Can you use Media Converted files outside of AWS?

Question

I would like to know if you can download the files that have been transcoded and use them outside of AWS.  As our project grows, I would like to keep an eye on potentially using an alternate CDN service that is not tied to AWS.  I would like a backup with the files that I have already transcoded using AWS Elemental MediaConvert in storage as we are figuring out our best option for a service provider being a small company if that is possible.  Would I have to transcode the videos again with their software, or can the .m3u8/.ts files be taken elsewhere?  Our launch of our product will be done with AWS CloudFront and it is already set up and working, but we are unaware of what traffic we might incur, and we would like to be ready if it gets expensive quick.  There isn't much information that I can find about the actual process of how a .m3u8 file works dissected.  I keep seeing that it is a playlist that points to the files, and how the distribution works, but what happens when the .m3u8 file url is called.  A lot of the examples show a url in the .m3u8 file, but looking at the ones I downloaded from my bucket, it seems like it looks for a name.  Is it because it is in the same folder that it plays?  Is there a process I don't see that runs when the URL is called that finds the files?  I'm a app developer so video formats, transcoding, and a lot of AWS features are very foreign to me and very confusing, but I would like to know how the process works.  My main question is if you can use the transcoded files elsewhere easily, but if anyone can point me to a good breakdown of how the process works, I would greatly appreciate that.  I Like to know how a car engine works, not just put the key in and turn it to start it, but if I just get how to start it then I'm good with that.

Answer

Just tested if the HLS file will play elsewhere, and it will.

Answer

Hi,  
  
You can use S3 bucket as an origin to serve contents via other CDN vendors. You can find details about  S3 pricing in our documentation : https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/?nc=sn&loc=4  
If pricing is a concern, you may want to change the S3 bucket configuration from S3 standard to Infrequent access since your content will mostly be served by the CDN caches. You can look at the AWS S3 documentation to find more details about this. https://aws.amazon.com/s3/storage-classes/?nc=sn&loc=3  
  
However, mediaconvert will output to S3 standard at the moment. So this would need to happen after the transcode.   
  
As far as how HLS works, this link on StreamingMedia    explains the workflow of a HLS manifest which may answer some of your questions.  
  
Edited by: naveen-aws on Feb 15, 2021 4:07 PM

Answer

This answers some of my questions and gives me incite to things I was unaware of (i.e. I figured my s3 would need to be frequent access since I thought Cloud Front pulls the content every time someone clicks on one of my video links, but actually all of my files in my s3 bucket will be static and not edited or downloaded, so I should set it to infrequent if I personally don't request the data often? All of my videos are static non-sensitive data, so should I set my bucket to S3 Standard - Infrequent Access?)  Also another question that would help is should I raise my TTL since it is non-sensitive data?  
  
but my main question is:  All of my video files have been transcoded to HLS. I'm aware I can use my s3 bucket with different CDN providers, but my question was can I set up a completely different storage system elsewhere and use the HLS files downloaded from AWS.  Basically I would like two completely different vendors, AWS and another of my choosing, two different cloud storage companies, and two different CDN networks to supply my videos.  I am trying to integrate a back up link to my users incase one of the providers has down time.  For instance, user starts the video and it pulls from Aws, if the link fails to load it then pulls from say Google's cloud and what ever CDN they use.  If I use my AWS s3 bucket as the origin of both and two different CDN networks, and the s3 bucket fails to load my media, then both CDN providers can't obtain my data.    
  
So I'm basically wondering if the .m3u8 files created are universal to different storage providers, say if in the future I would like to migrate to a different provider all together, do the files only load if they are served from AWS s3 bucket, would I need to encode the .mp4 files again with their software, or would the files I currently have work?   Sorry if my explanation is questionable, I'm new to the whole streaming process as I am an app developer so my knowledge on the subject is hours daily searching for information and it is only what I have gathered in the past couple of months.

Answer

Hi,
You can use any storage in any provider that you want.
The transcoded HLS outputs will work independently of the Storage (Origination) and CDN vender that you decide to use.
MediaConvert follows the HLS standard defined by Apple : https://developer.apple.com/documentation/http-live-streaming/hls-authoring-specification-for-apple-devices
Since your files are mostly static you should increase your TTL to be able to have them cached at the edge (CDN) for longer periods of time. This way repeated requests for the same content will be served by the CDN and not by your Origin. This will reduce the latency of playout and your overall costs.

Can you use Media Converted files outside of AWS?

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