Streaming & Delivery
Manifest File
A small text file listing a stream's available quality levels and where to find each one's video segments.
A manifest is the map your player app reads before it downloads any actual video. In HLS, this is the M3U8 file; in MPEG-DASH, it's an MPD file. Either way, the manifest describes what quality levels exist and points to the segment files for each, letting the player make an informed adaptive bitrate decision before a single frame is downloaded.