Tl;Dr - The Question:
What is the right way to handle streaming a video file to an html5 video player with Node.js so that the video controls continue to work?
I think it has to do with the way that the headers are handled. Anyway, here's the background information. The code is a little lengthy, however, it's pretty straightforward.
Streaming small video files to HTML5 video with Node is easy
I learned how to stream small video files to an HTML5 video player very easily. With this setup, the controls work without any work on my part, and the video streams flawlessly. A working copy of the fully working code with sample video is here, for download on Google Docs.
Client:
<html>
<title>Welcome</title>
<body>
<video controls>
<source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4"/>
<source src="movie.webm" type="video/webm"/>
<source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg"/>
<!-- fallback -->
Your browser does not support the <code>video</code> element.
</video>
</body>
</html>
Server:
// Declare Vars & Read Files
var fs = require('fs'),
http = require('http'),
url = require('url'),
path = require('path');
var movie_webm, movie_mp4, movie_ogg;
// ... [snip] ... (Read index page)
fs.readFile(path.resolve(__dirname,"movie.mp4"), function (err, data) {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
movie_mp4 = data;
});
// ... [snip] ... (Read two other formats for the video)
// Serve & Stream Video
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
// ... [snip] ... (Serve client files)
var total;
if (reqResource == "/movie.mp4") {
total = movie_mp4.length;
}
// ... [snip] ... handle two other formats for the video
var range = req.headers.range;
var positions = range.replace(/bytes=/, "").split("-");
var start = parseInt(positions[0], 10);
var end = positions[1] ? parseInt(positions[1], 10) : total - 1;
var chunksize = (end - start) + 1;
if (reqResource == "/movie.mp4") {
res.writeHead(206, {
"Content-Range": "bytes " + start + "-" + end + "/" + total,
"Accept-Ranges": "bytes",
"Content-Length": chunksize,
"Content-Type": "video/mp4"
});
res.end(movie_mp4.slice(start, end + 1), "binary");
}
// ... [snip] ... handle two other formats for the video
}).listen(8888);
But this method is limited to files < 1GB in size.
Streaming (any size) video files with fs.createReadStream
By utilizing fs.createReadStream(), the server can read the file in a stream rather than reading it all into memory at once. This sounds like the right way to do things, and the syntax is extremely simple:
Server Snippet:
movieStream = fs.createReadStream(pathToFile);
movieStream.on('open', function () {
res.writeHead(206, {
"Content-Range": "bytes " + start + "-" + end + "/" + total,
"Accept-Ranges": "bytes",
"Content-Length": chunksize,
"Content-Type": "video/mp4"
});
// This just pipes the read stream to the response object (which goes
//to the client)
movieStream.pipe(res);
});
movieStream.on('error', function (err) {
res.end(err);
});
This streams the video just fine! But the video controls no longer work.
Question&Answers:
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