# Few questions regarding VOD HLS Streaming

**URL:** https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine
**Created:** [November 22, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506 "2011-11-22T14:18:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Wiaam\_Sliman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Wiaam\_Sliman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Wiaam_Sliman)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/1 "2011-11-22T14:18:20Z")

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Hi,

I have a few questions about HLS VOD streaming.

- **Regarding target duration** :

- This is the .smil file:

- This is the main playlist:

- **Regarding streaming behavior** :

- I wanted to see the streaming behavior using WireShark, and this is what I got when the streaming started:

- What I _expected_ to see, is something like this:

- **Regarding KeyFrame Interval settings** :

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### Author: ![Jason\_Hilton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/jason_hilton/32/437_2.png) [@Jason\_Hilton](https://community.wowza.com/u/Jason_Hilton)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/2 "2011-11-22T13:28:00Z")

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Hi

The duration of each chunk is different because the encoding is not always a fixed size for each one, as long as the chunk value is close the the Max chunk value but not over it you should be fine.

macromedia-fcs is the port number that is 1935 in this instance.

WireShark just transforms the port number to a name.

Each port has a normal use name and 1935 is macromedia-fcs

in the same way that port 80 is HTTP.

Your last question is answered here,

[https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-configure-apple-hls-packetization-cupertinostreaming](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-configure-apple-hls-packetization-cupertinostreaming)

Jason

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### Author: ![Charlie\_Good](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/charlie_good/32/383_2.png) [@Charlie\_Good](https://community.wowza.com/u/Charlie_Good)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/3 "2011-11-24T06:28:08Z")

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Chunks are broken on key frames. So depending on the key frame interval and target duration the chunk sizes can differ. The target duration in the playlist is always the size of the largest chunk.

Charlie

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### Author: ![Charlie\_Good](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/charlie_good/32/383_2.png) [@Charlie\_Good](https://community.wowza.com/u/Charlie_Good)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 6:57am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/4 "2011-11-24T06:57:18Z")

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If you use the multi-bitrate encoding in the MS Expression Encoder and encode the files in the same session from the same source then yes they should be chunked the same. If the files are from different sessions or use a different source then Expression encoder might be using screen frame detection to insert key frames at scene changes and this might cause a variation between files.

Charlie

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### Author: ![Charlie\_Good](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/charlie_good/32/383_2.png) [@Charlie\_Good](https://community.wowza.com/u/Charlie_Good)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 9:20am UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/5 "2011-11-24T09:20:30Z")

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I am not sure what you think is wrong. If I open all four renditions they are chunked exactly the same. All four renditions are broken up into chunks exactly the same way. If you are expecting each rendition’s chunk size to be exactly 10 seconds this is not going to happen unless the key frame interval is perfectly broken on values that match the chunk duration. If you make the key frame interval a factor of the chunk size such as 2, 5 or 10 then this might work. Then again it might not lead to prefect chunk sizes because the encoder might inject key frames off the key frame interval due to scene change detection or the key frame interval might be off by one frame due to how it interprets the interval. Either way it doesn’t matter. What is important is that the four files are broken up the same way.

Charlie

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### Author: ![Wiaam\_Sliman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Wiaam\_Sliman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Wiaam_Sliman)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/6 "2011-11-22T22:27:56Z")

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Hi,

Thanks a lot.

Everything’s clear now except one thing:

The #EXT-X-TARGETDURATION: value varies from source media file to another - Why’s that, and is that normal?

For example:

- If I open the link:

- On the other hand, if I open other link for other media, like this:

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Wiaam\_Sliman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Wiaam\_Sliman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Wiaam_Sliman)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/7 "2011-11-24T16:19:46Z")

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Ideas? 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Wiaam\_Sliman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Wiaam\_Sliman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Wiaam_Sliman)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/8 "2011-11-24T16:35:55Z")

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Hi,

As I understand, this means it depends entirely on the source and the way it was encoded - Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Therefore, if I encoded my source at multiple bit-rates with the same key frame interval, why would I still get different chunk sizes?

By the way, I’m using MS Expression Encoder 4 Pro.

Thanks a lot.

Wiaam.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Wiaam\_Sliman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Wiaam\_Sliman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Wiaam_Sliman)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/9 "2011-11-24T17:30:26Z")

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That’s the thing… It’s the same session. And nonetheless, I still get different chunk sizes.

- [This is my preset.](http://lab001.dyndns.org:8134/tmp/preset.xml)

- [This is my .smil file.](http://lab001.dyndns.org/vod/smil:ca.smil/playlist.m3u8)

- Opening the first link from the .smil file would show me something like this:

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Wiaam\_Sliman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Wiaam\_Sliman](https://community.wowza.com/u/Wiaam_Sliman)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/few-questions-regarding-vod-hls-streaming/37506/10 "2011-11-24T20:48:31Z")

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Got it.

Cool… Thanks a lot.
