Azure Media Services Preset for iOS, Android and Web Audio Playback [Streaming]

Question

I am testing out Azure Media services and I am looking for a preset or a custom config which takes an mp3 file and encodes it for playback on iOS, Android (4.0+) and HTML5 for streaming (one manifest hopefully). Currently I am seeing presets for HTML5 and HLS (none for Android) however they are separate and not in one config/workflow. How can I set this up to done. Note I am using the UI and not programming at this time.

Answer 1

Are you planning to deliver in both HLS and MPEG-DASH across multiple HTML5 browsers? You will need to use both of those protocols to reach all of the devices that you have in mind. Android has a really poor implementation of HLS. Most of the Android devices only support HLS v3, so make sure to test your devices with the v3 (muxed ts) protocol.

I would encourage you to use the Azure Media Explorer tool for everything. http://aka.ms/amse It gives you easier access to all of the protocol URLs that you will need.

Try encoding everything to Standard Definition Multiple bitrate MP4 files to begin with. Most Android devices only like Baseline profile encoding. Once you have Multiple bitrate Mp4 files encoded, you will need to enable at least 1 streaming Reserved Unit to allow you to get "dynamic packaging" to work. You need that feature to re-package your MP4 files on-the-fly to HLS and DASH.

Also, if you are looking for an awesome player framework for HTML5 delivery -check out our new Azure Media Player http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2015/04/15/announcing-azure-media-player/