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Create a CDN resource for video streaming

Overview

Use CDB Video CDN to deliver live streams and video-on-demand content globally without transcoding. This guide walks you through creating a CDN resource optimized for video delivery.

When to use Video CDN

You should use video CDN when:

  • You already have HLS, DASH, or FLV streams ready
  • You handle transcoding on your own servers
  • You need global delivery at scale (thousands to millions of viewers)
  • You want advanced CDN features:
    • Geo-blocking by country
    • Secure token authentication
    • Custom domains
    • Origin shielding
  • You want to reduce origin bandwidth costs

Supported formats:

  • HLS (.m3u8 playlists, .ts or .m4s segments)
  • MPEG-DASH (.mpd manifests)
  • HTTP-FLV (.flv streams)
  • MP4 (progressive download, VOD only)

Example scenarios:

  • You run a media server (Wowza, Nginx-RTMP, SRS) producing HLS
  • You're migrating from another CDN (Cloudflare, AWS, etc.)
  • You need geo-restrictions for broadcasting rights
  • You want to offload bandwidth from your origin

You should use Video Streaming Platform instead when:

  • You need transcoding (raw RTMP/SRT input)
  • You want automatic quality ladder generation (ABR)
  • You're streaming from encoders (OBS, vMix, hardware encoders)
  • You need DVR (pause/rewind) or recording features
  • You want an all-in-one hosted solution

Learn more: Video Streaming Platform

Quick setup (4 steps)

Step 1: Request streaming activation

Required first step: Video streaming requires legal approval from CDB support.

Contact CDB Support or use the chat in the bottom-right corner. Provide:

  • Your Client ID (found on the main page of CDB Technical Web Portal)
  • Domain name and company name
  • Content type: Sports, education, entertainment, news, etc.
  • Sample stream URL: Example of your typical stream format
  • Viewer geography: Where your audience is located
  • Broadcasting license or content compliance policy

Processing time: Usually 1-2 business days

Client ID location

Step 2: Activate paid CDN plan

Video streaming requires a paid CDN subscription:

  1. Navigate to CDN in the Customer Portal
  2. If you're on the free plan, upgrade to:
    • Start (1.5 TB included traffic)
    • Pro (5 TB included traffic)

Pricing: Pay for bandwidth delivered to viewers. View pricing details

Step 3: Create CDN resource

Once streaming is activated by support, create your CDN resource:

  1. Go to CDN > CDN Resources
  2. Click Create CDN Resource
  3. Configure the resource (for static assets):

Origin settings:

  • Origin type: Your server
  • Origin address: Your media server domain or IP
    • Example: live.example.com or 192.0.2.1
  • Origin protocol: HTTP or HTTPS (match your origin)
  • Origin type: Storage
  • Storage: Select your CDB Storage bucket
  • Path (optional): /videos if VOD files are in a subfolder

CDN resource name:

  • Choose a custom domain: video.yourdomain.com
  • Or use auto-generated: 123456.gcdn.co
  1. Click Create CDN Resource

Detailed guide: Create a CDN resource for static assets (same process for video)

Step 4: Configure caching rules

Optimize caching for video delivery:

Basic cache configuration for live streams:

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Cache
  2. Enable "Always online" with these settings:
    • Check error (serve stale cache if origin returns errors)
    • Check timeout (serve stale cache if origin times out)
    • ⚠️ Uncheck "updating" (important - conflicts with internal optimizations)

Why enable Always online?

  • Protects viewers from origin failures
  • If origin goes down, CDN serves cached content instead of error pages
  • Improves reliability and uptime

Important: Uncheck the "updating" option for optimal live streaming performance. When excluded, the CDN can deliver video chunks more efficiently, reducing buffering and ensuring smoother playback. Only enable "error" and "timeout".

Step 2: Set resource-level cache (for segments)

  1. Still in CDN Resource > Cache
  2. Set CDN cache expiry time: 60 seconds
    • This caches all content (except manifests, see below) for 60 seconds
    • If you use DVR, increase this to match your DVR window (e.g., 30 minutes)

Step 3: Create manifest caching rule

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Rules
  2. Click Create Rule > Enter manually:
    • Rule name: manifests
    • Pattern: ^/.+\.(m3u8|mpd|ism)$ (regex for manifest files)
    • Cache time: 2 seconds
    • Browser cache: 0 seconds (no browser caching for manifests)
  3. Click Create rule

Why these values?

  • Segments (60s): Balances freshness with cache efficiency. Longer than segment duration for slow connections.
  • Manifests (2s): Very short to ensure viewers get latest segment list
  • DVR adjustment: If DVR enabled, segment cache should match DVR window

Optional: LL-HLS (Low-Latency) configuration

If using LL-HLS (Low-Latency HLS):

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Cache
  2. Enable Query parameters whitelist
  3. Add these parameters: _HLS_msn, _HLS_part, _HLS_skip
    • These are required for LL-HLS to work correctly
    • All other query parameters will be ignored
Cache settings for live streaming

Optimized cache configuration for VOD:

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Cache
  2. Enable "Always online" with these settings:
    • Check error (serve stale cache if origin returns errors)
    • Check timeout (serve stale cache if origin times out)
    • ⚠️ Uncheck "updating" (important - conflicts with internal optimizations)

Why enable Always online?

  • If origin goes down, viewers can still watch cached videos
  • Prevents "origin unavailable" errors from affecting users
  • Especially important for high-traffic VOD platforms

Important: Uncheck the "updating" option for optimal live streaming performance. When excluded, the CDN can deliver video chunks more efficiently, reducing buffering and ensuring smoother playback. Only enable "error" and "timeout".

Step 2: Set long-term cache for all content

  1. Still in CDN Resource > Cache
  2. Set CDN cache expiry time: 1 year (31536000 seconds)
    • This caches all successful responses (2xx, 3xx) for 1 year
    • VOD content doesn't change, so aggressive caching is safe
  3. Set Custom cache time for 404 errors: 1 second
    • Protects origin from repeated requests for non-existent files

Why 1 year?

  • VOD files never change once uploaded
  • Maximum cache efficiency = minimum origin load
  • Can be purged manually if needed

Step 3 (Optional): Large file optimization (for MP4)

If delivering MP4 files for progressive download:

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Content
  2. Enable Large files delivery optimization
    • Enables HTTP range requests for seeking
    • Important: Your origin must support Range requests
    • Note: Enabling this will invalidate existing cache

Requirements:

  • Origin server supports HTTP Range Request (Content-Range headers)
  • If using origin group, files must have identical Content-Length and ETag across all origins
  • Do not enable GZIP compression when using large file optimization

Step 4 (Optional): Query string handling

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Cache
  2. Enable Ignore query string if:
    • Your VOD URLs don't use query parameters for logic
    • You want to cache video.mp4?ref=email and video.mp4?ref=social as the same file
  3. Ask customer first - they may have analytics or tracking in query params

Common file extensions:

  • Manifests: .m3u8, .mpd
  • Segments: .ts, .m4s, .m4v, .m4a, .m4i
  • Progressive: .mp4, .webm
  • Subtitles: .vtt, .webvtt, .ttml

Critical for Low-Latency: If you're using MPEG-DASH with an external transcoder (not CDB Video Streaming), you must enable the Chunked-Proxy module for low-latency delivery. Contact CDB Support or your account manager to activate this feature.

Without Chunked-Proxy, your CDN will use standard "store and forward" delivery, resulting in 10-15 second latency instead of the 2-4 second low-latency performance.

What is Chunked-Proxy?

Standard CDNs wait for files to completely download from origin before sending to viewers ("Store and Forward"). CDB's Chunked-Proxy module streams data immediately:

  • Immediate distribution: CDN edge sends bytes to viewers while receiving from origin
  • Protocol optimization: Uses Chunked Transfer Encoding (HTTP/1.1) and Framing (HTTP/2/3)
  • 2-4 second latency: Achieves true low-latency for LL-DASH streams

Learn more: How Low-Latency Streaming Works

Request Chunked-Proxy activation

  1. Contact CDB Support or your account manager
  2. Request Chunked-Proxy module activation for your CDN resource
  3. Provide:
    • Your CDN resource ID or domain
    • Confirmation that you're using LL-DASH with CMAF segments
    • Your origin transcoder details (Wowza, Nginx-RTMP, etc.)

After activation:

  • Your LL-DASH streams will achieve 2-4 second latency
  • CDN will stream chunks immediately as they're received from origin

Note: If you're using CDB Video Streaming (our transcoding service), Chunked-Proxy is already enabled by default. You only need to request activation if using an external transcoder.

Cache configuration

After Chunked-Proxy activation by the support team, follow the cache configuration instructions from the "For Live HLS Streaming" tab above.

Only difference: When creating the manifest caching rule (Step 3), use:

  • Pattern: ^/.+\.mpd$ (for DASH manifest files instead of .m3u8)

Common DASH/CMAF file extensions:

  • Manifests: .mpd
  • Segments: .m4s, .m4v, .m4a, .cmfv, .cmfa
  • Initialization: .mp4 (init segments)

FLV streams use a single continuous connection:

  1. Fully custom cache settings, contact the support team for more information

Learn more: FLV Streaming Guide

Need advanced performance optimization? For high-traffic streaming or specific performance requirements, contact CDB Support to configure:

  • Cache sharding: Distribute cache across multiple servers
  • Cache lock timing: Optimize concurrent request handling
  • Custom TTL strategies: Fine-tune cache behavior per file type
  • Origin connection limits: Protect origin from traffic spikes

Step 5 (Live only): Enable LIVE STREAMING preset

For live streams only - Skip this step if you're delivering VOD.

The LIVE STREAMING preset enables RAM-based caching for reduced latency:

  1. Go to CDN Resources
  2. Click the three dots next to your video CDN resource
  3. Select Turn on LIVE STREAMING preset
Turn on LIVE STREAMING preset

What it does: Caches video segments in RAM instead of disk for faster delivery and lower latency.

Test your stream

Get your CDN URL

Update your stream URLs from origin to CDN:

Before (origin):

http://live.example.com/playlist.m3u8

After (CDN):

http://video.yourdomain.com/playlist.m3u8

Or with auto-generated domain:

http://123456.gcdn.co/playlist.m3u8

Test playback

Test your stream in a player that supports HLS:

Paste your CDN URL and verify playback works correctly.

Optional: Advanced configuration

Enable origin shielding

For high-traffic streams (100+ concurrent viewers), enable origin shielding:

  1. Go to CDN Resource > General > Origin shielding
  2. Toggle Enable origin shielding
  3. Select shield location closest to your origin

Benefit: Reduces origin requests by 80-95%, protecting your origin from traffic spikes.

Learn more: Origin Shielding

Add geo-restrictions

Restrict content by country (e.g., for broadcasting rights):

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Security > Country access policy
  2. Choose:
    • Allow only: Content available only in selected countries
    • Block: Content blocked in selected countries
  3. Select countries
  4. Save changes

Example: "Allow only in Dominican Republic" for regional sports rights.

Learn more: Geo-restrictions

Add secure tokens

Protect content with time-limited authenticated URLs:

  1. Go to CDN Resource > Security > Secure Token
  2. Enable and configure token settings
  3. Generate tokens on your backend for each user

Use cases: Paid content, private videos, time-limited previews.

Learn more: Secure Tokens

Next steps

Troubleshooting

Stream not playing

  1. Check origin is accessible: Test origin URL directly in browser
  2. Verify DNS: Ensure CNAME points to CDN (if using custom domain)
  3. Check cache rules: Verify .m3u8 and .ts rules are configured
  4. Review CDN logs: Check for 4xx/5xx errors in CDN statistics

High latency

  1. Enable LIVE STREAMING preset: For live streams (see Step 5)
  2. Reduce playlist cache: Set .m3u8 cache to 1-2 seconds
  3. Enable origin shielding: Reduces routing hops
  4. Contact support: For advanced latency optimization

Need help?

Contact CDB Support or use the chat in the bottom-right corner.