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Slow playback when streaming with AVPlayer
We’re building an iOS App that streams mp4 video files from DropBox. We use SDK’s getTemporaryLink method and feed the returned URL to AVPlayer(url: …). The streaming doesn’t start until after a few seconds/minutes depending on the size of the file. Same issue when opening this link in a regular Safari tab. When opening the file directly in Dropbox website the video plays fine.
17 Replies
- DB-Des
Dropbox Engineer
Hi iggypop,
There are several factors that could affect playback speed on external platforms. Since playback speed on external platforms is beyond our control, we recommend checking:
- Network connection issues (bandwidth limitations, ISP throttling, congestion, etc.)
- Platform-specific playback optimizations or limitations
- Browser or device performance
- Resolution and file size impacting buffering times
You may want to try testing playback on different networks, clearing your browser cache, or lowering the resolution settings on the platform you're using.
Hello
thank you for you answer! We are accessing the video from an own OS app. If we access the same video through the official dropbox app, then it runs fine. What do we need to consider? Can we somehow affect the playback quality (eg just 480p)? Many thanks
- DB-Des
iggypop, as previously mentioned, it’s important to note that the official Dropbox app may use different mechanisms and infrastructure for various pieces of functionality compared to other platforms. As such, comparing the behavior between these platforms may not always provide an accurate or reliable source of truth.
That said, besides the previously suggested troubleshooting steps, you could always reach out to the other platforms' support teams for further guidance on optimizing performance.
Hello
thank you for your answer!
What do you mean with „you could always reach out to the other platforms' support teams for further guidance on optimizing performance“? Our iOS App is not really able to play most of videos with acceptable quality, however the official dropbox app is. Therefore we need some kind of guidance to solve this problem.
The problem is not only in the app but also in Safari when opening the links obtained with getTemporaryLink. rlkey=YYY&st=dop7lgeglong time to load.
https://XXXXX.dl.dropboxusercontent.com/cd/0/get/ZZZZZZZZZZZ/file
When we use links obtained through the usual sharing mechanism and add “raw=1” to them they display the same behavior. Video loads slowlyhttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/XXXX/ZZZ.MP4?rlkey=YYY&st=dop7lgeg&dl=0&raw=1
eg we used this link, but it is slow....
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3kv1n4r0d9odx4gtbornr/GX010667.MP4?rlkey=ufmmjtu9c49ah0c7pvogc8d92&st=dop7lgeg&dl=0&raw=1
(VLC takes long time to load as well)
- DB-Des
I tested the link you provided across multiple environments, including Chrome, Safari (both regular and private browsing), VLC, a test iOS app, and a test React web app, but I wasn’t able to replicate the loading issue you described. The video played without any delays in my testing.
One thing I noticed—although it doesn’t appear to make a difference—is that you’re adding both dl=0 and raw=1 to the shared URL when it should be one or the other.
Please test this
https://uc50d65f08fef20931cddc0fc937.dl.dropboxusercontent.com/cd/0/get/Clt6g4ydXcBg9C3W7b0Y82en3P3vx7e0r-oMcikRgCLnKx3pzS65GXUmED6pYZXFR5ji7gHIjzXSqKWad45aRGLw8xKWFtkxoyjCPDzhOrmrpBI-6hyENDti8QzxutZo_-OFOAf7XUdee47LsibUD-dwrtn3CnoxIh4PIEIN6TNBZg/file
We are seeing this same issue. This was not an issue previously -- we have had dropbox playback in our application for over a year without issue.
We are specifically seeing issues related to HEVC codecs -- H264 plays just fine.
We are getting the behavior across all browsers with consistent behavior. We have many user reports coming in, we support many implementations beyond dropbox so we are highly confident this is not our implementation.
- DB-Des
Hi austincase,
I'll be happy to help with any issues you're having. For testing purposes, are you able to share one of the shared links you are using to stream videos on your platform?
Hello - Thanks for the reply. Here is a shared link for the folder we are using. Our platform does not work with shared links but rather users folders directly, if that makes a difference.
Something we have noticed is that on longer HEVC videos, the problem is worse... it looks like the issue might be that the incremental RANGE headers are not being respected by Dropbox and thus the browser is having to basically download the entirety of the file before it plays back the first frame. This is a hypothesis and seems weird that it would be isolated to HEVC videos, but this is what we are noticing.Let me know any other information I can provide and I appreciate your help
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