MP4 slow start for large file

Question

I have a server that stream mp4(h264). I use MP4Box to put the moov atom at the beginning of a file and interleave default 500 ms.

However, I noticed that at peak times when the server is busy, the files start streaming slower, but not same slower, large videos (one hour or more) start much slower than small files.

I read about Atom Moov being processing slower in a lighttpd with h264 streaming module like mine...

Any way I can speed up playback start to about 2 seconds, right now it's about 7 for large files...

Answer 1

You can use mp4parser to see which part of moov box is getting bigger with the increasing file size. Then may be you can look for an optimal way of representing the box. I think it is sample size box (stsz). Also, I can think of segmenting MP4 so that the header overhead is spread across the file. MP4Box does support segmenting MP4 files. But then you need to check whether your client is capable of understanding this format.