Legacy HLS AD Cue Format

Primetime uses Ad cue format to signal SCTE 35 Ad cues in m3u8 generated by Primetime Live Packager 1.2 and Primetime Origin Server 1.2

When CueMode config is set as PT_1_0, Primetime uses the following formats to signal SCTE 35 Ad cues in m3u8:

#EXT-X-CUE tag

The following are the details of the #EXT-X-CUE tag:

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
TYPE	enumerated-string	Required	The event type which must be SpliceOut
ID	enumerated-string	Required	A unique identifier for this event within the context of the program stream.
TIME	Number	Required	The stream’s presentation time in fractional seconds at which point the splice out should occur.
DURATION	Number	optional	The splice duration in fractional seconds. If duration is not specified then this attribute is not present.

The following is a sample M3U8 containing an #EXT-X-CUE tag with a single ad break of known duration:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:44 
#EXTINF:9.9,http://server-host/path/file44.ts
#EXTINF:4.2,http://server-host/path/file45.ts 
#EXT-X-CUE:TYPE=SpliceOut,ID=1,DURATION=60.0,TIME=266.198
#EXTINF:5.8,http://server-host/path/file46.ts
#EXT-X-CUE-CONT:ID=1,AVAIL-DUR-ELAPSED=5.8
#EXTINF:9.9,http://server-host/path/file46.ts...

Here is an example of an M3U8 containing an #EXT-X-CUE tag with a single ad break, where the duration is not known when the break begins:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-VERSION:3#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:44 
#EXTINF:9.9,http://server-host/path/file44.ts
#EXTINF:4.2,http://server-host/path/file45.ts 
#EXT-X-CUE:TYPE=SpliceOut,ID=1,TIME=266.198
#EXTINF:5.8,
#EXT-X-CUE-CONT:ID=1,AVAIL-DUR-ELAPSED=5.8http://server-host/path/file46.ts
#EXTINF:9.9,
#EXT-X-CUE-CONT:ID=1,AVAIL-DUR-ELAPSED=15.7http://server-host/path/file47.ts
...
#EXTINF:9.9,http://server-host/path/file56.ts
#EXTINF:4.2,http://server-host/path/file57.ts
#EXTINF:9.9,http://server-host/path/file58.ts

#EXT-X-CUE-CONT tag

All the media segments which lie between the Splice Out point and Splice In point represent an AD avail. Splice In point is determined by adding splice duration to the Splice Out point or by Splice Time attribute of the SCTE Splice In Message. While the first segment in the AD avail is marked with the custom #EXT-X-CUE tag as explained in previous section, rest of the media segments in the AD avail are marked with EXT-X-CUE-CONT tag.

The following are the details of the #EXT-X-CUE-CONT tag:

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
ID	enumerated-string	Yes	A unique identifier for this event within the context of the program stream.
AVAIL-DUR-ELAPSED	Number	Yes	Number of seconds elapsed since start of AD Avail (Splice Out Point).

All the segments in a given AD avail have same value for ID attribute of the #EXT-X-CUE-CONT tag as that of ID attribute of #EXT-X-CUE tag.

The following is the part of a sample M3U8 containing an #EXT-X-CUE tag:

#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:44 
#EXTINF:9.9,http://server-host/path/file44.ts
#EXTINF:4.2,http://server-host/path/file45.ts 
#EXT-X-CUE:TYPE=SpliceOut,ID=1,DURATION=30.0,TIME=266.198
#EXTINF:10,http://server-host/path/file46.ts
#EXT-X-CUE-CONT:ID=1,AVAIL-DUR-ELAPSED=10
#EXTINF:10,http://server-host/path/file47.ts
#EXT-X-CUE-CONT:ID=1,AVAIL-DUR-ELAPSED=20
#EXTINF:10,http://server-host/path/file48.ts
#EXTINF:10,http://server-host/path/file49.ts 
...

In the above example, segments file46.ts, file47.ts and file48.ts are part of a 30 second AD avail. The first segment file46.ts is marked with EXT-X-CUE tag and rest of the two segments are marked with EXT-X-CUE-CONT tags.