Seamless HTML5 Video Loop

Question

I have searched extensively to find a solution to this but have not succeeded. I have created a 4 second video clip that loops seamlessly in an editor. However when the clip runs in a page via Safari, Chrome or Firefox there is a small but noticeable pause in the playback from end back to beginning.

I have tried using the loop and preload attributes both together and independently.

I have also tried the following javascript:

loopVid.play();
loopVid.addEventListener("timeupdate", function() {
    if (loopVid.currentTime >= 4) {
        loopVid.currentTime = 0;
        loopVid.play();
    }
}

But in all cases the momentary pause remains and spoils the effect. I'm open to any ideas?

Answer 1

Since this question is a top search result in Google, but doesn't "technically" have an answer yet, I'd like to contribute my solution, which works, but has a drawback. Also, fair warning: my answer uses jQuery.

It seems the slight pause in the video loop is because it takes time for html5 video to seek from one position to another. So it won't help anything to try to tell the video to jump to the beginning when it ends, because the seek will still happen. So here's my idea:

Use javascript to clone the tag, and have the clone sit hidden, paused, and at the beginning. Something like this:

var $video = $("video");
var $clone = $video.clone();
$video.after($clone);

var video = $video[0];
var clone = $clone[0];

clone.hidden = true;
clone.pause();
clone.currentTime = 0;

Yes, I used clone.hidden = true instead of $clone.hide(). Sorry.

Anyway, after this the idea is to detect when the original video ends, and then switch to the clone and play it. That way there is only a change in the DOM as to which video is being shown, but there is actually no seeking that has to happen until after the clone starts playing. So after you hide the original video and play the clone, you seek the original back to the beginning and pause it. And then you add the same functionality to the clone so that it switches to the original video when it's done, etc. Just flip flopping back and forth.

Example:

video.ontimeupdate = function() {
    if (video.currentTime >= video.duration - .5) {
        clone.play();
        video.hidden = true;
        clone.hidden = false;
        video.pause();
        video.currentTime = 0;
    }
}

clone.ontimeupdate = function() {
    if (clone.currentTime >= clone.duration - .5) {
        video.play();
        clone.hidden = true;
        video.hidden = false;
        clone.pause();
        clone.currentTime = 0;
    }
}

The reason I add the - .5 is because in my experience, currentTime never actually reaches the same value as duration for a video object. It gets pretty close, but never quite there. In my case I can afford to chop half a second off the end, but in your case you might want to tailor that .5 value to be as small as possible while still working.

So here's my entire code that I have on my page:

!function($){
$(document).ready(function() {

$("video").each(function($index) {
    var $video = $(this);
    var $clone = $video.clone();
    $video.after($clone);

    var video = $video[0];
    var clone = $clone[0];

    clone.hidden = true;
    clone.pause();
    clone.currentTime = 0;

    video.ontimeupdate = function() {
        if (video.currentTime >= video.duration - .5) {
            clone.play();
            video.hidden = true;
            clone.hidden = false;
            video.pause();
            video.currentTime = 0;
        }
    }

    clone.ontimeupdate = function() {
        if (clone.currentTime >= clone.duration - .5) {
            video.play();
            clone.hidden = true;
            video.hidden = false;
            clone.pause();
            clone.currentTime = 0;
        }
    }

});

});
}(jQuery);

I hope this will be useful for somebody. It works really well for my application. The drawback is that .5, so if someone comes up with a better way to detect exactly when the video ends, please comment and I will edit this answer.