Video doesn't start playing unless it is fully downloaded

ali_serhal

I have files.gallery installed on raspberry pi running Nginx and PHP. I have a mounted external drive containing several mp4 files. Files.gallery player won't start playing large mp4 files unless they are fully downloaded. Is there a solution for such behavior? I enable byte range on nginx; whenever I access the media directly, it plays like a charm through files.gallery it keeps loading until the file is fully downloaded

Karl

I need to see a link. If the video doesn't start playing, it would mean that content-length or some other header is missing. Files gallery doesn't load videos in any special way ... Video just loads it into browser, like on any other website, and the video will play before fully downloaded as long as correct headers are included.

You can see this in our demo (use Chrome network throttling if necessary). And it works the same if the video is accessed from Files or directly in browser:
https://demo.files.gallery/?samples/video#pid=Sample1280.mp4
https://demo.files.gallery/content/samples/video/Sample1280.mp4

ali_serhal

The issue appears when I use an absolute path in the config option root. The response status will become 200 instead of 206.
CASE#1: (No root option provided or using a subdirectory)

CASE#2: (an absolute path used in the config option root "/media/usb/")

Karl

ali_serhal The issue appears when I use an absolute path in the config option root. The response status will become 200 instead of 206.

Ok, so you are pointing to folders outside of the web root, which means Files gallery will need to proxy the file through PHP, instead of loading the mp4 directly in browser. I have setup a test folder, and it works fine here on our server:
https://www.files.gallery/tests/

Also locally:

What browser is that? Try Chrome?
Related to video-encoding? See post on Stackoverflow.
Your server does not support HTTP_RANGE? Necessary to accept range requests. Yes it may still work, but that would be the browser.
Can you send a sample video here?

Not really much we can do from Files gallery, as it's something between browser vs server vs video-encoding. Surely you should expose your video files directly within the web root if you want them to be accessible directly by mp4?

ali_serhal

Sorry, my bad it turned out that I've enabled disable cache on my chrome browser and this is what caused the issue and forced the browser to download the whole video before playing it.
Thanks, Karl for your support.

Labushuya

Hello Karl,

Sorry for upping this old topic again. But after various tries, I have achieved that my media files will be recognized. I have a similar setup like ali_serhal:

However, for me I was only able to see my media files, by changing the root to something like '../../../../media'

But now I am having similar issue with the videos only being loaded when buffered or similar. As I am having huge video files this does somehow defeat the purpose of having a gallery app.

I am not sure whether the provided steps of yours will also help with my issue, but given my initial description, I have extended my root folder to the path above. I hooked up an external HDD with all the media files and end up with massive loading times, if even.

I am not sure how content-header here is the reason as I am using normal video formats and encoding, but the duration of these videos seem to be a problem (drone videos with durations of a few minutes, no movies or alike).

So in fact (as per my understanding) I am not pointing to folders outside the web root as I have extended the web root (since the steps for hooking up external storage did not work for me as you have instructed).

I really hope you can assist me in this regards or provide a step-by-step setup on how to do these things.

Best regards,
Labushuya

Karl

Labushuya I am reading your post, but I'm struggling to understand what the problem is. Do you mean your video files only start playing after they are fully downloaded into browser? This itself isn't related to "massive loading" times. Your videos could be slow for a number of different reasons. Do you have a link to your gallery so I can test? Send to email link at bottom of the page if it's private.

If your video files are loading directly in browser, then they will load and display as fast as they can, depending on your server or network. If the files must download entirely in browser before starting, it could mean your server is not configured correctly to send necessary video headers.

Mareks

Its not a gallery issue. If you want to watch large videos like in youtube, you need to implement some "buffer queue".
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6914912/streaming-a-large-file-using-php
I implemented something like this myself, because, most of the times, streaming videos are way better for user experience. But make sure, when video file is being saved, server has eniought "horse power" to proccess this in the background.

Karl

Mareks Why stream through PHP in the first place though? Why not just serve the file directly to browser? If your server is properly configured, modern browsers will do the best job possible of serving "partial content" chunks to the browser. Why would PHP be required? The post you are referring to is more than 10 years old, and isn't specifically related to "video" streaming, but outputting a massive file through PHP which otherwise would cause a timeout in browser.

For "streaming" videos from normal servers, there is a format called HLS, which essentially creates a "playlist" from the video split into chunks. I might soon add support for this in Files Gallery. Some info here:
https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js

Youtube is something entirely different, created and developed by the biggest company on earth, specifically to stream videos. It does something similar to HLS.

Mareks

Karl I just gave example and https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js you can implement. You need to have some video chunk/buffer feature, because browser downloads full video and thats what we dont want.

Karl

Mareks I just gave example and https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js you can implement.

Yes, this is a solution that allows the frontend Html/Javascript to stream modern playlist/streaming formats like m3u8.

Mareks You need to have some video chunk/buffer feature, because browser downloads full video and thats what we dont want.

Not if you stream the mp4 format directly. It will play progressively as it downloads.

I won't be building a PHP video-streamer feature (if you can even call it that). This isn't useful, nobody else does this ...

stephaneriel72

Hi Karl, same problem here, both on Chrome and Edge, the mp4 must be fully downloaded before it starts playing and there is no longer any control to forward or rewind the mp4, it doesn't want to. It worked in previous versions of Files Gallery.

Karl

stephaneriel72 Nothing changed with videos in Files Gallery. If you have a link, I can diagnose. If not, then I can't. Your server is misconfigured or you are proxying the video through PHP because it's not inside the document root. 100% sure.

If you have a link, I can show you. If you don't, then you'll just have to take my word for it.

stephaneriel72

My server is local and I can't make it public, my ISP doesn't allow it, but why did it work before the update then? Like the custom.css file which still doesn't work on a Windows server...

Karl

stephaneriel72 Like the custom.css file which still doesn't work on a Windows server...

I just discovered that this is a bug, which specifically affects Windows servers. For the LOGIN page, the Config::$document_root variable was not yet created, and therefore the calculated root path for custom.css was returning false. On non-Windows, it seemed to work, because it just returned the relative path. Anyway, this will be fixed in next release.

stephaneriel72 but why did it work before the update then?

However, the above only affected the login page, and certainly does not affect mp4 videos. In fact, Files Gallery just loads the video source into <video src="PATH.MP$"> and that's it ... If your video does not play before loading completely, it means either ONE of the following must be true:

Your server doesn't send content-length or content-range headers, necessarily to load 206 partial content.
Or you are proxying the video via PHP. This would happen if your video is not in the servers document root.
Server streams partial content, necessary to display the video

You can check if PHP is proxying the file by opening browser developer tools > network, reloading page and clicking the video. What does the loading url for video look like? When loading files directly, which would be necessary, it would look like this. As you can see, combined with correct headers, it outputs multiple partial responses.

stephaneriel72

I Karl, see the pîcture...

stephaneriel72

if i disable the proxy_php in config.php, i have this result... video don't start.

Karl

stephaneriel72 Ok, so this is your problem then. In the last screenshot, try to right-click the video (red text) and "open in new tab" ... Your server is blocking the video for some reason. The question is why?

Although load_files_proxy_php can bypass blocked files, it's not as effective as loading files directly into browser, especially for video progressive loading. The question is, why can't the video be played on your server without PHP proxy? Are you using symlinks that point to locations on the server that is outside the document root perhaps?

stephaneriel72

Hi Karl, well, I reinstalled everything, Apache24, PHP, EVERYTHING, under Windows 10, well you know what? Everything works... the login (background), the videos, EVERYTHING. The only thing I had to do was disable the load_files_proxy_php. That's all. A server under Linux and a server under Windows are completely different...

Karl

stephaneriel72 Hi Karl, well, I reinstalled everything, Apache24, PHP, EVERYTHING, under Windows 10, well you know what? Everything works... the login (background), the videos, EVERYTHING.

Do you know what changed? PHP version perhaps?

Keep in mind, your issues with custom.css and progressive video loading was two completely different issues. The issue with Login+custom.css was something related to Windows and/or old PHP version, which I now have fixed. Your issue with video loading, was because you had load_files_proxy_php enabled, and this method isn't effective for serving large video files, because it can't output "partial content". Your files should be accessible directly, but you had some 404 error response on the file.

stephaneriel72 A server under Linux and a server under Windows are completely different...

I thought you reinstalled on Windows, and now it works ... Yes, there are some differences, but it's not completely different.

stephaneriel72

Karl all work, video and the custom.css loading, i don't change the Apache version and php is same, but in another directory, like c:\php , not in c:\php84, I saw differences just because I installed in a different directory. There were also problems with mklink under Windows, because the first letter of the directory was in capital letters or other small details that I did not notice, I even recovered control of the videos....