🎬 VideoStream

PHP video streaming library with HTTP Range support, disk cache, events, temporary tokens, rate limiting, subtitles, and Laravel integration.

Works standalone (plain PHP) or with Laravel 10/11/12/13+.

Example of usage

Features

Local streaming — stream local video files with proper HTTP Range support
Remote streaming — proxy remote video URLs with native Range passthrough
Disk cache — optional file-based cache for remote videos with TTL, LRU eviction, and stale fallback
HTTP Range Requests — seek, scrub, and resume support for HTML5 players
Events / hooks — listen to the streaming lifecycle in plain PHP or Laravel
Temporary tokens — protect streams with signed, expiring tokens
Rate limiting — limit concurrent streams and requests per minute by IP
Subtitles — serve .vtt / .srt subtitles and associate subtitle tracks with videos
Laravel integration — Service Provider, Facade, publishable config, and Artisan commands
Framework agnostic — works with Laravel, Symfony, Slim, CodeIgniter, or plain PHP
Zero required third-party packages in the core — the main library relies on PHP 8.2+ and ext-curl

Installation

composer require micilini/video-stream

Requirements

PHP 8.2 or higher
ext-curl

Quick Start

Plain PHP

<?php

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

// Local video
$stream = new VideoStream();
$stream->local('/var/www/videos/movie.mp4')->output();

<?php

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

// Remote video
$stream = new VideoStream();
$stream->remote('https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4')->output();

<?php

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

// Remote video with cache
$stream = new VideoStream();
$stream->remote('https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4')
    ->cache(
        enabled: true,
        ttl: 3600,
        fresh: false,
        path: '/tmp/video-cache',
        maxDisk: 10 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024
    )
    ->output();

Laravel

After installation, the Service Provider and Facade are auto-discovered.

Publish the config (optional):

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=video-stream-config

Routes example:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Micilini\VideoStream\Laravel\VideoStreamFacade as VideoStream;

Route::get('/video/{file}', function (string $file) {
    $path = storage_path("app/videos/{$file}");
    return VideoStream::local($path)->stream();
});

Route::get('/stream', function () {
    $url = request('url');

    return VideoStream::remote($url)
        ->cache(enabled: true)
        ->stream();
});

Symfony

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;

class VideoController
{
    public function play(): Response
    {
        $stream = new VideoStream();
        return $stream->local('/path/to/video.mp4')->stream();
    }
}

Other frameworks

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$stream = new VideoStream();
$stream->local('/path/to/video.mp4')->output();

API Overview

Main class

$stream = new VideoStream(
    defaultBufferSize: 262144,
    defaultContentType: 'video/mp4',
    cacheHandler: null,
);

Fluent methods

Method	Description
`->local(string $path)`	Set a local file as the video source
`->remote(string $url)`	Set a remote URL as the video source
`->contentType(string $type)`	Override the `Content-Type` header
`->buffer(int $bytes)`	Override the buffer size
`->cacheControl(string $value)`	Override the `Cache-Control` header
`->cache(...)`	Configure disk cache for remote videos
`->on(string $event, callable $listener)`	Register an event listener
`->withToken(...)`	Validate a signed token before streaming
`->rateLimit(...)`	Limit concurrent streams and requests by IP
`->subtitle(string $path)`	Output a subtitle file directly
`->subtitles(array $tracks)`	Associate subtitle tracks with a video
`->output()`	Stream directly via `echo` + `flush`
`->stream()`	Return `StreamedResponse` if Symfony is available, otherwise call `output()`
`VideoStream::generateToken(...)`	Generate a signed expiring token

Disk Cache

$stream->remote($url)->cache(
    enabled: true,
    ttl: 86400,
    fresh: false,
    path: '/tmp/video-cache',
    maxDisk: 10_737_418_240,
)->output();

For local videos, ->cache() is ignored.

Cache behavior

Scenario	Behavior
Cache hit, not expired	Serve from disk immediately
Cache hit, expired, remote OK	Re-download and replace cache
Cache hit, expired, remote down	Serve stale cache
Cache miss, remote OK	Download, cache, and serve
Cache miss, remote down	Throw `StreamException`
Disk full	LRU eviction removes the oldest files

Events / Hooks

Use events to monitor the stream lifecycle, add custom logging, or feed analytics.

Plain PHP

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$stream = new VideoStream();

$stream->on('beforeStream', function (array $context) {
    error_log('Starting stream: ' . ($context['source'] ?? 'unknown'));
});

$stream->on('afterStream', function (array $context) {
    error_log('Finished stream');
});

$stream->remote('https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4')->output();

Available events

beforeStream
afterStream
onCacheHit
onCacheMiss
onCacheExpired
onError

Laravel

In Laravel, you can bridge those hooks to framework events and listeners through the package integration layer.

Temporary Tokens

Use signed tokens to protect streaming URLs.

Generate a token

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$token = VideoStream::generateToken(
    videoId: 'movie-123',
    secret: 'my-app-secret',
    expiresIn: 3600,
    ip: '192.168.1.100',
);

Validate before streaming

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$stream = new VideoStream();

$stream->remote('https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4')
    ->withToken(
        token: $_GET['token'],
        secret: 'my-app-secret',
        videoId: 'movie-123',
        ip: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] ?? null,
    )
    ->output();

If the token is invalid or expired, the package throws an exception.

Rate Limiting

Limit the number of simultaneous streams and requests per minute for a given IP.

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$stream = new VideoStream();

$stream->remote('https://cdn.example.com/video.mp4')
    ->rateLimit(
        maxConcurrent: 3,
        maxPerMinute: 30,
        storagePath: '/tmp/video-stream-rate-limit',
        ip: $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] ?? null,
    )
    ->output();

This is useful to reduce abuse and protect server resources without external infrastructure.

Subtitles

Output a subtitle file directly

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$stream = new VideoStream();
$stream->subtitle('/path/to/subtitles/movie.vtt')->output();

Associate subtitles with a video

use Micilini\VideoStream\VideoStream;

$stream = new VideoStream();

$stream->local('/path/to/video.mp4')
    ->subtitles([
        'pt' => '/subtitles/movie-pt.vtt',
        'en' => '/subtitles/movie-en.vtt',
    ])
    ->output();

Supported subtitle scenarios:

.vtt output
.srt support
.srt to .vtt conversion when needed
subtitle metadata association through the video response pipeline

Example Demo

The repository includes a runnable example application under the example/ directory.

Suggested structure:

example/
├── index.php
├── index.html
├── cache/
├── rate-limit/
├── subtitles/
└── videos/

Notes

Keep the demo HTML inside example/
Use a relative base path in the frontend, such as:

const PURE_BASE = './index.php';

Open the demo through a local web server, not file://
The demo is useful to validate:
- local streaming
- remote streaming
- cache
- temporary tokens
- rate limiting
- subtitles
- event logging

Laravel Configuration

After publishing the config:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=video-stream-config

A typical config/video-stream.php may include:

return [
    'buffer_size' => 262144,
    'default_content_type' => 'video/mp4',

    'cache' => [
        'enabled' => env('VIDEO_STREAM_CACHE', false),
        'path' => storage_path('app/video-cache'),
        'ttl' => (int) env('VIDEO_STREAM_CACHE_TTL', 86400),
        'max_disk_usage' => (int) env('VIDEO_STREAM_CACHE_MAX_DISK', 10 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024),
    ],

    'auth' => [
        'secret' => env('VIDEO_STREAM_AUTH_SECRET', ''),
        'default_ttl' => (int) env('VIDEO_STREAM_AUTH_TTL', 3600),
    ],

    'events' => [
        'enabled' => env('VIDEO_STREAM_EVENTS_ENABLED', true),
    ],

    'rate_limit' => [
        'enabled' => env('VIDEO_STREAM_RATE_LIMIT_ENABLED', false),
        'max_concurrent' => (int) env('VIDEO_STREAM_RATE_LIMIT_MAX_CONCURRENT', 3),
        'max_per_minute' => (int) env('VIDEO_STREAM_RATE_LIMIT_MAX_PER_MINUTE', 30),
    ],
];

Example `.env`

VIDEO_STREAM_CACHE=true
VIDEO_STREAM_CACHE_TTL=86400
VIDEO_STREAM_CACHE_MAX_DISK=10737418240

VIDEO_STREAM_AUTH_SECRET=change-this-secret
VIDEO_STREAM_AUTH_TTL=3600

VIDEO_STREAM_EVENTS_ENABLED=true

VIDEO_STREAM_RATE_LIMIT_ENABLED=false
VIDEO_STREAM_RATE_LIMIT_MAX_CONCURRENT=3
VIDEO_STREAM_RATE_LIMIT_MAX_PER_MINUTE=30

Artisan commands

php artisan video-stream:cache-status
php artisan video-stream:cache-clear
php artisan video-stream:cache-clear --expired

Project Structure

src/
├── VideoStream.php
├── Contracts/
│   ├── StreamDriverInterface.php
│   ├── CacheHandlerInterface.php
│   └── EventDispatcherInterface.php
├── Config/
│   └── StreamConfig.php
├── Drivers/
│   ├── LocalStreamDriver.php
│   └── RemoteStreamDriver.php
├── Cache/
│   └── FileCacheHandler.php
├── Http/
│   ├── RangeRequestHandler.php
│   └── RateLimiter.php
├── Auth/
│   ├── TokenGenerator.php
│   └── TokenValidator.php
├── Events/
│   ├── StreamEvent.php
│   ├── BeforeStream.php
│   ├── AfterStream.php
│   ├── CacheHit.php
│   ├── CacheMiss.php
│   ├── CacheExpired.php
│   ├── StreamError.php
│   └── CallbackEventDispatcher.php
├── Subtitles/
│   ├── SubtitleHandler.php
│   └── SrtToVttConverter.php
├── Exceptions/
│   ├── StreamException.php
│   ├── VideoNotFoundException.php
│   ├── InvalidConfigException.php
│   ├── CacheException.php
│   ├── InvalidTokenException.php
│   ├── TokenExpiredException.php
│   └── RateLimitExceededException.php
└── Laravel/
    ├── VideoStreamServiceProvider.php
    ├── VideoStreamFacade.php
    └── Commands/
        ├── CacheClearCommand.php
        └── CacheStatusCommand.php

Testing

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit

The test suite should cover:

StreamConfig validation
HTTP Range parsing
local streaming
remote streaming
cache TTL / eviction / stale fallback
event dispatching
token generation and validation
rate limiting
subtitle output and conversion
integration with the fluent API

Upgrade Notes

If you removed the legacy v1-style API in the new major version, document that change in an UPGRADE.md file and keep the README focused on the fluent API only.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, open an issue first so the scope can be discussed before implementation.

License

MIT

Made with ☕ by Micilini

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
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.github/workflows		.github/workflows
config		config
example		example
screenshoots		screenshoots
src		src
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
UPGRADE.md		UPGRADE.md
composer.json		composer.json
phpstan.neon		phpstan.neon
phpunit.xml		phpunit.xml

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🎬 VideoStream

Features

Installation

Requirements

Quick Start

Plain PHP

Laravel

Symfony

Other frameworks

API Overview

Main class

Fluent methods

Disk Cache

Cache behavior

Events / Hooks

Plain PHP

Available events

Laravel

Temporary Tokens

Generate a token

Validate before streaming

Rate Limiting

Subtitles

Output a subtitle file directly

Associate subtitles with a video

Example Demo

Notes

Laravel Configuration

Example .env

Artisan commands

Project Structure

Testing

Upgrade Notes

Contributing

License

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