mp4 progressive download question
 

i have somebody encoding promo mp4 videos for me, problem is the flash player isn't beginning to play them until the entire file downloads. i looked around and i guess the movie atom is at the end of these files.

is there some software i can get to place the atom at the beginning of the mp4's.

and what encoder software lets you set the atom at the beginning?

thanks

most encoders have a setting for mp4 streaming mode that needs to be activated, its actually a flaw in the mp4 container

there is a small, free program to move it in an existing file, let me look it up...

oh nice :thumbsup

Use wowza. Which I know you already have ;)

When you use a streaming server, i dont believe thats an issue no?

Have you used this recently? I believe when I launched my last site, i tried that out and no luck. And its a pretty basic program so I definitely did it right

it still is... file needs to be encoded correctly.

otherwise the filesize information is at the end of the file

i used it long ago, since then i encode my files correctly :winkwink:

Well I am 99 percent sure I solved my issue by just using wowza, i remember going through a bunch of those little programs trying to put the information at the beginning and none of them were working so i just used the streaming software and it worked. I am using an mp4 trailer as we speak too

if Wowza solves that issue... good

but most encoding programs i know also have a checkbox for mp4 streaming mode

Does Premiere CS5 also?

Ill check that out next time.

I just checked the video in question. The video is just too big, it does start trying to play right away but its playing faster than we're downloading so its lagging.

You need to compress it more, or add a longer buffer time. However I suggest more compression. Can't use videos that size in streaming

i am offering encoding service :glugglug

and btw - the profile (main/high etc.) is also important for streaming - especially on devices with older CPUs/graphics

dopey - i told you to look here http://www.catieminx.com/jwplayer - u can see that until the red bar completely reaches full length that the video won't play if u click the play button. the issue is definitely the mp4 not having the right metadata.

What software do you guys use for offline encoding? I'm using Telestream Episode which I think has the best h264 codec and they just released a new version, is it worth upgrading?

If you're encoding on linux with ffmpeg then just use qt-faststart.

https://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/...mpilationGuide

Pretty similar regardless of distro.

lol you showed me the video on your blog page first (turned out to be an flv)

Hope you figure it out because i tried using applications like the one he linked and no luck. Only way was a streaming server. If you figure it out, please let me know

Use mp4 fast start

:2 cents: And it's free.

That is what I use. Works like a charm.

If someone needs help with any of this hit me up. I'll walk you through it.

The "fast start" option is what you need to play without downloading the entire file.

If you want to seek within the video when using Flash you need either a streaming server like Wowza or a pseudo-streaming plugin/script for your web server.

if the file is big, it may also be useful to pre-buffer right after the page loads. when the user clicks play, the video has likely already buffered enough to start immediately.

that's for fixing existing mp4's - which encoder definitely has an mp4 streaming mode setting so i don't need to 'fix' them after they're encoded?

Why the aversion to just running a quick application to relocate the moov atom? When encoding, the metadata can't be inserted before encoding is complete since the final length and size of the video isn't yet known. Some encoders might automatically and seamlessly relocate the meta data after the encoding process but doing so is a distinct second step.

If you're encoding from the command line a simple ffmpeg -your -args -here;qt-faststart input.mp4 output.mp4 will do it all at once. There's a good python version of qt-faststart too if the original gives you troubles - https://github.com/danielgtaylor/qtfaststart

Unless you're encoding via the command line, I am not aware of a one-stop-shop to do it all. There may be something out there but I have not come across it.

I use Handbrake to create the mp4 videos, then I run them through MP4 Fast Start, which literally only takes a few seconds for each video. It's blazing fast and you can batch them. There are no settings to change. You just add the videos and press go.

If you have a Linux machine or a Mac with MP4Box installed it's a simple command

MP4Box -inter 500 filename.mp4

This will shift the MOOV Atom from the end to the start of the file.

You can do the same on a Windows machine , there's a compiled Windows MP4Box I supplied to someone else from GFY who asked about this recently here:

http://adultking.co.uk/software/MP4B....6-rev2735.zip

Just open a command window and type

MP4Box -inter 500 filename.mp4

It will update the MP4 file so that it plays quickly with progressive download.

Found mp4 in a thread you replied to on here some time ago - saved me a whole heap of heartache :thumbsup

Takes seconds to update the mp4 file and not sure if there is actually any program that does encode them on the fly.

Bazinga! Fast Start for the win. Its a nifty, fast working tool.