choppy video playback (NetStream)

[Boxing_Boom]

Hi All,

Does anyone know what is best practice for buffering video playback? To prevent choppy playback?

Using NetStream etc...

Any help appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Boxing Boom

[kglad]

detect the user's download speed, your videos bitrate and don't start your video playing until you're confident the user's download speed will keep up the the remaining video that's to be loaded.

[Boxing_Boom]

Hi Kglad,

Thanks for your reply; a sample of code would be a real bonus ;)

Kind Regards,

Boxing Boom

[kglad]

you're welcome.

i don't know the code off the top of my head or i would give it to you. but using the onmetadata event's databitrate, you can determine the videos bitrate. using the netstream's bytesloaded property you can determine the user's download speed. and with those two pieces of info you can determine if the video can stream without stuttering or if you need to buffer some video. and if you need to buffer some video, how much to buffer.

[Boxing_Boom]

Hi,

Wouldn't it be an easier route; if we could just buffer the stream untill it's ready to play all of the video? And have a spinning mc displayed untill it was ready to play in full?

I'd like to know your thoughts Kglad, on how good a technique this may be, and possibly how to code this up ;)

stream.pause();
stream.bufferTime = stream.bufferLength;
stream.resume();

Or maybe this? As follows?

function statusHandler(event:NetStatusEvent):void
{
switch (event.info.code)
{
case "NetStream.Buffer.Empty":
spinning_mc.visible = true;
stream.pause();
break;
case "NetStream.Buffer.Full":
spinning_mc.visible = false;
stream.resume();
break;
}
}


Is it along the lines of code provided?


Kind Regards,

Boxing Boom

[kglad]

that's not what i was thinking but if it works, great. does it work?

[rob day]

I use this which gets kilobits per second after the file referenced in the parameter is loaded.

[Boxing_Boom]

Hi All,

Sorry for the delayed response ;)

Kglad, no I have not tested at present, but will be working on this next week (Monday) and will post my efforts 😉 I will, however try to code what you mentioned about detecting the user's download speed etc...

Rob, thanks for sharing your code; I will certainly look into it, and see if it helps my situation.

Have a great weekend.

Kind Regards,

Boxing Boom

[Andrei1-bKoviI]

If you are streaming from FMS there is bandwidth detection routine on the server that you can call from you code - no work around needed.