Hi,

I've inserted the HTML5 video player in one of our pages and created a playlist of 3 videos created from my iPod Touch 4G (720p H.264 MOV video). The videos take a long time to start playing and the playback is very slow. What can be done to improve load and playback performance?

The videos can been seen at www.gssatrailriders.com/Past_Events/Photos_jan2_2011.html

-AJ

Edited by - Alan Udell on 08 Feb 2011  19:22:50

Hi Alan,

The default MOV files aren't streaming so they need to be downloaded before playing.

So you just need to re-encode them with Handbrake with Web Optimize on, see the explanation in our online manual, specially the basics tutorial at:

www.dmxzone.com/go?18294&LinkFile=the_basics_basic_html5.htm

Greetings,
George

Thanks George. I've converted all my MOV files to MP4 using Handbrake as per the instructions and placed the new videos in the HTML5 video player. Now Firefox (v3.6.13) displays a message "The media could not be loaded..." and IE (v8.0.6001.18702) just shows a black box. We're using Godaddy as the hosting provider.

www.gssatrailriders.com/Past_Events/Photos_jan2_2011.html

Any help is appreciated.
-AJ

PS - here's the contents of my web.config file (which is needed to handle mime types for godaddy hosted IIS7 sites). Note, I had to remove the mp4 mime type as it caused our site to crash on godaddy. I got the videos to play back in Firefox however IE still shows a black box.

<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<staticContent>
<mimeMap fileExtension=".ogv" mimeType="video/ogg" />
<mimeMap fileExtension=".webm" mimeType="video/webm"/>
<mimeMap fileExtension=".ogg" mimeType="audio/ogg" />
<mimeMap fileExtension=".oga" mimeType="audio/ogg" />
</staticContent>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

PS2 - Okay I got the MP4 videos to play in IE. I had encoded them wrong in Handbrake before.

I still find the video performance slow and sluggish even using the mp4, ogv, and webm encodes. Is there anything else I can do to improve video playback using this player?

Also, I noticed the player breaks the javascript that displays our top menu navigation links. I get a script error in IE when displaying the page.

www.gssatrailriders.com/Past_Events/Photos_jan2_2011.html

Any help is appreciated.
-AJ

PS3 - I solved the problem of inserting the video player control and breaking my javascript menu. I used an iFrame to display the video player which is embedded in a separate HTML file.

Sadly, I still find video performance slow and sluggish. I'd really appreciate some help resolving this problem.

-AJ

Hi Alan,

Actually your video is just sluggish ... I downloaded and played it in an normal player and it looks just as bad.

Seems you were a bit shaking while you took it and also the iPod Touch doesn't really have a video stabilization so you really need to keep very still or use a tripod.

Greetings,
George

Hi George,

It sounds like you misunderstood me. I wasn't referring to the shake in the video or my unsteady hand. I meant the video playback is choppy and slow when you click play and the spinning wait icon appears quite a lot. Is there a way to make the video stream smoother during playback using your video player. Perhaps preloading?

-AJ

Edited by - Alan Udell on 10 Feb 2011  18:05:05

Okay, problem solved. I uploaded my videos to YouTube and placed the URLs in HTML5 video player. Now the videos stream very smooth.

-AJ

Hello Alan,

The problem with the spinning wait icon may appear if your internet connection is either slow or you have problems with the connection.
If the movie bitrate you've uploaded is high, and your connection is slow this problem will appear.
Do you have any problems viewing this demo?: www.dmxzone.com/demo/HTML5VideoPlayer/demo-single/demo.html

Hi Teodor,

The demo plays very sluggish over our broadband connection. I assume HTML5 video player isn't buffering or preloading the video? Is there a way to preload for better playback?

-AJ

When I fired up Dreamweaver this morning, the Dmxzone updater notified me of the v1.0.1 update to HTML Video Player. Does this update improve the playback performance issues I've been reporting in this thread?

Also, after installing, how do I update my web files to include the new v1.0.1 player?

-AJ