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rexdtripod
Known Participant
May 3, 2010
Question

Server side buffering settings for video

  • May 3, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 3044 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

    A
    Anonymous
    May 5, 2010

    I have to think of a way to do that.  The app is large with many integrated components.  I'm going to try to strip it down to something small enough to post here.  Please check back in to this thread because I really need another set of eyes on it.  I will try to post it tomorrow morning.

    You say you tried a similar app.  Were you playing the files from your server?  That's what I'm doing.  I'm using Stream.play() in my main.asc file on my server to play the file, and then connecting to that stream in my client player.

    I'm glad you saw the problem though.  I think it's a really interesting case.  I will post a player for you to test tomorrow morning.

    Thanks


    Yes I did play from the server -side (Stream.play( )) and subscribed to the livestream.

    Could you send in the usage in the server-side app too along with the stripped down player for me to look at?

    Thanks

    Mamata

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