Hulu: All Our Google Chromecast Streaming Uses MPEG-DASH

Hulu has already moved ahead on MPEG-DASH, but you'll have to get Google's $35 connected TV dongle if you want to try it. All of Hulu's Chromecast streaming uses DASH, Baptiste Coudurier, principle software development lead at Hulu, told the audience at the recent Streaming Media West conference in Huntington Beach, California.

"We are actually using DASH in production right now on the Google Chromecast device, and we definitely see it as the future of on-demand delivery," Coudurier said. "It's 100 percent of the content, every piece of content that you watch on Google Chromecast is using MPEG-DASH."

As for HEVC, Hulu see it as an essential for ultra-high definition video.

"Hopefully, it's going to help, I think all across the board and first in mobile, because that's where we have the most constraints, in my opinion," Coudurier said. "HEVC has really enabled us to go lower in bitrate, and of course if we go lower in bitrate you improve the quality of service, which is very important for everybody that's streaming online right now. But, it will also help at a higher resolution. It will definitely, in my opinion, enable 4K, for example. I don't see 4K happening without HEVC right now."

While Hulu is positive about HEVC, it won't use it just yet.

"We won't be streaming HEVC until we have proper hardware support," Coudurier added. "On mobile, it's because primarily battery life really matters, so its very difficult to have software only implementations. But as soon as one device in particular will support it in hardware, we'll definitely be present on the device."

For more on the future of MPEG-DASH and HEVC, watch the panel discussion below.

MPEG-DASH: Commercial Deployments and Outlook Towards HEVC and 4K

This panel gives frontline reports on the first trials and commercial MPEG-DASH deployments, presents available products that enable the end-to-end delivery of MPEG-DASH content, and gives demos of MPEG-DASH on various platforms. DASH-IF recently published the DASH-AVC/264 Implementation Guidelines and launched interoperability tests amongst its members. The panelists discuss lessons learned from that process and provide insights into the latest guidelines being developed that address ad insertion,multichannel audio, HEVC, as well as 4K/UHD video streaming. The audience benefits from firsthand experiences of the MPEG-DASH experts and learn what’s up next.

Moderator: Richard Doherty, Director, E-Media Technology Strategy, Dolby Laboratories

Speaker: Baptiste Coudurier, Principal Software Development Lead, Hulu

Speaker: Thierry Fautier, VP, Solutions and Strategy, Harmonic

Speaker: Aytac Biber, Sr. Product Manager, Qualcomm

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Related Articles

Companies and Suppliers Mentioned