control buffer capacity ? (bufferLength not bufferTime)

[brk_so]

How is the maximum capacity of the buffer controlled ? How much can it contain ?

I`m not talking about bufferTime, but rather about bufferLength.

bufferTime sets up the minimum size of the buffer before the movie can play.

for example, if the bufferTime is 5 the video will not play unless the buffer has in store 5 seconds, but I`ve noticed that the buffer keeps filling up in the background (as long ofcourse as bandwidth kbit >playRate kbit) and what I am aiming at is understing how much it can contain and whether I can control it.

Optimally, for my own personal purposes I`d like to have a rather small bufferTime but I would like the buffer to fill up while the video plays with as much data as it can without limitations (again, possible as long as bandwidth is ahead of playRate)

There should be some info about it but I just cant find it in my searches, except this one by Robert Reinhardt which is wonderful but doesn`t answer this question.

Thanks in advance

[Richard_Lanham]

There is info in livedocs. bufferTime is a length of time. bufferLength is an amount of buffer.

http://www.adobe.com/livedocs/fms/2/docs/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00000579.html

http://www.adobe.com/livedocs/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/net/NetStream.html

I never see mention of bufferTime re streaming. bufferLength is more relevant. A bufferLength of 2 represents 2 seconds of play, but it might only take 1 second to fill.

Richard

[Richard_Lanham]

I’m really not sure. I use bufferLength because that is what is in all the Wowza examples and it is what is in JW Player for sure and Flowplayer I think.

You can experiment with to see what difference there is and if you can achieve what you want with one and/or the other.

Richard

[brk_so]

Hi Richard ,

Thanks for these links, they teach me that the way to increase buffer length is to increase bufferTime. Because buffer length would be the bigger between 2 options: 60 seconds or twice the size of bufferTime.

But, here is the big question:

Doesn`t bufferTime imply also a minimum limit ?

For example if I set a bufferTime of 40 seconds , My buffer may increse upto 80 seconds but doesn`t it mean as well that when the buffer drops underneath 40 the video will actually pause and wait for the 40 sec buffer to fill ? ( Which is actually not so good as one would want the buffer to be drained to 0 before the video must be actaually paused)

[brk_so]

Thanks , I will.