Webmaster forum - mpeg problem

Author

mpeg problem

Chris Hope

2005-07-29, 12:00 am

I have a customer with a promotional site at www.rabbi.co.nz

There's an mpeg embedded into the page but for some reason when you view
it, it stops playing it around 70% of the way through (and the
slider/timer thing is at the end).

He's asked me why it would be doing that but I have no idea and haven't
had any experience with embedding media in webpages to date. If you
wait for the whole thing to download, or play it later when it's been
cached it works fine but if you start playing it while it's still
downloading it it has this issue.

Anyone have any ideas why this might be happening or what the solution
is?

I've tested this on my local network which is set up the same as the
online server and there's no issue, but then the media file loads in
much faster than over the net so it's more like it being cached.

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com

Disco Octopus

2005-07-29, 12:00 am

Chris Hope

2005-07-29, 12:01 am

Disco Octopus wrote:

> Chris Hope wrote :
>
> No idea why its doing that! But, bloody funny video! LMAO

Yeah it's a good 'un!

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com

Norman L. DeForest

2005-07-29, 4:17 am

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Chris Hope wrote:

> Disco Octopus wrote:
>
>
> Yeah it's a good 'un!

Well, there is no difference for me using my favourite browser (Lynx
running on my ISP's server) for either of the links (since I end up
downloading the file in either case) but the download is very sluggish.
(A download for me is in two stages: (1) Lynx downloads the file to a
temporary file on my ISP's server (and reports its progress) then
(2) It offers me a menu to select the destination (save to a file or
download with Kermit or ZModem) and I can then download from my ISP's
server to my home PC.

The initial download takes a long time with some multi-second pauses
during the download. Those pauses may be the cause of the problem.

Some screenshots showing the time displayed at the bottom of the screen[1]
with "...." separating the screenshots and some blank lines removed (I
started taking screen-shots in the middle of the "TIME 12:53" period when
I saw how slow the download was. The rest of the screen-shots were within
two or three seconds of the time or display changing.):

................................................................................
Rabbi Ishmaels - Kosher - Root Canal - Dating Service - Strip Club - Surgery

[1] [LINK]-[2] [IMAGE] [3] [LINK]-[4] [IMAGE]
[5] [LINK]-[6] [IMAGE]
Had a Laugh?? Tell a friend - Your Name ____________________ Friends
Email ____________________ [7] [IMAGE]-Submit
[8] [INLINE]
[9] [LINK]-[10] [IMAGE]

[11] [EMBED]

(Note: Movie may take a while to download depending
on your internet connection speed - its worth the wait!
If it doesn't play in full download it by clicking below)

[12] [LINK]-[13] [IMAGE]

[14] [LINK]-[15] [IMAGE]
[snip some blank lines]

Read 420480 of 2649360 bytes of data.
TIME 12:53
................................................................................
[snip]
Read 633640 of 2649360 bytes of data.
TIME 12:54
................................................................................
[snip]
Read 1023460 of 2649360 bytes of data.
TIME 12:55
................................................................................
[snip]
Read 1575340 of 2649360 bytes of data.
TIME 12:56
................................................................................
[snip]
Read 2156420 of 2649360 bytes of data.
TIME 12:57
................................................................................
Lynx Download Options

Download Options (Lynx Version 2.7.1ac-0.102+intl+csuite)

You have the following download choices.
Please select one:

[1] Save to your Chebucto home directory
[2] Use Kermit to send to your computer
[3] Use Zmodem to send to your computer
[4] Use Zmodem to send to your computer (over telnet)

[snip some blank lines]

LYNXDOWNLOAD://Method=-1/File=/tmp/L8359-11TMP.mpeg/SugFile=rabbi.mpg
TIME 12:57
................................................................................
[after ZModem download:]
................................................................................
[snip]
LYNXDOWNLOAD://Method=1/File=/tmp/L8359-11TMP.mpeg/SugFile=rabbi.mpg
TIME 1:21
................................................................................

.... And, yes, it *was* funny and worth the 24-minute download.

[1] Using my on-screen clock routine, SHOWTIME.COM while logged in with
a text-based terminal program:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/Tips.html#ShTime
--
Windows is *not* a "Toy OS". A screenshot of my current desktop:
<http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/My...Jun-22-2005.gif> Want a desktop
like that? (change ".zip" to ".gif" or "-files.gif" to see zip contents):
<http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/EtchASketch.zip>

Charles Sweeney

2005-07-29, 7:24 pm

Chris Hope wrote

> Disco Octopus wrote:
>
> Yeah it's a good 'un!

I saw it with the sound off, so I must have missed the funny parts.

I got the same problem that you described.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

Chris Hope

2005-07-29, 7:24 pm

Norman L. DeForest wrote:

>
> On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Chris Hope wrote:
>
>
> Well, there is no difference for me using my favourite browser (Lynx
> running on my ISP's server) for either of the links (since I end up
> downloading the file in either case) but the download is very
> sluggish. (A download for me is in two stages: (1) Lynx downloads the
> file to a temporary file on my ISP's server (and reports its progress)
> then (2) It offers me a menu to select the destination (save to a file
> or download with Kermit or ZModem) and I can then download from my
> ISP's server to my home PC.
>
> The initial download takes a long time with some multi-second pauses
> during the download. Those pauses may be the cause of the problem.

[snip]

What sort of connection are you on? Even on dialup that seems quite
slow. It's about 2MB in size. Thanks for all your efforts :)

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com

William Tasso

2005-07-29, 7:24 pm

Writing in news:alt.www.webmaster
From the safety of the Ihug Ltd cafeteria
Chris Hope <blackhole@electrictoolbox.com> said:

> Norman L. DeForest wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> What sort of connection are you on? Even on dialup that seems quite
> slow. It's about 2MB in size. Thanks for all your efforts :)

I'm on a fairly decent cable link. The in-page view just wouldn't load
for me.

Download to local appeared to work just fine.

Bl**dy funny too :)

--
William Tasso

** Business as usual

Norman L. DeForest

2005-07-29, 7:24 pm

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Chris Hope wrote:

> Norman L. DeForest wrote:
[snip]
>
> [snip]
>
> What sort of connection are you on? Even on dialup that seems quite
> slow. It's about 2MB in size. Thanks for all your efforts :)

I'm using a dialup connection (14.4kb modem) with a terminal account but
that is not the problem.

The slow download I was commenting about is the download from the source
server to my ISP's system *before* I get the option to download the file
to my machine. Downloads from other places to my ISP's server can be
500KB to 1MB per second so that's not the bottleneck. The source server
either doesn't have enough bandwidth, is too busy serving other files to
other users, or has some other reason for the slowdown or the pipe
between it and my ISP may be congested by other traffic.

Step 1: the file is downloaded to my ISP via TCP and saved in a
temporary file:

+-------------+ +-----------------+ +---------------+
| my computer | | my ISP's server |<-----------| source server |
+-------------+ +-----------------+ +---------------+

Step 2: the temporary file is downloaded to my machine using ZModem:

+-------------+ +-----------------+ +---------------+
| my computer |<--------| my ISP's server | | source server |
+-------------+ +-----------------+ +---------------+

Step 1 is the bottleneck.

--
Windows is *not* a "Toy OS". A screenshot of my current desktop:
<http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/My...Jun-22-2005.gif> Want a desktop
like that? (change ".zip" to ".gif" or "-files.gif" to see zip contents):
<http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/EtchASketch.zip>

arccos

2005-07-29, 7:24 pm

Chris Hope wrote:
> I have a customer with a promotional site at www.rabbi.co.nz
>
> There's an mpeg embedded into the page but for some reason when you view
> it, it stops playing it around 70% of the way through (and the
> slider/timer thing is at the end).
>
> He's asked me why it would be doing that but I have no idea and haven't
> had any experience with embedding media in webpages to date. If you
> wait for the whole thing to download, or play it later when it's been
> cached it works fine but if you start playing it while it's still
> downloading it it has this issue.
>
> Anyone have any ideas why this might be happening or what the solution
> is?
>
> I've tested this on my local network which is set up the same as the
> online server and there's no issue, but then the media file loads in
> much faster than over the net so it's more like it being cached.
>

At work, so I can't view the video. But based upon what everyone here
has mentioned, I might be able to help with my limited knowledge of
streaming. MPEG is a very tricky format to work with. Different players
will produce different results, and different streaming methods will
produce different results. My guess is here that part of the MPEG is
corrupted. It cannot error correct itself while streaming, so it just
stops. The same thing can happen with Real media.

I would first try re-uploading the MPEG from the original source, and
if that doesn't help, run it through an MPEG video analyzer and see if
there are any bad frames, missing key frames, or errors in it. And
double check it was uploaded in binary format instead of ascii, too.

-Arccos

--
http://www.landoflyrics.com - Land of Lyrics

Chris Hope

2005-07-29, 7:25 pm

arccos wrote:

>
> Chris Hope wrote:
>
> At work, so I can't view the video. But based upon what everyone here
> has mentioned, I might be able to help with my limited knowledge of
> streaming. MPEG is a very tricky format to work with. Different
> players will produce different results, and different streaming
> methods will produce different results. My guess is here that part of
> the MPEG is corrupted. It cannot error correct itself while streaming,
> so it just stops. The same thing can happen with Real media.

The progress bar across the bottom actually gets to the end, so it's
like it seems to think the file is smaller/shorter than it actually is.
As I mentioned originally, once it's cached it works fine.

> I would first try re-uploading the MPEG from the original source, and
> if that doesn't help, run it through an MPEG video analyzer and see if
> there are any bad frames, missing key frames, or errors in it. And
> double check it was uploaded in binary format instead of ascii, too.

I md5sum checksummed the version on the server with my local version and
they match so the files are identical, and the file works fine when
testing via the same web server but on my local network.

I'll make your other suggestions to my customer though. Thanks.

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com

Chris Hope

2005-07-29, 7:25 pm

Norman L. DeForest wrote:

>
> On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Chris Hope wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> I'm using a dialup connection (14.4kb modem) with a terminal account
> but that is not the problem.
>
> The slow download I was commenting about is the download from the
> source server to my ISP's system *before* I get the option to download
> the file
> to my machine. Downloads from other places to my ISP's server can be
> 500KB to 1MB per second so that's not the bottleneck. The source
> server either doesn't have enough bandwidth, is too busy serving other
> files to other users, or has some other reason for the slowdown or the
> pipe between it and my ISP may be congested by other traffic.
>
> Step 1: the file is downloaded to my ISP via TCP and saved in a
> temporary file:
>
> +-------------+ +-----------------+
> +---------------+
> | my computer | | my ISP's server |<-----------| source server
> | |
> +-------------+ +-----------------+
> +---------------+
>
> Step 2: the temporary file is downloaded to my machine using ZModem:
>
> +-------------+ +-----------------+
> +---------------+
> | my computer |<--------| my ISP's server | | source server
> | |
> +-------------+ +-----------------+
> +---------------+
>
> Step 1 is the bottleneck.

Thanks!

--
Chris Hope | www.electrictoolbox.com | www.linuxcdmall.com