Adaptive HLS
Adaptive HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is a video delivery method that serves multiple quality renditions of the same video and switches between them in real time based on each viewer's connection, so playback stays smooth on fast and slow networks alike.
How it works
The source video is transcoded into a ladder of renditions, for example 360p, 720p, and 1080p, each split into short segments. The player measures the viewer's bandwidth and picks the highest quality that will not buffer, stepping up or down as the connection changes.
Why it matters
Adaptive streaming is the difference between video that buffers on mobile and video that just plays. It is table stakes for any serious video product.
Reelm builds the adaptive HLS ladder for every upload automatically, so you drop in a file and get multi-quality streaming with no encoding settings to tune. The open-source <reelm-player> handles rendition switching and exposes a quality menu.
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