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CMAF Generation

GPAC can be used to generate DASH or HLS following the CMAF specification.

CMAF defines two structural brands cmfcand cmf2 for ISOBMFF-segmented content.
The cmfc brand constraints:

  • some default values in ISOBMFF boxes
  • a single media per file
  • a single track fragment per movie fragment (moof)
  • a single track run per track fragment
  • presence of ColorInformationBox and PixelAspectRatioBox in video tracks
  • presence of a tfdt box in each track fragment
  • no mix of clear and encrypted samples in a CMAF fragment (<=> DASH segment or HLS chunk)
  • Restricted edit lists consisting of media skip only

The cmf2brand further restrict the cmfc brand for video tracks:

  • no edit list shall be used
  • negative composition offset (trun version 1) shall be used
  • sample default values shall be repeated in each track fragment

Activating CMAF is simply done by specifying a global filter option:

MP4Box -dash 1000 -profile live -out live/manifest.mpd --cmaf=cmfc source.mp4
MP4Box -dash 1000 -profile live -out live/manifest.mpd --cmaf=cmf2 source.mp4

or using option inheritance:
MP4Box -dash 1000 -profile live -out live/manifest.mpd:cmaf=cmfc

You can set the option per MPD if you need to generate both CMFC and CMF2 profiles:

gpac -i source.mp4 -o live/manifest.mpd:cmaf=cmfc @1 -o live2/manifest.mpd:cmaf=cmf2 

Note that usage of CMAF packaging is independent of the DASH profile chosen.

CMAF Multiplexing Validation status

Note: Currently GPAC only ensures conformance of the container, not the codec level.

Color information, when not present in input file, is extracted from VUI if present or defaults to BT709 otherwise.

Constraints on SPS (VUI, cropping) and PPS in AVC or HEVC are not checked for the moment.

Constraints on CENC (AVC slice header clear, bytesOfProtectedData multiple of 16 in cenc ) are not checked, it is assumed the encryption configuration is CENC compatible. Be careful when setting up your encryption - see encryption XML format for more details.

TTML packaging should be aligned with CMAF specification (injection of a mime box with properly formatted mime type in the sample description).

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