Virtual Linear Timeline and Markers

Timeline

Implement a timeline within your player by leveraging content duration and ad break location information provided within a timeline Dynamic Manifest Marker. A Dynamic Manifest Marker dynamically provides different types of metadata (e.g., timeline and ad break information) within the manifest file.

Include information about requested ads by adding ad break Dynamic Manifest Markers.

Add a Timeline Dynamic Manifest Marker

To add a timeline Dynamic Manifest Marker to the top of a manifest file, include the following query string parameters in the playback URL:

&dmm.schemas.top=timeline&pltl=1

Sample playback request:

https://content.uplynk.com/playlist/10c5467d77c54dc4b739db2cd832143a.mpd?dmm.schemas.top=timeline&pltl=1

Sample playback request (Smartstart):
https://content.uplynk.com/playlist/12d5e67d77c54dc4b739fb2cd835944c.mpd?dmm.schemas.top=timeline

Sample representations of timeline metadata for HLS and DASH are provided below.

• HLS version 7 and up - A timeline Dynamic Manifest Marker is added as an #EXT-X-DATERANGE tag at the top of a ray manifest file. The X-DATA attribute contains Base64-encoded timeline metadata.

  Example:

  Text

  #EXT-X-DATERANGE:ID="2e64fcbc2c5d4eecbf5fc6bb4c8b2d60:2020-12-18 02:09:28.957000+00:00:playlist",
  
  START-DATE="1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00",
  
  DURATION=60.3093,
  
  CLASS="urn:uplynk:top-data:playlist:v1",
  
  X-DATA="eyJicmVha3...VwZWF0IjotMX0="

• DASH - A timeline Dynamic Manifest Marker is added as an EventStream tag at the top of a manifest file.

  Example:

  XML

  <EventStream schemeIdUri="urn:uplynk:top-data:timeline" timescale="90000" value="top-data">
  
  <Event duration="5877840" id="5877840" presentationTime="0">{"repeat": -1, "content_duration": 60.3093, "breaks_count": 4, "session_id": "d9cab2afee494db7a0a5b877727ef387", "breaks": [{"id": 1, "offset": 11.0080}, {"id": 2, "offset": 26.0000}, {"id": 3, "offset": 33.0026}, {"id": 4, "offset": 52.0053}]}</Event>
  
  </EventStream>

Sample timeline metadata:

{
	'repeat': -1,
	'content_duration': 60.3093,
	'breaks_count': 4,
	'session_id': 'd9cab2afee494db7a0a5b877727ef387',
	'breaks': [{
			'id': 1,
			'offset': 11.0080
		}, {
			'id': 2,
			'offset': 26.0000
		}, {
			'id': 3,
			'offset': 33.0026
		}, {
			'id': 4,
			'offset': 52.0053
		}
	]
}

Ad Break Dynamic Manifest Markers

A virtual linear playlist allows the player to fetch ads as playback approaches an ad break. Leverage ad break Dynamic Manifest Markers to provide metadata about requested ads.

Add ad break Dynamic Manifest Markers to the manifest file by including the following query string parameter in the playback URL:
&dmm.schemas.break=break_info

Sample playback request:
https://content.uplynk.com/playlist/10c5467d77c54dc4b739db2cd832143a.mpd?dmm.schemas.break=break_info

An ad break Dynamic Manifest Marker may include the following information:

• Requested ad break duration
• Actual ad break duration
• Total duration for all ads
• Number of ads in the ad break
• Actual ad break duration status
• Duration of the current ad
• Position of the current ad within the ad break
• Offset, in seconds, of the current ad within the ad break
• Ad slate
• Whether ad break information has been received from the ad server and processed

Sample representations of this metadata for HLS and DASH are provided below.

• HLS Version 7 and Up - An ad break Dynamic Manifest Marker is added as an #EXT-X-DATERANGE tag within a manifest file. The X-DATA attribute contains Base64-encoded ad break metadata. The daterange class for this data is: urn:uplynk:ad-data:break_info

• DASH - An ad break Dynamic Manifest Marker is reported within an event stream with the following schemeIdUri:
  urn:uplynk:break_info:ad-data

Check the dmm_data_not_ready property to find out whether actual ad break duration is known.

Example (unknown actual ad break duration):

The following sample data indicates that actual ad break duration has not yet been determined:

{
	'break_dur_req': 180.00,
	'break_dur_act': -1,
	'ad_dur': 10010.02,
	'num_ads': 3,
	'ad_slate': 0,
	'dmm_data_not_ready': 1
}

Example (known actual ad break duration):
The following sample data indicates that actual ad break duration exceeded the requested ad break duration by 5.68 seconds:

{
	'break_dur_req': 180.00,
	'break_dur_act': 185.68,
	'ad_dur': 10010.02,
	'num_ads': 3,
	'ad_slate': 0,
	'dmm_data_not_ready': 0
}

Seeking

Define the plts query string parameter within the playback URL to seek to a specific position within the playlist. This seek position is measured from the start of the playlist in seconds.

Sample playback URL:
The following sample playback URL seeks 2 minutes from the start of the playlist:

https://content.uplynk.com/playlist/2e64fcbc2c5d4eecbf5fc6bb4c8b2d60.m3u8?plts=120

Key information:

• Only content counts towards seek times. Ad breaks are excluded from this calculation.
• The plts query string parameter is exempt from digital signatures.