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Web Client URL proxies
Previously I had issues with getting URL proxies to play in the Standard client. This came down to Amazon S3 metadata settings for the mp4 files.
They now simply work by Mapping your original media to your URL proxy path in the client. This is just how you map to a local proxy path.
I now try to do the same with the basic web client. I don’t want to serve the files via the web server but rather use the same URL proxies that are on Amazon S3.
No matter how I set the Server Config proxy paths I cannot seem to get them to load. I can make them serve from a local disk via the web server (with time out issues for long files), but I would rather serve from dedicated media hosting such as S3.
If I try to do the same path mapping as in the client, forcing ‘Low res proxy root dir’ to a URL I get no luck and clicking the CatDV icon in the web client for diagnostics simply states:
Proxy Root: (https://path-etc)- DOESN’T EXIST
It shows the alternative URL, which I have mapped to the URL proxy path too.
I have tried to leave the ‘Low res proxy root dir’ empty in a hope it will pick up the ‘Alternative URL’ proxies when it fails to serve them via the web server but still no luck.
Is it a case that the web client can only access proxies streamed by the web server?
Technically I am not trying to do this:
https://www.squarebox.com/desktopstreaming-proxies/
I understand that this is for streaming ‘web poxies’ to the client.
What I am trying to do is actually stated here:
https://www.squarebox.com/webclient-advanced-operation/
Quote:
Leave “Alternative URL” blank to use the built-in CatDV media server within the web server to serve up media files over HTTP. Alternatively, it is possible to use a separate dedicated web server or even an external content delivery network, by entering the corresponding root URL that corresponds to the proxy root dir.’
Testing in firefox I get a movie time out. Safari offers a little more info here in that it seems the client is calling back to the web server to serve the video rather than connecting to the Alternative URL. This seems contradictory to the support notes.
When testing and changing settings I am restarting CatDV Server (6.8.1 OS X 10.8.5). My URL proxies play in the client from the same path. They also play in all browsers. I have tried both Quicktime and HTML5 players in the web client but no luck. It really seems to be that the Web Client is not set somehow to seek the Alternative URL address.
Any ideas are much appreciated.
Scott Goddard
Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com -
3 Replies
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The good news is that it can in theory be made to work using an Alternative URL for the proxy path mapping. The bad news is that currently there are some limitations. To give you a little background, the original intention of the alternative URL feature was that you might want to use something like Apache to serve the proxies from your server, as opposed to using the built-in CatDV Web Server. The Apache server could even be running on a separate machine but, crucially, the assumption was that it was still serving the same files that would be visible to both CatDV Server and Apache.
Because of that there is an assumption that the file part of the mapping will resolve correctly. That is how the server knows that that rule is the one to apply. Only once it has found a matching rule will it substitute the alternative URL.
Clearly your scenario is somewhat different, in that your wanting to serve the proxies from a completely separate server with a completely separate set of files. So, while this is possible, I’m afraid that currently you’d need to have another copy of the proxies on the CatDV Server, otherwise the mapping rules won’t get applied.
Also the HTTP proxies must have a .mp4 extension.
We will be looking to improve this in future versions.
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Ok thanks for the clarification John, strange thing is I do have proxies at the local level as well as the URL and they are mapped correctly.
As mentioned, I can get them to serve from the local disk. So these mappings are correct (wizard) and I know the URL is correct (client works with the mappings). Files are low quality mp4. URL works great in client really snappy on 200mb proxies with 60 min durations.
Just strange it works with the client but not the web client where it’s more practical to host files in such a way with dedicated media serving.
Are there any time out settings that can be adjusted for the web client?
Scott Goddard
Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com -
That is odd. What version of the server are you using? Might be worth raising a support ticket at support@squarebox.com and we’ll take a closer look.
There aren’t any time-out settings, but generally if you are seeing time-outs it’s because the proxies are not encoded as Fast Start (QuickTime) or Streamable (MP4). This means the browser will be loading up the entire movie before it starts to play. With Fast Start/Streamable movies the browser can start playing as soon as it gets the first frame, so you should never see time-outs.
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