HTML 5 Video, Streaming / Buffering only a certain portion of a longer video

Question

We have a long piece of video, up to 1 hour long. We want to show users small 30 second chunks of this video. It's imperative that the video does not stutter at any point.

The user can't then jump around the rest of the video, they only see the 30 second chunk.

An example would be say, a football match, the whole match is on video but clicking a button in another page would load up the full video and play just a goal.

Is this possible with HTML5 Video? Would it have anything to do with TimeRanges? Does the video have to served over a pure streaming protocol? Can we buffer the full 30 second chunk before playing it?

The goal is to cut down on the workflow required to cut out all the little clips (and the time transcoding these to all the different HTML 5 video formats), we can just throw up a trans-coded piece of footage and send the user to a section of that footage.

Your thoughts and input are most welcome, thanks!

Answer 1

At this point in time HTML5 videos are a real PITA -- we have no real API to control the browser buffering, hence they tend to stutter on slower connections, as the browsers try to buffer intelligently, but usually do quite the opposite.

Additionally, if you only want your users to view a particular 30 second chunk of a video (I assume that would be your way of forcing users to registers to view the full videos), HTML5 is not the right choice -- it would be incredibly simple to abuse your system.

What you really need in this case is a decent Flash Player and a Media Server in the backend -- this is when you have full control.