F4M manifest elements

Adobe published the Flash Media Manifest as an open specification, in version 1.0 and then 2.0. Adobe’s own pages are gone; this reference follows a copy of the 2.0 specification and Adobe’s open-source OSMF player. An F4M file describes one piece of media in one or more representations.

The file

An XML document whose root is manifest, in the namespace http://ns.adobe.com/f4m/1.0 or, for version 2.0, http://ns.adobe.com/f4m/2.0. All the other elements are its children, except metadata, xmpMetadata and moov, which belong inside a media element. Only media is required.

Presentation elements

Element	Content	Meaning
`id`	text	A unique identifier for the media.
`label`	text	A name to show to users.
`lang`	language code	The base language of the media.
`duration`	seconds	Length. For live or DVR content, the total expected time, usually 0 for live.
`startTime`	RFC 3339 date-time	When the media first becomes available.
`mimeType`	media type	The type of the media files, such as `video/mp4`.
`streamType`	`live`, `recorded`, `liveOrRecorded`	Live, on demand, or live with recording.
`deliveryType`	`streaming`, `progressive`	How the media is delivered. If absent, inferred from the protocol: over HTTP it is `streaming`, and then `bootstrapInfo` is required.
`baseURL`	URL	Base for every relative URL in this file. Without it, relative URLs are resolved against the manifest’s own address.

Bootstrap, DRM and DVR elements

bootstrapInfo and drmAdditionalHeader hold their data either inline, in Base64, or at a url, never both. Without an id, one applies to every media element that does not name one.

Element	Attributes	Meaning
`bootstrapInfo`	`profile` (required; `named` for the named-access profile), `id`, `url`	The bootstrap box that maps times to segments and fragments; see Bootstrap information.
`drmAdditionalHeader`	`id`, `url`	The DRM header that Flash Access needs to decrypt the media.
`dvrInfo`	`url`; `windowDuration` (2.0, seconds viewable behind the live point, default −1 for all); `offline` (default `false`); deprecated in 2.0: `id`, `beginOffset`, `endOffset` (default 0)	Recording (DVR) settings for live streams; no content. With a `url`, players re-fetch it periodically; the file there has a `dvrInfo` root without a `url`.

media

One representation, such as one bit rate. At least one is required.

Attribute	Meaning
`url`	The media, or with bootstrap information the base address of its fragments. Exactly one of `url` and `href` should be given.
`href`	F4M 2.0: another F4M file that describes this representation (below).
`bitrate`	Kilobits per second; required when there is more than one `media`.
`width`, `height`	Picture size in pixels.
`streamId`	An identifier for the media file.
`bootstrapInfoId`	The `id` of its `bootstrapInfo`.
`drmAdditionalHeaderId`	The `id` of its `drmAdditionalHeader`.
`dvrInfoId`	The `id` of its `dvrInfo` (deprecated in 2.0).
`groupspec`, `multicastStreamName`	For RTMFP multicast, together: the group specifier and the stream name.
`alternate`	`true` for an alternative track, such as audio in another language.
`type`	The kind of track: `audio+video` (default), `video`, `audio`, `data`, `text`.
`label`, `lang`	Name and language (ISO 639-1 or 639-3) of the track; required with `alternate`.

Child	Content
`metadata`	Base64 of the AMF-encoded `onMetaData` object, as in an FLV script tag: duration, sizes, codecs and so on.
`xmpMetadata`	Base64 XMP metadata. Deprecated in 2.0.
`moov`	Base64 of an MP4 movie box for the representation. Deprecated in 2.0.

Multi-level manifests (2.0)

A set-level manifest lists representations whose media elements point, with href, to stream-level manifests; it uses their bitrate, streamId, width, height, type, alternate, label and lang, and holds the dvrInfo. Each stream-level manifest has one media with a url, and its own bootstrapInfo and drmAdditionalHeader. baseURL and IDs apply only within the file they are in, so the same ID can be used in different files.

Worked example

<manifest xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/f4m/1.0">
  <id>film</id>
  <streamType>recorded</streamType>
  <duration>596.5</duration>
  <deliveryType>streaming</deliveryType>
  <bootstrapInfo profile="named" id="b1" url="film.bootstrap"/>
  <media url="film_1000_" bitrate="1000" width="640" height="360" bootstrapInfoId="b1">
    <metadata>AgAKb25NZXRhRGF0YQgAAAAA…</metadata>
  </media>
  <media url="film_3000_" bitrate="3000" width="1280" height="720" bootstrapInfoId="b1">
    <metadata>AgAKb25NZXRhRGF0YQgAAAAA…</metadata>
  </media>
</manifest>

Two representations sharing one bootstrap file. The metadata starts with the AMF string onMetaData (02 00 0A, then the 10 characters), as an FLV script tag does.