Multibitrate HLS

[Frank Schoenberger]

Hello Grace, 

You are right, there is unfortunately, no tutorial yet that shows how to create multi-bitrate HLS. I will try to draft something up for this that we can post on the MainConcept website. Here is some basic description that hopefully allows you to already start with it now.

You can create multi-bitrate by using the Batch List option in TotalCode Studio:

1. Open the input file and drag it to the Output section in TotalCode Studio.
   
2. Then select the HLS preset for the first layer
   
3. Configure the encoding settings as needed 
   
4. Select the location for the output and give it a proper name
   
5. Click the "Add job from GUI to the batch job list" button
   
6. Repeat the steps 2 - 5 for any further layers
   
7. Once you are done, click the "Show Batch Jobs" button
   
8. In the Batch List dialog, click the "Start" button so that TotalCode Studio starts transcoding all HLS layers
   
9. When the transcoding is done, you can create the master playlist for the HLS layers. Go to "Tools > Create master playlist/manifest… > Create Apple HLS Master Playlist".     
   
10. In the dialog you can select the HLS media segment metadata (“meta”) files created by TotalCode Studio to create a master playlist file. Click the "Add" button to browse for the corresponding meta files.
    
11. Click "Create" to generate the manifest or master playlist file.
    

Now you have a complete HLS layer set, including a master playlist file.