[vlc-devel] httplive.c: Improvement for Prefetch function?

[Jeroen Ost]

>
>
> I think it might even be recommended to start with a very low bitrate
> alternative, then based on the speed it took upgrade to better quality
> (bandwidth). It is a kind of "fast start". The same behaviour is
> possible for seeking.
> Of course it might be anoying to have quality change/variation, so
> there is a tradeoff. I guess it should be an option for the end-user
> that would modify the heuristic. Some user might prefer quality over
> fast start (or reverse way).
>

I agree that an option would be best. You can not optimize for all use
cases and everyone by default.
I am trying to integrate VLC in a television-like application where fast
channel switching is important so I want the stream to start fast.
But I would not want to start on lower quality. Given that many internet
connections these days are faster than most reasonable stream bitrates (~
10Mbit).. I would want VLC to start playing even before the first segment
is downloaded completely (prefetch=0).


> > I'm also interested in making bandwidth adaptation better, although
> > massive changes in module might a little bit too much for me.
> > Currently I'm think about ways to speed up playbacks start in HLS. Do
> > you have any ideas other then related to Prefetch function?
>
> I'm very intested in this as well. I already lowered the number of
segments to prefetch from 2 to 1 but I would be interested in seeing this
patch that eliminates the need for Prefetch completely.
Prefetching an entire 10sec segment in 8mbit on a 10mbit connection takes a
full second and I would like playback to start to in <0.5 sec

Jeroen Ost
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