Transport Protocols

  • HTTP or HTTPS using HTTP protocol v1.1 and Range requests.
  • Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 with forward security.
  • TLS key support 2048 bits for RSA and 256 bits for EC.
  • TLS does not use any known insecure cryptographic primitives (e.g., RC4 encryption, SHA-1 certificate signatures).

Progressive Download

Progressive download of video and audio is supported but below notes apply:

  • Content which is protected with DRM not supported via progressive download
  • In-band subtitles not supported via progressive download
  • Exception is Out-of-band subtitles, because they are supported with both streaming and download as they are handled outside of the media scope

Following combinations are supported:

ContainerAudio codecsVideo codecsDRMDRM TriggerIn-band subtitles
ISO BMFFAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
Dolby AC3
Dolby AC4
Dolby E-AC-3
H.264
H.265
NoneNoneNot supported
MPEG2-TSAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
Dolby AC3
Dolby AC4
Dolby E-AC-3
H.264NoneNoneNot supported
WebMOpusVP9NoneNoneNot supported
ADTS / AAC
MP3
AAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
NoneNoneNoneNot supported

Adaptive Bitrate streaming protocols

The following Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming protocols MUST be supported:

Streaming TypeMIME-TypesNotes
Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)application/vnd.apple.mpegurl
application/x-mpegURL
VoD (append-mode window) and Event (sliding window)
MPEG-DASHapplication/dash+xmlMain and Live profiles of MPEG-DASH
Microsoft Smooth Streaming (MSS)application/vnd.ms-sstr+xml
application/vnd.ms-playready.initiator+xml

Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)

We support HTTP Live Streaming Protocol version 3, both Live and On-Demand streams.

Support for the following M3U8 playlist tags is available:

  • EXTM3U
  • EXTINF
  • EXT-X-TARGETDURATION
  • EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE
  • EXT-X-KEY
  • EXT-X-ENDLIST
  • EXT-X-STREAM-INF
  • EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY
  • EXT-X-VERSION
ContainerAudio codecsVideo codecsEncryptionDecryption TriggerIn-band subtitles
MPEG2-TSAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
Dolby AC3
Dolby AC4
Dolby E-AC-3
H.264
H.265
NoneNot supported
MPEG2-TSAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
Dolby AC3
Dolby AC4
Dolby E-AC-3
H.264
H.265
AES-128ManifestNot supported
ADTSAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
NoneNoneNot supported
ADTSAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
AES-128ManifestNot supported
MP3MP3NoneNoneNot supported
MP3MP3NoneAES-128ManifestNot supported

Restrictions for HLS content

The following combinations of containers and codecs can be used for MPEG-DASH profiles:

ContainerAudio codecsVideo codecsDRMDRM TriggerIn-band subtitles
ISO BMFFAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
Dolby AC3
Dolby AC4
Dolby E-AC-3
H.264
H.265
NoneNoneSupported
ISO BMFFAAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
MP3
Dolby AC3
Dolby AC4
Dolby E-AC-3
H.264
H.265
ClearKey
PlayReady
EMESupported
ContainerAudio codecs
ISO Base Media File Format Liveurn:mpeg:dash:profile:isoff-live:2011
ISO Base Media File Format Mainurn:mpeg:dash:profile:isoff-main:2011
DASH-AVC/264urn:com:dashif:dash264
http://dashif.org/guidelines/dash264
DASH-AVC/264 SDhttp://dashif.org/guidelines/dash264#sd
DASH-AVC/264 HDhttp://dashif.org/guidelines/dash264#hd
DASH-AVC/264 Mainhttp://dashif.org/guidelines/dash264main
DASH-AVC/264 Livehttp://dashif.org/guidelines/dash264live

Restrictions for MPEG-DASH content

Below is the list of limitations:

ParameterRequirements
Frame rateUp to 60fps
Audio sample rateUp to 48000 Hz
Number of audio channelsUp to 8 (7+LFE)
Media segment file sizeUp to 15MB
Segment durationIn range 1s - 12s
Average bitrate over one segmentUp to 8 Mbit/s (for up to 1080p)
Manifest file sizeUp to 2MB
Number of tracks in one MPD fileUp to 36

Microsoft Smooth Streaming (MSS)

Microsoft Smooth Streaming Transport Protocol v2.2, both Live and On-Demand streams.

The following combinations of containers and codecs can be used:

ContainerAudio codecsVideo codecsDRMDRM TriggerIn-band subtitles
PIFF v1.1AAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
H.264NoneNoneSupported
PIFF v1.1AAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
H.264PlayReadyManifestSupported
PIFF v1.1AAC-LC
HE-AAC v1
HE-AAC v2
H.264PlayReadyWebInitiatorSupported

Restrictions for Smooth Streaming content

Below is the list of limitations :

ParameterRequirements
Frame rateUp to 60fps
Audio sample rateUp to 48000 Hz
Number of audio channelsUp to 8 (7+LFE)
Media segment file sizeUp to 15MB
Segment durationIn range 1s - 12s
Average bitrate over one segmentUp to 8 Mbit/s (for up to 1080p)
Manifest file sizeUp to 2MB

Media Source Extensions (MSE)

Media Source Extensions is supported according to the MSE specification.

The following combinations of containers and codecs can be used:

ContainerAudio codecsVideo codecs
MP4AAC/MP3H.264/H.265
WebMOpusVP9
MP4AAC/MP3No video
WebMOpusNo video
MP4No audioH.264/H.265
WebMNo audioVP9
MP4No audioAV1
MP4AAC/MP3AV1

Subtitles and Closed Captioning

To display subtitles or Closed Captions, the apps can use WebVTT to the extent that it is supported by the Chromium engine, and MUST support the EBU-TT-D text track profile, which is a subset of the TTML text track format.

Apps can use in-band and out-of-band subtitles (text tracks) according to the table below:

Media Delivery MethodIn-band SubtitlesOut-of-band Subtitles
Progressive playbackNot supportedSupported
HLSNot supportedSupported
MPEG-DASHSupportedSupported
Smooth StreamingSupportedSupported
MSENot supportedSupported