Forum user: noc@connect2ccc.org

As of 3.1.3, using even the newest 3.1.4 js, if the player is loaded into a div that's css parameters contain visibility: hidden; at the time the player is loaded, i just get a black screen with a spinner once the css parameter is changed via javascript to make the div visible. This is a common method of creating panels with tabs or similar effects. Removing that parameter fixes it but makes it impossible to put a pre-loaded player on tabbed panels.

Even with the 3.1.2 or 3.1.4 js, I can still recreate this or maybe its a similar problem on my own site by putting IE8's Developer tools into "Always Refresh From Server" mode. I'd say the player loads correctly less than half the time. Usually without controls and/or without the background image.

I have a really hard time recreating these issues on the demo pages because most of them do not auto load the player but use a splash image place holder instead.

For 3.1.3-dev3 in the demo above look at the tool tip for the scrubber bar at a time just left of 0. I get crazy numbers like -1:0-1:0-1:0-9 on the tool tip.

I still see it happening if i skip to maybe 3:42 or even 3:00. After about 10 seconds or else whenever the video fully loads, the buffer bar does pop up suddenly as if its appearance just got delayed, taking much longer to appear that it does at the start of a video.

It is interesting that if you then seek a tiny bit further into the area where the buffer should be visible, it does not start a new download so clearly it is working, just not showing the buffered area, and when you do this, the buffered area suddenly appears again.

This is not a huge deal. I can live with it.

I tested out this newest dev and it is working very well. The timeBgColor: 'transparent' looks perfect. Thank you!!

With this dev version, thats about half the problem fixed! It does only allow you to drag to the end of the bar now, but the button left edge problem, the buffer bar drawing after seek issue, and the other stuff is all there. So on my original list, 1, 2, and 4 are fixed now.

While you're in there tweaking it, can you make it so that when you specify a height for the time indicator window (tube skin), if you specify 0 (zero) the time indicator window is just not there at all? Right now 0 shows a single pixel line as if I specified 1, and i think it looks cooler without that window at all, just with the time indicator right on the silver bar.

I fixed this in my version by modifying this function in TimeView.as

private function drawBackground():void {
            
            graphics.clear();
            if (_config.style.timeBgHeightRatio > 0) { //added to hide the single line when the height is zero
            graphics.lineStyle(1, 0, .3);  
            }
            else {graphics.lineStyle(1, 0, 0); }
            graphics.beginFill(_config.style.timeBgColor, 1);
            var bgWidth:Number = (_durationText ? (_durationText.x + _durationText.textWidth) : (_timeText.x + _timeText.textWidth)) + borderRadius;
            var bgHeight:Number = height * _config.style.timeBgHeightRatio
//            log.debug("_left.width " + _left.width);
//            log.debug("height/2 " + height/2);
//            log.debug("bgheight " + bgHeight);

            graphics.drawRoundRect(_left.width, height/2 - bgHeight/2, bgWidth, bgHeight, borderRadius, borderRadius);
            graphics.endFill();

            // reset the manged width value
            _width = bgWidth + _left.width + _right.width;
        }

Another thing is the bar running into the mute or whatever next button if the time indicator is completely hidden. I fixed it on my version in this function inside controls.as:

private function arrangeScrubber(leftEdge:Number, rightEdge:Number):Number {
			if (! _config.visible.scrubber) return rightEdge;
			arrangeX(_scrubber, leftEdge);
			var scrubberWidth:Number = rightEdge - leftEdge - 2 * getSpaceAfterWidget(_scrubber); 
			if (! _player || _immediatePositioning) { 
				_scrubber.width = scrubberWidth;
				if (! _timeView) _scrubber.width = _scrubber.width - 8 //josh added this to fix the line smashing into the mute button
			} else {
				_player.animationEngine.animateProperty(_scrubber, "width", scrubberWidth);
			}
            _scrubber.height = height - margins[0] - margins[2];
            _scrubber.y = _height - margins[2] - _scrubber.height;
			return rightEdge - getSpaceAfterWidget(_scrubber) - scrubberWidth;
		}

Im not sure 8 is the best value to space it out, but it looks ok on my site.

Thanks Anssi!!

No promises, but this trick using jquery has always worked for me in bizzard z-index situations.

http://www.vancelucas.com/blog/fixing-ie7-z-index-issues-with-jquery/comment-page-1/

It has helped me with css drop down menus getting covered up by flash video as well as using expose on a div containing a flowplayer video. The issue in my case appears to be related to having the poisiton value of a div set to anything other than fixed.

4: this only happens with the tube skin from what i can tell and you dont need to let go of the scrubber. Use tube skin, drag all the way to the right. it will go under the time indicator. Its not the worst thing in the world.

5?? 5 was the the problem where the bar hits the mute button if you turn off the time indicator. That one is way easy to recreate. Only happens on tube skin tho.

6: 1+ min error: only happens on 3.1.2 as i said, so if you dont use that version, it wont happen. This is caused by the button marking the time line from the left side and not the center. This shouldnt be hard to fix. The previous version worked after all. This and the other issue dating back to 3.1 where the scrubber isnt restricted may all be related. The code just doesnt seem to support the tube skin properly, so maybe a resign of the tube skin flash files is necessary...

On my own site, like i said, Im using controls 3.1.1 so this problem isnt so bad, and thats also my own build with some added code to restrict the movement of the scrubber and to shorten the bar when the time indicator is disabled.

If you use the default build of 3.1.2 controls with a 30 min video for example, you will see all the problems mentioned, however the one where the bar doesnt appear immediately after seeking, is visible on my site because that problem i also did not fix and it does date back to 3.1 or earlier.

FYI that dimming effect is simply the previous version of the jquery based "expose" js from this site. The current version which is now part of jquery tools, is buggy and i couldnt get it to work at all on nested DIVs due to some z-index bugs in both IE and firefox (though even the older one which I use has its issues)

So if there are any problems you still cant reproduce, let me know and ill make up demos for them.

Sorry, I thought these would be very easy to see on the demo pages. I could recreate many of these herehttp://www.flowplayer.org/documentation/skinning/controlbar.html

Using the tube skin, you can see these problems much more clearly because of the size of the scrubber button. I wonder if some of this is due to the tube skin not working well with the code originally designed for the default skin.

#1 doesnt matter if its streaming or not, try it on nearly any demo on this site and you'll at least get a few seconds beyond the actual length of the clip, but due to the relative length of the time line, you can potentially move several minutes beyond the end, depends how long the video is. On short videos, it could be only a few seconds and most users would never notice, so it doesnt affect everyone.

#2 The scrubber button itself physically moves too far, even goes undernear the time indicator using the tube skin, and the tool tip will deplay a time higher than the actualy point where the video ends if you just let it play. Depending on what skin you use, the result of releasing the scrubber in that position is different-- default skin it pops back to where the scrubber was previously, or with the tube skin, it just ends the video. Again, the bounce or whatever doesnt matter if the video is progressive or pseudo streaming. I've not tried it with a live stream, but that is irrelevant since there is no reason to move the scrubber in that case. What does affect how much this shows up is the skin simply because of the size of the scubber button.

#6 Good thinking on this one, however I verified in the source code that those file dates have not changed since 3.1 was released, so i would think the problem is in the action script somewhere. Certainly, the mouse cursor locks to the center of the scrubber but the point on the time line which is selected by the scrubbers placement is that of the far left edge of the scrubber. The tooltip is locked to the mouse cursor, regardless of whether you are dragging the scrubber because the tool tip will appear wherever you hover. So the fix is to put it back the way it was where the scrubber selects the point at the center of itself, or make the mouse cursor lock to the left edge, either way the tooltip needs to correctly indicate what point you are about to jump to. This is not a keyframe issue. Going back to 3.1 or 3.0, the issue is no present. I understand there could be a few seconds of variation due to keyframe placement, and that is fine. I'm talking about an entire minute, possibly 30-60 keyframes i would guess? maybe more? On a short video this is hardly noticable because when you drop the scrubber, it may jump to the wrong place but it would be such a minor error that you wouldnt notice. I'm certain i have more than one keyframe per minute. I have tried some short 3 min videos and the issue is still present but almost not noticeable. The issue may have something to do with the new fancy animation on the scrubber button and volume control as of 3.1.2.

I do not have any examples on my own site to show since I've corrected all the issues in 3.1 by compiling my own version, and i have not moved to 3.1.2 since i have not found a way to correct the button centering issue. Rather, I can offer some "hack" solutions to modify the code and get some more acceptable results. I doubt many of my modifications would be proper in the eyes of the original author.

Ever since 3.1 the control bar is quite buggy, especially using the tube version.

1) The scrubber can be moved well beyond the end of the clip, especially on longer clips. I used 30-40 min videos on my site and i can drag the scrubber 2-4 min beyond the length of the video.

2) If the first problem is fixed, this wont matter, but using the standard "skin", the scrubber bounces back if you try to scrub past the end of the clip, but on the tube skin it ends the video. I'm not sure which behavior is better because this shouldnt even be possible in the first place.

3) As of 3.1, using the tube skin and pseudostreaming, if you skip ahead of the downloaded video and a new "start" position is requested, a new buffer bar should begin to grow from that point on, but none appears, nor does the progress bar appear to the left of the scrubber to show video that has played. It sometimes randomly appears when the video has finished downloading, or when you attempt to scrub within the downloaded portion, or if you just wait a long time. If you play the video from the very begining without accessing the pseudostreaming capability, this is not an issue, nor is it an issue at all with the standard skin.

4) As of version 3.1, the scrubber can move underneath the time inidcator. This is more of a problem with the tube skin since it has such a large scubber at its default size.

5) As of version 3.1, if the time indicator is disabled on the tube skin, the progress/buffer bar slams right into the mute button or whatever is next on the bar.

6) As of version 3.1.2, using the tube skin, it appears that the scrubber no longer marks its position by its center, but rather its far left edge. This means that on a longer video, especially on 30 min videos, when scrubing, the tool tip time shown when you release the scrubber is inaccurate by about 1 min or more on a 30 min video. That 1 min on the bar is the equivalent of half of the scrubber since when you grab the scrubber, the it centers itself on your mouse cursor, the tooltip shows the time of your mouse cursor, and the scrubber locks on to a position one half of the scrubber's width earlier. This is really the biggest bug of all. It makes the player frurstrating to work with. This may happen on the default skin too but the scrubber is smaller, so it doesnt matter as much. (The 1 min is assuming the player window is something like 640 wide, its all relative)

I was able to correct many of the bugs on 3.1 by building my own version of the control bar, but its started to get too complicated, and i dont know how to fix the 3.1.2 bug I mentioned.

Adobe now offers DVR capability with FMS, and this can be used in conjunction with Adobe Flash Live Encoder 3. This allows a viewer begin watching a live stream late, pause the live stream, etc, just like a Tivo.

So looking over this blog post, it seems flowplayer is almost ready for this.http://fmsexamples.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/fms-dvrcast/

Looking at the source for the flowplayer rtmp plugin, netstream.play is not exactly as examples suggest, NetStream.play(?myvideo?, 0, -1), where 0 is clip.start and -1 is clip.duration.

The source code (RTMPStreamProvider.as) has start and duration values thrown out if the start position is not more than 0, if I'm reading this correctly.

		private function onUrlResolved(clip:Clip):void {
            log.debug("starting playback of stream " + clip.url);
			if (clip.start > 0) {
				netStream.play(clip.url, clip.start, clip.duration > 0 ? clip.duration : -1);
			} else {
				netStream.play(clip.url);
			}
		}

Any idea how to allow for the use of this DVR functionality?

Why couldnt a pseudostreaming plugin be created to work with any web server that supports resuming downloads/progressive downloads. What I mean is, cant the plugin keep the array of frame or seconds and bit locations so that when you skip past the buffered video, it just starts a new download from that location, still keeping the original file header in memory since the header would not be downloaded again? It seems this would allow any web server to be used.

If I understand correctly, the way it works now is the same except the streaming script slaps a copy of the header onto this "new" download, mp4 moov atom, or flv header, so that this new header information is collected again? Maybe im wrong, but I dont understand why the header should be sent again if the plugin can hold on to that and just request a new file without the server having to do anything special.

I know you may want to request the file for the first time maybe half way through, but the plugin could start a download at the front of the file to grab the header, then stop that download, start again at a new location, and it though it may take a second for that to happen, it should be the same in the end.

Am I overlooking something simple here?

everything you need is provided. This will work with any pseudostreaming enabled flowplayer setup and flv videos.

Thanks thats exactly what i needed. I was looking here and didnt see it so thanks for pointing that out.

http://www.flowplayer.org/documentation/skinning/controlbar.html?skin=tube

I like the new tube controls. One problem though, when I change the color of the progress bar, it should change the color of the audio slider bar as well, but it is stuck at red.

Also, with the old controls, the color behind the time indicate could be changed. I think it may have been just whatever color the buttons were? but it would be nice to be able to change that again instead of being forced to have a gray color there.

Thanks, I'll try that. Im hoping for a real fix but unfortunately it appears that the next version is a paid upgrade so I'll probably switch to another product shortly. Since the existing 3.0.x I paid for wont be supported or updated, I guess I paid $50 to use flowplayer for a few months during which I discovered and reported many bugs, only a few of which were fixed. You're welcome for that btw. ;)