JUNE 26, 2025

LUKE SANTAMARIA | Co-Founder reimage.dev

<aside> 📻 If you're managing a WordPress site that hosts video—whether you're an educator, creator, ecommerce store, or membership site owner—you already know that fast, high-quality playback is critical for user experience and retention. But traditional video formats often come with performance issues, buffering delays, and poor optimization on different devices.

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This is where HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) comes in. In this blog, we’ll cover:

• What HLS video streaming is
• Why it's a smart choice for modern websites
• How to deploy HLS videos on WordPress
• And how tools like Re-Image make the entire process fast, easy, and scalable

What is HLS Video Streaming?

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is a media streaming protocol developed by Apple. Unlike traditional video files (like MP4), HLS delivers video in small chunks that adapt to the user's internet speed and device capabilities. It’s widely supported across browsers, mobile devices, and smart TVs.

Here’s how it works:

• A video is split into small segments (typically 2 to 10 seconds long)
• These segments are served over HTTP
• A .m3u8 playlist file tells the video player how to stitch these segments together in real time

Benefits of HLS for Your Website

Using HLS instead of static video files comes with several advantages:

✅ Adaptive Streaming

HLS automatically adjusts video quality based on your viewer’s internet connection. No more stuttering or long load times.