What is network buffering?
- Thread starter yuntian
- Start date
koala
Active Member
This is for remote media. Before OBS starts replaying the media source, it downloads as much from the network as the buffer can hold. As soon as the buffer is full, it starts playing and continues downloading the media source if space in the buffer becomes available.
This helps against stalls in the playback with unstable network connections. If some short network congestion happens, the playback can continue from the buffer, and the downloading of the source can catch up if the congestion vanishes. Only if the buffer is exhausted and some network congestion is still active, the playback stalls.
The drawback of the buffer is a small latency. If you're pulling a live source, you have a few seconds delay between the live source and the actual playback. These few seconds are in the buffer. Usually not relevant, the advantage of a continuous playback is much more important.
Every media player and every playback library has this buffer. In OBS, you can configure its size, while with other apps usually use some internal fixed size.
This helps against stalls in the playback with unstable network connections. If some short network congestion happens, the playback can continue from the buffer, and the downloading of the source can catch up if the congestion vanishes. Only if the buffer is exhausted and some network congestion is still active, the playback stalls.
The drawback of the buffer is a small latency. If you're pulling a live source, you have a few seconds delay between the live source and the actual playback. These few seconds are in the buffer. Usually not relevant, the advantage of a continuous playback is much more important.
Every media player and every playback library has this buffer. In OBS, you can configure its size, while with other apps usually use some internal fixed size.