60fps Video Player Android

[Brian Scarano]

WhenI try to stream my video-clips earlier recorded with my smart phone (1080 / 60fps / 50mbps) I recognize that the client often needs long time until the video starts playing. In the Android client the spinning wheel is spinning for ages, in the browser (Firefox) the video screen is just black until the video finally play.

For example, here in the local LAN it takes 2-3 sec to download a small 70MB video-clip to my client PC. If I try to stream the same file it takes maybe 20 sec until it starts playing. I also observed time to play varies from try to try, while time for just downloading the file is fairly same all the time.

The issue does not happen (or at least is significantly less) with low bitrate videos. However, I guess this is only because the issue is hidden by the comparatively small throughput needed for such videos.

H264 sounds good. The codec stuff would have been one explanation why it takes longer than downloading the whole file. You could check if other Nextcloud instances have the same problem (e.g. Demo instances of 9-14 now live).

So I re-encoded a test video from the original 50Mpbs performance down to 25Mbps. With that, the streaming performance is a bit better, but still week. It is not better than from my own NC15 installation when using the same test video.

While doing these tests, I observed a new interesting aspect: Steaming performance using VLC (enter https URL into VLC player) is much better than using browser or Nextclud Android app. Basically, with VLC, video streaming is working as expected.

On my PC (Win10) I usually work with Firefox, that performs bad with the 25Mpbs clip and is basically unusable with the 50Mbps video (even in local LAN). I just now compared the 25Mbps clip in Chrome, that plays better than in Firefox. The Nextcloud Android App has substantial issues even with the 25Mbps clip (worse than Firefox under Win 10).

Update: Within NC server and client in local LAN, the Android Phone running Chrome Browser handles even the 50Mbps clip quick and interruption free. Firefox on Android behaves very similar than Firefox on Win 10: the 25Mbps clip is a pain and 50Mbps clip is unusable.

First I need something that can both show thumbnail previews without downloading the entire file to the device. Its difficult to tell videos and photos apart without thumbnails when the camera names them all 20200627_1510.

For both thumbnails and video streaming in one app I ended up using a Samba server with either Nova Player (which is FOSS) or Solid Explorer (paid app). In my experience thumbnail generation worked better with Solid Explorer.

Even though using the file sharing built into Windows works better for me in my specific use case. I still think Nextcloud is a good project and I hope development fixes video streaming in the future.

Hello I am using NC 18.0.7 and face the same video player issues, with very slow video loading and playback (while downloading the video file is much faster using the same internet connection): clearly an issue NC client side.

I think the NC team should definitely prioritize to correctly make work all NC current features out-of-the-box, before adding any new feature. In my view the 2 main features to fix today in NC 18.0.7 / 19:

A few weeks after Blu-ray was standardized new parameters were introduced in AVC (H.264 and corresponding x.264) that would produce a non-standard stream. Even more so today with VP8, VP9, AV1, different containers, etc.

Now granted I barely changed this a couple hours ago but already I am excited with the results. It helped cached the videos I took onto the local PC once it does load it. and when you come back to it it grabs it from the local PC instead of fetching it from Next cloud making the buffering faster. I also have some mp4s on my nextcloud and would like to view for myself and for friends and family but was surprised to see how each time it had to buffer from snatch. and even after allowing it to buffer the whole thing when i come back to it it was start again. And the reason why the first time it does take a while because of my ISPs upload speed. But man that setting sure helped out once it did load ! Hope it helps someone else. Also this might help out too:

This issue has existed for years, whenever connected to a 1080p panel and playing a video with 1080p 60fps support the gen 1 Chromecast will frequently lost Audio while video keeps playing, audio starts again and video pauses while audio catches up. There are several Reddit posts about this issue and I don't understand why there hasn't been an update from Google to fix this. For a while I connected my Gen 1 Chromecast to a 720p projector and didn't have any issue but have since tried using it on a 1080p panel again and discovered the issue still exists. There are suggestions to enable 50hz mode or disable 50hz mode and neither makes any difference. Videos that only support 30fps play fine. My internet is not an issue as it has done it in several locations and my other Chromecasts will happily stream 4k60 FPS from the same location on the same network. I have also experienced this with multiple Gen 1 Chromecast devices in multiple houses for the last 2 or maybe even 3 years. I have factory reset the device and it has made no difference. I have always had the latest versions of YouTube, Google home and Chromecast firmware throughout this time. Currently Home is V2.45.1.8, YouTube is v16.43.34 and Chromecast firmware is 1.36.159268.

Please update either the YouTube Chromecast app or the Chromecast firmware to disable 60fps 1080p playback on YouTube on the Gen 1 Chromecast. 1080p 30fps content works fine and 720p 60fps content appears to also work fine.

It's pretty clear that it doesn't support 1080p60 as I am having issues but that doesn't stop the player from trying to play the content. Seeing as most content I watch these days supports at least 1080p60 that rules out a lot of what I want to watch. If I'm watching video on my phone or any other device I can select a lower frame rate but all my other devices play the content fine. When chromecasting quality options are not available as the Chromecast negotiates the best available stream and my device has no say over what stream is selects. I would be happy to disable HFR if I could do it selectively and only have HFR content disabled when playing to this specific chromecast but as far as I know that's not an option. I don't understand why the Chromecast tries to play content at a higher quality level than it is able to do, it seems like this was an unintended side effect of an update a long time ago and never fixed.

I'm sorry but I think you are either mistaken or have misunderstood something. The chromecast does indeed play the video using it's youtube reciever app. When casting from a phone you have the ability to chose the video that gets sent to the player but not the quality as this is negotiated by the reciever app on the chromecast.

I have a chromecast with google TV for my 4k TV and various other chromecast devices that play higher quality video without issue, this is a spare chromecast for a spare TV. I don't want to contribute to landfil by throwing away a device that works perfectly fine but has just been made obsololete through a software update. Google has the power to force these older devices to negotiate a more reasonable stream that they would have no trouble playing.

Yeah, those settings have zero effect on your stream on a chromecast. What you are changing there is the behaviour of the YouTube app on your phone. As I have said before, the Chromecast has it's own YouTube reciever app and your phone settings have no effect on the player. I've attached some screenshots below, you can see when I'm not chromecasting I can set the data saver settings as you have suggested while the video is playing. What you are changing on that settings page is the default profile to use when on WiFi or mobile data. When chromecasting that option is unavailable as the video is not being played through your phone, it is simply directing the Chromecast to play the video, the Chromecast then loads it's reciever app and grabs the stream it thinks it can best play from YouTube. I think it's clear you've misunderstood how a Chromecast functions. To prove that it's not your phone playing the video you can start casting and then turn your phone off. You'll see that the video keeps playing on the Chromecast.

Alternatively, instead of casting directly from YouTube app, you can choose to cast your screen from Google Home app, and any settings you apply to your YouTube on the phone will be mirrored on your TV.

Regarding your remark about the device trying to play content above its capabilities, it may be true, but that's because it selects the stream based on available bandwidth and not based on final device hardware capabilities. The last part is left to you, the end user, to choose and adjust the stream that is compatible (if a available).

If the video content of a clip on YouTube is uploaded by its creator or publisher in a certain format, that may very well be superior to your hardware specifications, the one who hits the play button is you at the end and knowing your hardware isn't capable of playing that stream you should not hit the play button or set the player in auto-pay mode.

Also, for Chromecast 1st generation, the ideal way to negotiate video content is to let the YouTube player in auto quality mode, to allow the receiver to autoadjust its resolution, because frame rate conversation will never happen.

It seems you really don't understand the way Chromecasting works, please stop giving suggestions unless you know for a fact a method that will let me play to my Chromecast at a lower quality than what it auto-negotiates. You also seem to contradict yourself saying "it selects the stream based on available bandwidth and not based on final device hardware capabilities" while also seemingly being under the impression that you have some control over the stream it negotiates.

I always leave my youtube in auto quality mode until I felt the need to prove you wrong about that setting having any impact on my Chromecast.

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