Thats all to install.
In order to configure tvheadend, if you create the network, the URL needs to be changed. Assume the original URL is:
http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/master.m3u8
You have to change this to:
http://127.0.0.1:8000/m3u8redirect.php?Keep=5&TargetURL=http://daserste_live-lh.akamaihd.net/i/daserste_de@91204/master.m3u8
So you just add http://127.0.0.1:8000/m3u8redirect.php?Keep=5&TargetURL= to the original URL.
Everything else goes like usual, and you're done!
Adjust the value @Keep=5
to your liking - the number says, how many sequences should in the end be in the MUX playlist. 5 I found working really well with the German TV stations.
/me is happy now :-)
Edit: Additional information regarding the HTS-protocol i found here:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2288/_index.html<<
