Question

I am trying to setup progressive download of an mp4 file from aws cloudfront to support apple mobile devices.

I have created the mp4 with moov atom at the beginning of the file. I am testing the setup using flowplayer + pseudostreaming plugin and their ipad javascript. The player plays it but I am facing one problem, random seeks doesnt seem to work. Everytime I do that the video just restart even though the scrub bar moves to the new position and the time get updated. I seem to happen only on flash flowplayer(firefox, chrome, android+flash). I tried it on an iphone an its working fine.

So now I am wondering what is causing this problem. Is it an issues with cloudfront or something to do with flowplayer settings.

The following is the flowplayer code I am using

$f("player", "flowplayer-3.2.8-dev.swf", {

    // configure clip to use "lighthttpd" plugin for providing video data
    clip: {
        url: 'http://dzvbjmdzl8dz8.cloudfront.net/test_moov.mp4',
        provider: 'pseudostream',
        autoPlay: true
    },

    // streaming plugins are configured normally under the plugins node
    plugins: {
        pseudostream: {
            url: 'flowplayer.pseudostreaming-3.2.8-dev.swf'
        }
    }
}).ipad();

The cloudfront distribution I am using is a normal download distribution.

Answer 1

I am using CloudFront the same way with MP4 H.264 encoded videos without a problem.

To make sure the moov atom is really at the beginning of the file I suggest using the qt-faststart (part of FFMPEG).