DASH

MPEG-DASH playback is supported by our player engine with some key differences.

PlayerEngine.castlabs

Based on asl - custom player engine, and other AVFoundation and VideoToolbox frameworks classes
Support for Widevine
Advanced tuning settings and customization

MPEG-DASH

DASH playback is supported by our custom VTPlayer player which leverages the native VideoToolbox framework. On top of that we have implemented a native manifest parser, samples downloader and ABR algorithms.

CastlabsVTWithWidevine adds support for the Widevine CDM.

ABR Settings

Adaptive Bitrate Controls

NOTE: This document does not apply to the iOS/iPadOS native apple player aka AVPlayer. Only the castlabs player supports these functions.

When using the castLabs player there are some additional APIs available to help control how the bitrate/quality is selected during playback. The process for using them is as follows:

Steps to configure Abr Settings

If needed, enable DASH playback support by ensuring the VTPlugin is registered with the SDK, e.g.

import PRESTOplay
import CastlabsVT

let res = PRESTOplaySDK.shared.register("LICENSE", [VTPlugin()])

Before creating the player, ensure it will be the castlabs player and not the apple player. (NOTE: DASH content will always be played by the castlabs player regardless of this setting)
```
let playerConfiguration = PlayerConfiguration(with: streamUrl)
playerConfiguration.preferredEngine = .castlabs
```

Configure the bitrate adaptation settings (BEFORE playing the content)

var abrConfiguration = AbrConfiguration()
abrConfiguration.maxInitialBitrate = 1_000_000
abrConfiguration.minDurationForQualityIncreaseMs = 6_000
playerConfiguration.abrConfiguration = abrConfiguration

let player = PRESTOplaySDK.shared.player(for: playerConfiguration)

Please see AbrConfiguration.swift for details of all the parameters available.

Buffer Settings

let player = PRESTOplaySDK.shared.player(for: playerConfiguration)

player.minPrebufferTime = 6.0
player.maxPrebufferTime = 60.0
player.minRebufferTime = 12.0

Demo

Please find an example of ABR customization in examples/CastlabsDASHDemo.