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rexdtripod
Known Participant
May 3, 2010
Question

Server side buffering settings for video

  • May 3, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 3046 views

I pump my video (both live streaming and VOD) through a popular CDN.  They control the server side (FMS) settings.  I can request that they change things and they do so and let me know when I can test.

I'm wondering about server side buffering settings.  Is there supposed to be some sort of coordination between the buffering settings there and the client side buffering settings I implement in my video player?

The reason I ask is I get wierd buffering behaviors in my client side player under certain conditions and there doesn't seem to be much to adjust there other than the NetStream.bufferTime property.

For instance, if I set the bufferTime property in my client viewer to 10 seconds, the player just seems to ignore it and starts playing the stream right away or within a second or two.  Other times I see crazy values in the bufferTime property, like 400 seconds (I check the property's value about every second).

I'm wondering if there are some FMS settings that are overriding or are not working well with my client side buffer settings.  Is this possible?

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    1 reply

    R
    rexdtripodAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 3, 2010

    The problem is completely reproducible.  If I go into my browser, clear my cache, and run my app, the the bufferTime property behaves properly and the video plays correctly.

    If I then hit the refresh button on the browser while the video is playing, the app reloads but the video begins playing immediately - no pause to fill the buffer.  The video then proceeds to play erratically.  And when I examine the bufferTime property values, there are bogus values in it (things like 40.345 when the buffer was set to 5 seconds).

    Are there Flash Media Server settings that might impact this.  I'm sort of desparate to try anything at this juncture.

    Any help appreciated.

    Thanks.

    A
    Anonymous
    May 3, 2010

    Hi,

    The bufferTime you set indicates just a minimum amount of video content that should be buffered to Flash Player before it can start playing. But reaching a very high value of buffer length may not be right.

    Which player version are you on? The server-side buffer settigs are more towards fine tuning the playback experience based on your network conditions.

    Please let me know

    Thanks

    Mamata

    R
    rexdtripodAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 3, 2010

    I'm on Flash Player version 10,0,2,54 but I'm testing this on any  number of machines (some hard line some AIR card, etc).  Each sees the  problem.

    Here's the bufferTime property at one second intervals  from my last run AFTER closing and relaunching my app, and NOT clearing  my cache.  My client side bufferTime is set to 5 seconds.  Note that  values 43.81, 43.689, and 43.367 are invalid values.  After three  seconds the bufferTime property fixed itself but the damage was done.   The player began displaying the stream as soon as it saw the 43.81.  It  thought the buffer was full.  It wasn't.

    Buffer empty:

    0.734

    1.251

    1.591

    1.902

    2.426

    2.975

    Buffer full:

    43.81

    43.689

    43.367

    1.985

    1.794

    1.402

    1.039

    1.101

    0.825

    0.607

    0.356

    Buffer empty:

    1.178

    1.902

    2.746

    3.529


    From that point forward, the playback  was erratic and there were more out of range values like above. 

    Invariably, if I then close the  browser, reopen it, CLEAR THE BROWSER CACHE, and relaunch, the buffer  behaves correctly - bufferLength shows no erratic values.  If I close  the app and relaunch WITHOUT clearing the cache, I get numbers like  above again.  This occurs in both IE and FireFox.

    There really isn't much in the way of  buffering settings client side to tweak.  I think the only thing you can  do is set the bufferLength property.

    Should I  be tweaking server side settings?  Are they even related in any way?

    I'm trying to get a link to a video  that you can hit to see the problem.

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