Modern video platforms stream media using adaptive bitrate protocols—most notably, HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) and MPEG-DASH.
Instead of serving a single video file, HLS hosts an `.m3u8` master playlist that contains references to hundreds of individual `.ts` (Transport Stream) files, each representing 2 to 10 seconds of video.
Parsing the Playlist
To download HLS streams, the interceptor parses the `.m3u8` index file, extracts the URLs of all TS fragments, and queues them in our systems scheduler.
Parallel TS Retrieval and Merge
NextGen DLM downloads the TS segments simultaneously across 16 parallel threads. Once all fragments are downloaded, the Rust core stitches them directly to a destination MP4 file, bypassing any dynamic conversion bottlenecks.