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Hi guys. I notice on iPad the player downloads chunks of the episode during playback rather than the entire episode. That’s actually a good thing. This way people aren’t downloading an episode 3 times when they only watch it once….in case they watch an episode across 3 sessions for example.
But I notice on my Mac it doesn’t do that. It appears to download the entire file during playback. Is there a way to force range request playback, the way it operates on iPad? I only ask because it will help save bandwidth costs on episodes that get provided via CDN rather than VimeoPro.
Thanks a lot, and thanks for everything you do. Take care
Tim
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Hi Tim,
You want to use HLS and RTMP if you want streaming rather than progressive downloads. Please check our guides. Let us know if you have any questions afterwards.
Thanks,
Alec
Thanks for the reply.
I’m not necessarily looking for streaming, I’m looking for range request progressive playback. The trouble with HLS is that it’s only natively supported on Apple devices. On non-apple devices, it needs Flash in order to run. Even googles latest Android release doesn’t seem to support HLS natively. And Flash is no longer available on Android. RTMP is natively supported in Android, but it doesn’t run on iOS. The only true universal playback is HTTP protocol, playing MP4 files.
What I’m looking for is the same behavior on a desktop as what is already happening on an iPad over HTTP protocol. It downloads a chunk of the object (episode) during playback. When the user gets closer to playing up to the chunk that has been downloaded, the player downloads another “chunk” of the episode, etc. Since this seems to already be “normal” behavior in your player (on iPad) I was wondering if there’s a way to have it behave the same way on a desktop.
Thanks again
Tim
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the feedback.
We’ll think about it. There is no universal playback format (hence why YouTube still has about seven different streams available, albeit some are just size variations).
Even Vimeo has four different versions (3 x .mp4, 1 x .m3u8 HLS for streaming).
Making the web work for you, Alec
Thanks Alec. I wasn’t being literal when I said “universal”. What I mean is HTTP/.mp4 is the most widely supported combination.
Just to be clear, this is something your player already seems to do…but only on iPad, it seems. Since the player already does it (on iPad) was wondering if the same can be done on desktops.
Anyway, thanks
Tim
Hi Alec. A little development. First, I have to say whenever I experiment with different video delivery strategies I continue to be amazed by the versatility of your player. Really incredible work you guys have done here.
In case someone else should contact you and ask for help about a similar scenario as I had, you might want to tell them that they can use HLS as the main video source, then add another video format in the shortcode editor, and put a standard MP4 source there. I’ve done that, and the HLS source plays on mac and iOS (of course), while on Android, which doesn’t support HLS, it plays the MP4 without an issue..even with quality selection. The best part is with the FLowplayer 6 core, non-mac desktops with Flash will also play the HLS. Thought that might be of help and interest to you, should someone else have a similar “problem”
Again, really nice work you guys have done on this player. It’s a gem.
Tim
Actually one more development, maybe you can help me with. I notice when I use a VimeoPro HLS source, it does range request (it doesn’t download the whole file, it streams in segments). When I use an HLS source from my CDN, it downloads the whole thing during playback. I know my CDN supports range requests, so I don’t know why the player downloads the entire HLS content, while it doesn’t do that with VimeoPro HLS sources
Also a more critical problem: When I test in Firefox, the player says “Flash: Video file not found” and the lower left of the player says “…click player to enable flash”. I click it but nothing happens. In firefox it does not revert to the alternative video source instead (the MP4), as it does in Android. It just fails to load or play any video.
Sorry, I should have tested in Firefox before sending my last message. I just assumed Firefox would play it without issue.
Thanks a lot. Sorry for any hassle.
Tim
