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MPEG-DASH sample streams and HLS test streams or m3u8 streams as they are often called, are important tools that you should have available throughout your development process.
It’s good to have a variety of streams available when you are testing your adaptive streaming solution to ensure you are covering all aspects of your playback. We have collected the following list of publicly available and free MPEG-DASH and HLS examples, test streams and datasets to help you through your development process:
DASH Industry Forum: MPEG-DASH Test Vectors
These MPEG-DASH examples are provided by the DASH Industry Forum and its members to validate conformance to the DASH264 profile of the DASH-IF. They contain a broad variety of streams, e.g. SD only, HD streams, multichannel audio extensions, negative test vectors, single and multi-bitrate MPDs, multi-resolutions, multiple audio representations, the addition of timed text, multiple periods, encrypted streams including key rotation, dynamic segment offering, and MPD updates, tick modes, etc.
These streams will provide a great set of tools for thoroughly testing your player and environment.
DASH industry forum test streams
Bitmovin’s Teststreams from the Most Popular Encoders and Streaming Servers
As part of our demo section, we provide a wide range of test-streams from the most popular encoders and streaming servers on the market to ensure compatibility and integration. We also provide our test live-streams that showcase time-shift/DVR functionalities and that are produced by our Bitmovin encoding service. You can also find High-Frame-Rate (HFR) content, as well as MPEG-CENC compliant Microsoft PlayReady, Apple Fairplay, Adobe PrimeTime, or Google Widevine content.
Our demonstration page shows you how to test your own stream with the Bitmovin Player. Similarly, we can give you some insights and demos on encoding. You can also find our DRM test player useful when you start working on your protected content.
University Klagenfurt, ITEC: DASH Dataset
The ITEC: DASH Dataset was the first MPEG-DASH dataset available, and is consistently getting updated with the current status of MPEG-DASH. Today, the ITEC research department has expanded to its own unique research wing called ATHENA Labs. The DASH dataset contain full-movie-length content in up to 15 different quality representations with resolution up to 1080p. The content is available in different segment length versions from 1 to 15 seconds. This is an important parameter in adaptive streaming systems.
Telecom ParisTech, GPAC: UHD HEVC DASH Dataset
This is a great UHD HEVC dataset, which includes several sequences shot during the 4Ever project. The DASH sequences provide HEVC encoding ranging from 720p30 @ 2Mbps up to 2160p60 @ 20 Mbps, with one 1080p60 and one 2160p60 in 10 bits.
University Klagenfurt, ITEC: Distributed DASH Dataset
This dataset takes some of the content from the DASH Dataset of ITEC, and makes it available on different mirrors worldwide. Currently there are 8 mirrors active around the world, which makes it possible to test multi-origin/multi-CDN, fail-over, multi-BaseURL, etc. scenarios.
YouTube, MPEG-DASH Sample Media
As previously mentioned, Youtube widely uses MPEG-DASH. The interesting thing here is that YouTube also uses WebM-based MPEG-DASH, therefore we can also find such test streams on their page. They also provide DRM protected content using MPEG-CENC and Widevine.
BBC R&D: MPEG-DASH Teststreams
The BBC is one of the first-movers on the MPEG-DASH side and have a very active development team. They also provide some test streams on their R&D website. The BBC has been using MPEG-DASh in production for several years now.
Bento4 sample MPEG-DASH streams
Also the popular open-source packaging software, bento4, provides some test streams produced by the software, using multiple qualities of the well-known Tears of Steel movie.
Microsoft Azure Teststreams
Microsoft and the Azure Media Services team are also very active in the DASH field, and support MPEG-DASH in their products such as Azure Media Services, IE11, etc. They also provide different test streams.
GPAC MPEG-DASH Dataset
This is a second MPEG-DASH dataset of the GPAC group at Telecom ParisTech. It includes MPEG-DASH test content using both ISO Base Media File Format as well as MPEG2-TS containers. This content is really convenient for testing audio/video sync.
Bitmovin’s OnDemand and Live MPEG-DASH & HLS Demostreams
With the Bitmovin cloud-encoding platform everybody can simply and easily create MPEG-DASH content within a few minutes. You can try it out by registering on the website.
Encode MPEG-DASH & HLS Content
Encode your content with the same technology as Netflix and YouTube in a way that it plays everywhere with low startup delay and no buffering. The Bitmovin cloud encoding server is not only the fastest in the industry, but it has a full set of capabilities including DRM, Multi-language, ads, subtitles 360° and much more. Sign up for a free trial and test it today.
This blog post was originally posted in April 2015, and was checked and updated on the August 2022.
Thanks and best,
Stefan from the Bitmovin Team
Follow me on Twitter: @slederer
Follow bitmovin on Twitter: @bitmovin
Video technology guides and articles
- Back to Basics: Guide to the HTML5 Video Tag
- What is a VoD Platform?A comprehensive guide to Video on Demand (VOD)
- Video Technology [2022]: Top 5 video technology trends
- HEVC vs VP9: Modern codecs comparison
- What is the AV1 Codec?
- Video Compression: Encoding Definition and Adaptive Bitrate
- What is adaptive bitrate streaming
- MP4 vs MKV: Battle of the Video Formats
- AVOD vs SVOD; the “fall” of SVOD and Rise of AVOD & TVOD (Video Tech Trends)
- MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP)
- Container Formats: The 4 most common container formats and why they matter to you.
- Quality of Experience (QoE) in Video Technology [2022 Guide]
