Transloadit

What is a Video Manifest?

A video manifest lists resources available to a streaming player, including renditions, segment locations, timing, and sometimes captions or encryption data. HLS playlists and MPEG-DASH MPDs are common forms.

How Video Manifests work

A manifest is a control document that describes how a player should assemble media resources over time; it usually contains references rather than the media payload itself. Variant descriptions expose alternative encodes, while track descriptions associate audio, video, subtitles, and timing. For live playback the document is refreshed as the availability window advances, whereas an on-demand version is generally stable. It is generated during packaging and consumed before and throughout adaptive playback.

Key facts

  1. Declared codecs and track properties must agree with the referenced initialization data; a misleading declaration can make a player choose a rendition it cannot decode.
  2. Live manifests use ordered media references and explicit timeline transitions; a missing sequence update or discontinuity marker can cause repeats, gaps, or timestamp jumps.
  3. Relative media addresses are resolved from the manifest location, so URL rewriting, signing, redirects, CORS policy, and cache lifetime can all affect segment retrieval.

When Video Manifests matter

Generate manifests that expose only compatible renditions, tracks, and protection data to each player. Incorrect URLs, durations, codec declarations, or encryption signaling can stop adaptation or playback.

Turn media knowledge into a working pipeline

Connect uploads, processing, AI, storage, and delivery through one declarative API — with the encoding stack, scaling, and format churn handled for you.

Try Transloadit for free