mp4 won't buffer...

[jfharper]

I encoded my mp4 with handbrake, then ran it through mp4box cuz I read somewhere something needed to be fixed in the mp4 file this way. I've tested the file from the web and the video starts then pauses on 1 second until the rest of the video downloads.

Is there something else I'm supposed to set in the web page code or on the server so that the video buffers better? I think I remember reading something about an MIME type or something? Can't recall.

Before I did the above procedure, the video would not even play the one second...it would be black until the entire video downloaded, then would play...so the mp4box runthough did something...just not enough...can anyone help...thanks.

[Baldrick]

Did you run it through mp4box with the -hint option?

mp4box -hint video.mp4

And in handbrake can you select "web optimized" and it should buffer. At least when I tried a couple of years ago.

[jfharper]

Did you run it through mp4box with the -hint option?

mp4box -hint video.mp4

And in handbrake can you select "web optimized" and it should buffer. At least when I tried a couple of years ago.

Thanks for the reply, I just tried both of those suggestions with no change in buffer behavior. Is there a way to see if the atom/moov has been placed properly...like open the mp4 in a text editor or sorts and see if it is correctly placed?

[Baldrick]

I don't know. I use an older ffmpeg and mp4box with -hint and it works perfect.

You could try freemake video converter. It even makes a html page and include the flash player.

[jfharper]

OK, I tried freemake video converter and the video plays the same...it will buffer the first second, then pause until the entire rest of the video downloads (14 seconds total) before resuming play...maybe I could try your settings, or try a link to one of your videos, or maybe could you make a short 10 second video for me...then I could put on my webserver and see if it is the webserver's fault? I would need to also test a copy of this 10 second video from your webserver too, to be sure the video plays properly. If you are not into this, no worries...thanks.

[aedipuss]

if you can find it - qtindexswapper2 will re-write the mov atom to the correct place to stream.

[jfharper]

I thought that is what mp4box did?

Also, if it starts to stream, but stops at 1 second, wouldn't this mean that my video is in fact streaming? (I can see the download indicator ahead of the play scrub when at 1 second...the play scrub is at 2 seconds, so the download is staying ahead of the scrub).

I just can't figure why it pauses playing at 1 second until the rest of the vid downloads...then it resumes.

[Baldrick]

Try convert with something else and see if you get same behavior. There are several free mp4 h264 converters out there. Like ffmpeg, xmedia recode, freemake video converter, avidemux, etc.

[jfharper]

OK...I'll try that.

[jfharper]

OK, I tried qtindexswapper2 and got these results:
OK, here are the results I got:
Version: v2.3.1
Atom Metadata: [code: ftyp,size: 20,offset: 0]
Atom Metadata: [code: moov,size: 8271,offset: 20]
Atom Metadata: [code: mdat,size: 893584,offset: 8291]
Atom Metadata: [code: free,size: 69,offset: 901875]
ERROR: MOOV is in proper place, processing not needed.
Completed Time: 0.031s

so my guess is the moov is in the right place.

could the i-frame or p-frame or whatever those are called cause the problem I an having? Maybe I ought to change one of these settings for the mp4...but I don't know what those settings are.

[jfharper]

OK...I fixed it...it was a dynamic buffering setting with the flash player I am using...(Strobe Media Playback). I guess it will adjust the streaming content based upon bandwidth and try to optimize the buffering...there is a setting to turn this off...I had tried that yesterday but mispelled the variable, then fixed it again this morning to a new misspelling, and then again to the correct spelling (sheesh) where now the video does not pause at 1 second and continues to buffer properly...thanks for all your help.

[Baldrick]

And thanks for posting your solution. It might help others who search.