Using the HTTP Live Stream directly

[Loilo]

Hey folks,

I was asking myself if developers are allowed/supposed to use the HLS directly.
Since the player at twitch.tv/{channel}/hls isn’t supported by many browsers, piping the stream through something like flashls sounds interesting to me.
Of course it uses flash itself but it’s insofar superior to the “native” player as I as a developer have pretty much full control over the player controls.
But the direct stream URL I’ve found uses some tokens.

http://usher.justin.tv/api/channel/hls/theemero.m3u8?token={“user_id”:null,“channel”:“channel-name”,“expires”:unix-timestamp,“chansub”:{“view_until”:unix-timestamp,“restricted_bitrates”:[]},“private”:{“allowed_to_view”:true},“privileged”:false,“source_restricted”:false}&sig=some-real-cryptic-hex-string

So… may developers use that stream directly, and if yes - since I couldn’t find it in the API docs - how do I get that sig string? Is it some kind of cookie value or is it provided by the server?

[johnrivs]

I can’t answer your question, but unless you want to modify the interface you can use player.twitch.tv/?channel=CHANNEL&autoplay=false

[Loilo]

Well that’s definitely way nicer than the “default” flash player, thanks! But maybe someone has an idea if the actual HLS is usable.
I could still modify the interface of that player since the GUI itself doesn’t contain flash (and I’m not restricted by cross-origin policies in a desktop app). But controlling the screen could still be a pain without an exposed JavaScript API…

[Loilo]

…well I just noticed the player in fact does expose a global player variable which allows controlling the player.
I think that’s good enough for my purposes, but I’d still be at least interested in the answer to my question.

[Fugiman]

We do not allow developers to consume the HLS stream directly, no. You should use player.twitch.tv.

[Loilo]

I like your avatar matching your answer.
Just kidding. Thanks for the information.