6 MOQ Players You Need To Know About: Pros and Cons

MOQ is moving fast, but one question keeps coming up from developers and product teams: what can you actually use today to play MOQ streams in a browser? We pulled together a quick comparison guide of the MOQ player implementations we are aware of right now. The goal is to give you a starting point, not a final recommendation. If you are new to this topic, start by reading “What is MOQ?”. Wondering how MOQ compares to WebRTC? Read “MOQ vs WebRTC.”

While our focus here is on other developers’ MOQ players, it’s important to note that Red5 has also developed what we’re calling Playa as a modularly flexible template MOQ service providers can use to build players suited to their needs. In its commitment to streamlining open-source development of players and streaming formats, the OpenMOQ Software Consortium, which we joined as a founding member, is recommending Playa as a framework well suited to achieving uniformity in the use of building blocks while ensuring maximum flexibility in use case optimization.

A quick note on a term you will see below: “catalog.” In MOQ land, a catalog is metadata that describes available tracks (codec, bitrate, audio layout, and other fields), so an app can select video/audio tracks and support things like stream selection and switching.

Watch my short talk on this topic on YouTube.

6 MOQ Players implementations we tracked so far

Name	Draft	Creator	License type	Pros	Cons	Links
moq-js	lite	Luke Curley	Apache-2.0, MIT	Supports catalogs for describing and listing tracks. Luke Curley is super responsive and helpful to the community. CloudFlare seems to be focusing on the use of moq-js for their implementations.	Doesn’t support Fetch, and probably never will. This limitation could have an impact on use cases like DVR scrubbing. A bit fragmented: Cloudflare has branched and maintains separate implementations for the IETF spec and MoQ lite.	https://github.com/moq-dev/moq/ https://moq.dev/
MOQtail	14	Özyeğin University	Apache 2.0	One of the oldest implementations, and well supported by Prof. Ali C. Begen and his team. First demo that I saw with event tracks and SCTE35 use.	Community adoption hasn’t gained traction, and they have great corporate sponsors, so far there’s no large company behind it (Özyeğin University based), although I should note that they have received significant sponsorships from Akamai, AWS and Cisco.	https://github.com/moqtail/moqtail https://moqtail.dev/
Shaka Player	14	Álvaro Velad Galván and Wojciech Tyczyński	Apache 2.0	Support for other protocols inclusing DASH and HLS. ABR (only navigator.connection change event). Encrypted content with PSSH in the initData. Development is very active and they seem to have the most sponsors.	The player was not built as part of the OpenMOQ Software Consortium efforts.	https://github.com/shaka-project/shaka-player https://shaka-project.github.io/shaka-player/demo/
Facebook/Meta	14	Facebook/Meta	MIT	Red5 has been contributing, and Jordi Cenzano, the maintainer, has been really great to work with and responsive. Castlabs implemented DRM support on this player.	No catalog track support, fairly basic implementation so far.	https://github.com/facebookexperimental/moq-encoder-player
Player Web X	Not disclosed publicly	Bitmovin	Not disclosed publicly	Not much known yet, as it requires requesting a demo.	Closed source implementation.	https://bitmovin.com/player-web-x/
WARP Player	14	Eyevinn Technology	MIT	Very liberal MIT based open source license. Based on moq-js.	No large company behind this yet. Could be promising	https://github.com/Eyevinn/warp-player

Comparison Table: Players Compatible With the MOQ Streaming Protocol.

1. Moq-js by Luke Curley (MOQ lite)

URL: https://github.com/moq-dev/moq/tree/main/js

1,2k stars and 172 forks on Github.

Pros:

• Supports catalogs for describing and listing tracks.
• Luke Curley is very responsive and helpful to the community.
• Cloudflare appears to be focusing on moq-js for their implementation.
• Apache 2.0 and MIT licensing makes it interesting as a foundation.

Cons:

• Does not support Fetch, and likely never will impacting DVR style scrubbing use cases.
• Some fragmentation: It appears that CDN operators who want to take advantage of MOQ Lite and the full implementation of MOQT will need to dedicate resources specific to each. Cloudflare has branched and maintains separate implementations for the IETF spec and MOQ lite.

More links: https://moq.dev/

2. MOQtail by Professor Ali C. Begen and his students (Draft 14)

URL: https://github.com/moqtail/moqtail

72 stars and 16 forks on Github.

Pros:

• One of the first and longest running implementations.
• Led by Professor Ali C. Begen with strong academic backing from his students.
• Meant to work with the IETF’s CMSF streaming format, which the forum has broken out as a version supporting its MOQ Streaming Format with the option to use CMAF packaging.
• First demo that I saw with event tracks and SCTE35 use.
• Apache 2.0 licensing makes it interesting as a foundation.

Cons:

• Community adoption has not gained much traction yet.
• No large company behind it today (Özyeğin University based), although I should note that they have received significant sponsorships from Akamai, AWS and Cisco.

More links: https://moqtail.dev/. Check out Prof. Ali C. Begen’s presentation “Streaming Bad: Breaking Latency with MOQ” on LinkedIn

3. Shaka Player by Álvaro Velad Galván and Wojciech Tyczyński (Draft 14)

URL: https://github.com/shaka-project/shaka-player/commit/ef361ed03995b7591b4aa3210c4f9aed7e4fec67

8.1k stars and 1.5k forks on Github.

Pros:

• General purpose player project initiated by Google to support HLS and DASH in Web, Android and TV playback scenarios and, with the recent addition of MOQ support, now overseen independently by Galván, Tyczyński and other engineers with participation by Ateme. 
• The effort, complemented by Shaka Packager and Streamer projects, is aimed at ensuring cutting-edge advancements like surround sound can be implemented with MOQ player support compatible with CMSF.
• Development is very active and they seem to have the most sponsors.
• Apache 2.0 licensing makes it interesting as a foundation.

Cons:

• Very new and still experimental for MOQ related work.
• There seems to be little known about the player from the general MOQ community. For example, most of the folks on the player working group didn’t know about their new MOQ support.

More links: https://shaka-project.github.io/shaka-player/

4. Moq-encoder-player by Meta (Draft 14)

URL: https://github.com/facebookexperimental/moq-encoder-player

90 stars and 18 forks on Github.

Pros:

• Red5 has been contributing to this project, and Jordi Cenzano has been great to work with and responsive.
• Meta’s goal is development of a browser-supported player devoted to implementing a live video and audio encoder to be used in creating and consuming MOQ streams.
• Castlabs implemented DRM support on this player (older fork).
• Large corporation behind the implementation meaning it’s likely to get support and attention over the long run.
• MIT licensing makes it interesting as a foundation.

Cons:

• Still in nascent development for use in testing MOQ interoperability with no catalog track support.

5. Player Web X by Bitmovin (draft not disclosed publicly)

URL: https://bitmovin.com/player-web-x/

Pros:

• Player Web X is Bitmovin’s latest, completely re-architected version of its general-purpose Web SDK player platform with a more open-source orientation that retains basic functionalities in a proprietary core but enables use-case enhancements, including MOQ, to be implemented through plug-ins utilizing an open-sourced set of APIs.
• MOQ-focused players using that core can be configured as users see fit, which means they can follow the template created by Red5’s OpenMOQ Consortium-endorsed Playa player framework.
• Having recently joined the consortium, Bitmovin is now working with Red5 and the rest of the community to deliver optimum results.
• With its plug-in-optimized architecture, MOQ player versions using Player Web X can be designed to support multiple additional protocols and analytics.
• Bitmovin has aligned with Cloudflare to provide player support for MOQ operations on that CDN’s global MOQ relay system.  
• Nice to have a commercial offering in the list which would come with extensive support.

Cons:

• Closed-source aspects of implementation means there will be added costs with the use of Player Web X.
• Licensing type is not disclosed publicly.

More links: https://bitmovin.com/blog/sub-second-streaming-bitmovin-player-web-x-moq-playback/

6. WARP Player by Eyevinn Technology (Draft 14)

URL: https://github.com/Eyevinn/warp-player

8 stars and 0 forks on Github.

Pros:

• MIT licensed open-source project initiated by Eyevinn, an M&E-focused video streaming technology consultancy and platform builder based in Stockholm.
• Based on moq-js

Cons:

• Designed to only work with CMAF-compatible streaming formats, but they have some support for the LOC draft.
• Very early with no large company behind it yet and no large community adoption.
• Our team has not had time to look into it, but it could be promising.

So what should you choose?

Right now, it is still early. If you want something you can study and hack on today, the open source options above are the best place to start. If you need a polished commercial offering, the closed source path offered by Bitmovin may make sense, but it comes with the usual tradeoffs.

If you know of other MOQ players, writeups, or press links we should add to this list, please mention them in the comments on this post. This space is moving quickly, and the best way to keep up is to participate in the very active MOQ community. I hope what I’ve listed here helps.

Where we are headed next

As described here, the recent NAB Show debut of MOQ as a conference topic with multiple vendor demonstrations, including our own, revealed there’s rapidly growing industry support with preparations for commercial rollout on several global platforms. 

In our case, we’re launching beta tests in conjunction with the MOQ CDN infrastructure we’ve developed in partnership with global CDN operator CacheFly using our own adaptation of Playa to support whatever MOQ streaming formats customers want to experiment with. Our plans are to move to commercial availability of MOQ on our Red5 Cloud platform by sometime this summer. To learn more and sign-up for beta testing, use this link.

This space is moving quickly, and the best way to keep up is to participate in the very active MOQ community. I hope what I’ve listed here helps.