[vlc] Re: Timeout in live.com

[Peter Maersk-Moller]

Hi.

Jonas Larsen wrote:
> livedotcom warning: no data received in 900ms. Switching to TCP
> Can i control this timeout value somewhere in vlc?

One can always recompile ;-)

Anyway (to Ross F.) minimizing this delay is important to improve the experienced
feeling of quality. I personally don't particular like the long switching time
in the Quicktime player. To speed things up (and automating it), two strategies
can be suggested.

   a) Measure the the time it takes to establish the RTSP TCP-connection
      either by setting it up and tear it down with socket option SO_LINGER
      or by issuing a 'RTSP OPTIONS' command and measure the delay in the
      answer. The      first might be more reliable, the latter might be more
      inaccurate, since it might require a swapped out server to wake up. On
      the other hand, you get an indication of how long it takes before a PLAY
      should result in a stream - unless the server was swapped out. Alternatively,
      try a ping and measure the RTT - though a ping might be blocked.

   b) Cache information about using UDP or TCP linked to the server IP. Cache
      info should be grouped according to client network numbers (IP plus netmask)
      and used within that network. Cache info should time out within a
      day/week/moth/year depending on choice. RFC1918 client address needs to
      time out before next reboot (or network down in rare cases).
      Regardsless of cache value, it should still switch from UDP to TCP
      if a stream was not present within a timeout value.

That said, though I prefer UDP for aestetic reasons, living with Internet
designed by Bell-heads rather netneards and implemented with DSLAM/ATM
with practical no buffer ram and a rather fasistic dropping policy,
UDP streaming is a pain if you take it near the BW limit, and using
TCP by default often helps.

Kind regards

Peter Maersk-Moller
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Kabel-TV over Internettet   --   http://www.streamtv.dk/ |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

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