Play your videos

1Get your playback ID

Each asset and each live_stream in Mux can have one or more Playback IDs.

This is an example of the "playback_ids" from the body of your asset or live_stream in Mux. In this example, the PLAYBACK_ID is "uNbxnGLKJ00yfbijDO8COxTOyVKT01xpxW" and the policy is "public".

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"playback_ids": [
  {
    "policy": "public",
    "id": "uNbxnGLKJ00yfbijDO8COxTOyVKT01xpxW"
  }
],  

2Create an HLS URL

HLS is a standard protocol for streaming video over the internet. Most of the videos you watch on the internet, both live video and on-demand video is delivered over HLS. Mux delivers your videos in this standard format.

Because HLS is an industry standard, you are free to use any HLS player of your choice when working with Mux Video.

HLS URLs end with the extension .m3u8. Use your PLAYBACK_ID to create an HLS URL like this:

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https://stream.mux.com/{PLAYBACK_ID}.m3u8  

Other formats

HLS (.m3u8) is used for streaming assets (video on demand) and live streams. For offline viewing and post-production editing take a look at the guide for download your videos which covers mp4 formats and master access.

3Use the HLS URL in a player

Most browsers do not support HLS natively in the video element (Safari and IE edge are exceptions). Some JavaScript will be needed in order to support HLS playback in your web application. In these HTML and react examples, we are using the popular hls.js library. HLS.js is a "player" but it does not add any UI components. You can think of it as adding HLS functionality onto the existing HTML5 video element.

The default player in iOS and TVOS (AVPlayer) supports HLS natively, so no extra effort is needed. In the Swift example below we're using the VideoPlayer struct that comes with SwiftUI and AVKit.

Similarly, the default player ExoPlayer on Android also supports HLS natively.

implementation 'com.google.android.exoplayer:exoplayer-hls:2.X.X'

// Create a player instance.
SimpleExoPlayer player = new SimpleExoPlayer.Builder(context).build();
// Set the media item to be played.
player.setMediaItem(MediaItem.fromUri("https://stream.mux.com/{PLAYBACK_ID}.m3u8"));
// Prepare the player.
player.prepare();  

4Find a player

The examples above are meant to be a starting point. You are free to use any player that supports HLS with Mux videos. Here's some popular players that we have seen:

Popular web players

• HLS.js is free and open source. This library does not have any UI components like buttons and controls. If you want to either use the HTML5 <video> element's default controls or build your own UI elements HLS.js will be a great choice.
• Plyr.io is free and open source. Plyr has UI elements and controls that work with the underlying <video> element. Plyr does not support HLS by default, but it can be used with HLS.js. If you like the feel and theming capabilities of Plyr and want to use it with Mux videos, follow the example for using Plyr + HLS.js.
• Video.js is a free and open source player. As of version 7 it supports HLS by default. The underlying HLS engine is videojs/http-streaming.
• JWPlayer is a commercial player and supports HLS by default. The underlying HLS engine is HLS.js.
• Brightcove Player is a commercial player built on Video.js and HLS is supported by default.
• Bitmovin Player is a commercial player and supports HLS by default.
• THEOPlayer is a commercial player and supports HLS by default. The player chrome is built on Video.js, but the HLS engine in custom.

Use Video.js with Mux

Video.js kit is a project built on Video.js with additional Mux specific functionality built in. This includes support for:

• Enabling timeline hover previews
• Mux Data integration
• playback_id helper (we'll figure out the full playback URL for you)

For more details, head over to the Use Video.js with Mux page.

Advanced playback features

Playback with subtitles/closed captions

Subtitles/Closed Captions text tracks can be added to an asset either on asset creation or later when they are available. Mux supports SubRip Text (SRT) and Web Video Text Tracks format for ingesting Subtitles and Closed Captions text tracks. For more information on Subtitles/Closed Captions, see this blog post and the guide for subtitles.

Mux includes Subtitles/Closed Captions text tracks in HLS (.m3u8) for playback. Video Players show the presence of Subtitles/Closed Captions text tracks and the languages available as an option to enable/disable and to select a language. The player can also default to the viewer's device preferences.

HLS.js video player options menu for Subtitles/Closed Captions text track

If you are adding text tracks to your Mux videos, make sure you test them out with your player.

In addition, Mux also supports downloading of Subtitles/Closed Captions text tracks as "sidecar" files when downloading your videos.

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https://stream.mux.com/{PLAYBACK_ID}/text/{TRACK_ID}.vtt  

Replace {PLAYBACK_ID} with your asset's playback ID and {TRACK_ID} with the unique identifier value returned when this subtitle/closed caption text track was added to this asset.

Add delivery redundancy with Redundant Streams

Mux Video streams are delivered using multiple CDNs. The best performing CDN is selected for the viewer initiating the playback. Video is then streamed by that CDN for that particular user. When the selected CDN has a transient or regional failure, the viewer's playback experience could be interrupted for the duration of the failure. If this happens your application should handle the playback failure and re-initiate the playback session. Mux Video's CDN selection logic would then select a different CDN for streaming.

The redundant streams modifier allows Mux to list each rendition for every CDN in the HLS manifest. The order is based on CDN performance with the best performing one listed first. If your video player supports redundant streams then the player will detect the failure mid-playback and switch to the next CDN on the list during a failure without interrupting the playback.

For more information on the Redundant Streams playback modifier and player support based on our tests, see this blog post.

To use this feature in your application add redundant_streams=true to the HLS URL:

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https://stream.mux.com/{PLAYBACK_ID}.m3u8?redundant_streams=true  

This table shows the support of various video players for redundant streams. This table will be updated as more players are tested or updated. If your player isn't listed here, please reach out.

Securing video playback

When using a policy of "public" for your playback IDs, your HLS playback URLs will work for as long as the playback ID exists. If you use a "signed" policy then you can have more control over playback access. This involves creating signing keys and using JSON web tokens to generate signatures on your server. See the guide for secure video playback.

Next steps