CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlhtml5-video
Zopiro
Zopiro

Reputation: 89

How do I prevent HTML5 video from buffering the entire video once you click play?

Is there a way to control how much of the file will be buffered ahead, once you click play, much like Youtube once did?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3441

Answers (3)

Svetlin Mladenov
Svetlin Mladenov

Reputation: 4427

If you use the built-in video support in the browser then there is no way to control the amount of data that's being buffered. It depends on the browser implementation and there is no API to control it.

Browser implementations are quite good and typically a browser buffers just a small portion of the video before playback begins. Browsers don't download the whole file. However if a file gets completely downloaded by the browser before playback begins then possible causes include:

  • Maybe the file is very small and the browser has decided to buffer the whole file in memory.
  • Maybe the header of the file (required to initialize the video decoder) is not at the start of the file but at the end and the browser has to download the whole file until it reaches it. This is uncommon nowadays but old video encoders used to place the mp4 header at the end of the file instead of at the beginning because it simplified the encoder's implementation.
  • I've noticed that browsers behave oddly if an mp4 file doesn't have a segment index (used for seeking) in its header. Some browsers download the whole file so that they can build a segment index themselves.
  • If your server is old/misconfigured then the browser may decide that range requests are not supported and download the whole file (or disable seeking).

If you require to control the buffered amount before playback begins then you have to use a more sophisticated protocol (MPEG-DASH, HLS) and a javascript player that allows you to control this parameter. Youtube use MPEG-DASH and have their own player that they've developed over the years.

Upvotes: 2

Alexander Wolf
Alexander Wolf

Reputation: 604

Like mylescc mentioned, preventing the video element from buffering might not be possible, without a workaround (described in a similar posting). However, depending on your use case, you can also make use of existing player implementations, which provide this functionality, like the bitmovin player, dash.js, etc.

Upvotes: 1

mylescc
mylescc

Reputation: 6859

I'm pretty sure you c an't stop the HTML5 video from buffering the entire video, but here is a useful link for working out how much of the video has been buffered.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Build/Audio_and_video_delivery/buffering_seeking_time_ranges

Upvotes: 1

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