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I am studying the pseudo streaming mechanism. So far I have understood that it is not possible to pseudo stream files that are not MP4 or FLV. These files contain meta information that allows the player to know where the key frames are, before it has first downloaded them.

My question is, doesn't other formats have this meta information? Or the reason for not being pseudo stream capable is something else?

I just would like to be sure why are those the only formats that can be used in this technique, and not AVI for example.

Thanks,

jay.end
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  • Most formats have this information. The problem is mostly that demultiplexing code is not flexible enough to deal with progressive downloads, and then the second factor is that even though metadata is embedded, it also has to be in the beginning of the file. – Roman R. Oct 11 '14 at 16:56
  • Hi Roman, thanks a lot for sharing that information. Do you know where can I read more, or useful keywords for finding information about this demultiplexing issue and metadata positioning? Thanks a lot. – jay.end Oct 13 '14 at 09:23
  • The most popular keyword on this topic is `qt-faststart` (e.g. [here](http://www.stoimen.com/blog/2010/11/12/how-to-make-mp4-progressive-with-qt-faststart/) and a lot of elsewhere). This is how metadata is moved to the head with MP4 files. This is baiscally what is expected from [almost] every other format, and additionally reader/demultiplexer has to simply support playing from yet incomplete data. I don't think there is a comprehensive list of demultiplexer and relevant capabilities: it's rather something is capable to do the thing, and another thing is not. – Roman R. Oct 13 '14 at 09:39

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