Here is a list of free HLS m3u8 test URLs for testing OTT HLS (m3u8) Video Players (including Big Buck Bunny, Sintel, Tears of Steel, and m3u8 URLs from Akamai, Dolby, Azure, Unified Streaming).
If you are looking for free-to-use MPEG-DASH MPD URLs, go here.
HLS m3u8 URLs
When you are working with HLS (either writing a packager or writing an HLS-compliant player, or you just want to see how HLS works), it is always convenient to have a few sample HLS m3u8 URLs to test against – right? I always find myself googling for such URLs, so I have made a list of them right here for you!
If you are interested in HLS (HTTP Live Streaming), then these articles will interest you –
- What is HLS or HTTP Live Streaming?
- How to package for HLS using FFmpeg?
- List of HLS or m3u8 video players
- HLS vs. MPEG-DASH
Here is the list of m3u8 URLs –
- Tears of Steel m3u8
https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.m3u8
- fMP4 m3u8
https://devstreaming-cdn.apple.com/videos/streaming/examples/img_bipbop_adv_example_fmp4/master.m3u8
- MP4 m3u8:
https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.mp4/.m3u8
- Live Akamai m3u8
https://cph-p2p-msl.akamaized.net/hls/live/2000341/test/master.m3u8
- Live Akamai m3u8
https://moctobpltc-i.akamaihd.net/hls/live/571329/eight/playlist.m3u8
- Dolby VOD m3u8
http://d3rlna7iyyu8wu.cloudfront.net/skip_armstrong/skip_armstrong_stereo_subs.m3u8
– this is served over HTTP, so it might result in media errors. To avoid this, reload your HLS player using HTTP (less secure, but, you can playback this stream!) - Dolby Multichannel m3u8
http://d3rlna7iyyu8wu.cloudfront.net/skip_armstrong/skip_armstrong_multichannel_subs.m3u8
– this is served over HTTP, so it might result in media errors. To avoid this, reload your HLS player using HTTP (less secure, but, you can playback this stream!) - Dolby Multilanguage m3u8
http://d3rlna7iyyu8wu.cloudfront.net/skip_armstrong/skip_armstrong_multi_language_subs.m3u8
– this is served over HTTP, so it might result in media errors. To avoid this, reload your HLS player using HTTP (less secure, but, you can playback this stream!) - Azure HLSv4 m3u8 (copy paste in your browser and it will download the m3u8)
http://amssamples.streaming.mediaservices.windows.net/91492735-c523-432b-ba01-faba6c2206a2/AzureMediaServicesPromo.ism/manifest(format=m3u8-aapl)
.. again, served over HTTP. - Azure HLSv4 m3u8 (copy paste in your browser and it will download the m3u8)
http://amssamples.streaming.mediaservices.windows.net/69fbaeba-8e92-4740-aedc-ce09ae945073/AzurePromo.ism/manifest(format=m3u8-aapl)
served over HTTP. - Azure 4K HLSv4 m3u8 (copy paste in your browser and it will download the m3u8)
http://amssamples.streaming.mediaservices.windows.net/634cd01c-6822-4630-8444-8dd6279f94c6/CaminandesLlamaDrama4K.ism/manifest(format=m3u8-aapl)
served over HTTP.

Credit for the HLS m3u8 URLs
Credit to Apple, Akamai, Unified Streaming, Dolby, Azure for creating and hosting these HLS m3u8 URLs. If you have any more HLS m3u8 URLs that you can add to this list, please add it in the comments section, and I will add them to the list. Also, if any of the streams are not working, let me know. Thanks!

Krishna Rao Vijayanagar
Krishna Rao Vijayanagar, Ph.D., is the Editor-in-Chief of OTTVerse, a news portal covering tech and business news in the OTT industry.
With extensive experience in video encoding, streaming, analytics, monetization, end-to-end streaming, and more, Krishna has held multiple leadership roles in R&D, Engineering, and Product at companies such as Harmonic Inc., MediaMelon, and Airtel Digital. Krishna has published numerous articles and research papers and speaks at industry events to share his insights and perspectives on the fundamentals and the future of OTT streaming.
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hi, i always read this, first of all, thanks:
i was going to ask this http://xxxxxxx.com/live/video.m3u8
how to do :https://xxxxxxx.com/live/video.m3u8
(http to https) (FileZilla) Is it possible to do this in ftp?
I was going to ask how to do it: http://149.255.155.142/Xazar/index.m3u8
I was going to ask how to do: https://149.255.155.142/Xazar/index.m3u8
thank you!
Hey, thanks for this useful collection!
First link, Tears of Steel is dead 404.
This post is now 2 years old, but many of the links, such as the Apple ones are still working great! Extremely useful resources for software developers working on early-stage products. Thanks!
Thank you! If you have any links you can share, pls send it to us and we’ll add it to the list.
Hello,
Here is an fMP4 HLS failover live stream
https://ireplay.tv/test/blender.m3u8
I Need help.
My HLS stream is created in FFMPEG directly to webserver folder (Centos 7 with Apache).
I cant play stream in web – network error (htaccess is set for cors)
In VLC or Chrome Native_HLS_playback seem all OK.
Thanks for any advice.
Hi
I have 1 link mpd live and also (kid, key), now how can I play it from vlc, mx-play, potplay, any media player? everytime everywhere? I am using nginx on coreelec. Thank.
https://cph-p2p-msl.akamaized.net/hls/live/2000341/test/master.m3u8 stopped working 🙁
Hi Alex – I can download it and use it. Can you try again?
The Akamai URL works like a charm. Thanks
Radio Mast has a whole suite of HLS audio streams for testing available here:
https://www.radiomast/reference-streams
(MP3 and AAC HLS streams)
Please provide “mpd” streaming urls.
Here you go: https://ottverse.com/free-mpeg-dash-mpd-manifest-example-test-urls/