Video streaming includes real-time sharing of audio and video files from a server to client’s player that allows them to watch videos and listen to audio in an online format. Video buffering is an essential term that is related to the streaming industry. If you are not familiar with the term buffering, what problems it can cause, this blog post is for you.
Video buffering is defined as the pre-loading phase of the data for video contents. The data is pre-loaded into a specified segment of the memory, i.e., referred to as buffer. Your streaming website or application will download a certain amount of the video before starting to play. It is the core constituent of video streaming. Buffering is positive if you do not observe it happening. Typically, a buffer exists to offer you an uninterrupted streaming experience by loading the content before-hand. Once the data loads and video content starts playing, the software continues its operation in the background and it silently continues to load the rest of the content while users continue to watch the already loaded portion of the video.
Many people often refer to buffering as the slowing down of the video playback and giving an interrupted streaming experience. Thus, most people think that buffering is a generic term to describe delays in video content playbacks.
As mentioned above, video buffering is a key part of the streaming process and thus you don’t need to actually stop your videos from the buffering process. However, you must focus on processes to speed up video buffering. Slow buffering rate may let your end-users experience content delays.
There are several possible reasons that might cause a slow buffering rate. Usually speaking, slow buffering might occur due to bandwidth problems at user level or at network level. Most probably you won’t find an outage or service interruption at network level unless you are a highly-qualified network technician. You must report it to the ISP or network technicians to diagnose and find the problem if there is any problem on their side. Most of the network companies maintain a service update page, social media account, or else internal company website that updates you with the network status.
On the other hand, there are various major causes and fixes that you can search on the individual level and might succeed in solving the problem and improve your app’s media playback performance. Read on to find those causes in the next section.
One of the major reasons for video buffering is always low bandwidth. However, there are various circumstances that supports low bandwidth:
You might consider it as the obvious reason for low bandwidth, however, first, ISPs provide different service levels, so you ensure you have chosen an ISP provider offering bitrate that is suitable for the content and up-to-date equipment for dealing with the workload. It is advisable to run a speed test through user-friendly apps available online to check and ensure your connection speed is up to the par to deliver flawless streaming experience.
As mentioned in the above paragraph, if you do not have the ideal bandwidth to stream videos in super HD can lead to delays in video buffering. If you try to drain too much water through a small pipe, you must have a backup to deal with the future problem. Hence, trying out to reduce the video quality to 720p or lower will do the trick without resorting to the bandwidth pressure of streaming 4K.
WiFi is faster, but, while several individuals tend to set up a WiFi router or access point and then forget about it, WiFi devices need care and maintenance. Ensure that there are no firmware updates from the manufacturer, and with regular intervals reset your connection. We also suggest turning off the router or access point, pull the power cord for ten seconds and then plug it back and start it again.
WiFi devices continuously ping your router even when they are not in use. If there are many devices on the network such as numerous laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices can lead to traffic jams and affect your streaming by slowing down the speed. You can turn off the WiFi connection on most network devices so it cuts off the connection with the network in idle state. And if someone else is downloading a heavy file or else streaming a movie in 5K, that will use your bandwidth capacity.
If you are running numerous programs, performing multiple tasks, or even have an excessive number of browser tabs open, these will consume all the ability of the computer to stream a video without any flaws or interruptions. Just like idle devices sitting on your network, applications running in the background will consume all your system resources.
For example, downloading files in the background will add to the overall pressure on your bandwidth even if you do not notice it. Make sure you close other programs and applications that are not in use.
Streaming video is quite a heavy task on your system and hardware, therefore, make sure you do regular system and device updates, including and particularly your graphics driver is updated regularly. Clearing out your caches and cookies helps improve browser performance. This is both for video streaming and checking if local content is current to avoid downloading it. However, that temporary and cached data can eventually overload your browser and slow it down significantly. Carry out a regular clean-up to streamline your browser.
Muvi prioritizes the video streaming process and makes sure that its unique value proposition is offering smooth streaming and video playback anywhere, anytime on any device. Our video streaming platform offers high-quality streaming with reduced video buffering. Muvi is an all-inclusive video streaming platform that allows enterprises to launch customizable streaming platforms offering both VOD and live streaming contents. Take a free trial to experience a flawless yet powerful streaming experience.
Written by: Ankit Jena
Ankit is Content Writer for Muvi’s Marketing unit. He is a passionate writer with 5+ Years of Experience in Content Creation And Development. In his past time, he likes to dance, play football and google various things to quench his thirst for knowledge.
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