Advertisement Demo & Buffering

Question

Hello:
I am using SMP (1.6.3) to embed a live F4M feed in a page.
When I do this on its own, with minimal flashvars, it works as expected, but I need to include a video disclaimer:
swf=/strobe/StrobeMediaPlayback.swf&src=videopath.f4m&width=320&height=240&autoPlay=true
When I add references to the Advertisement Plugin and the disclaimer, I get audio but no video:
plugin_ads=/strobe/AdvertisementPlugin.swf&ads_preroll=/videoupload/DISCLAIMER.flv
I am able to get video by setting:
enableStageVideo=false
At this point, the weird behaviour starts:
The pre-roll disclaimer plays as expected;
The live stream starts as expected, with a time indicator of something like 00:01 / 00:59 (always around a minute);
When the current time indicator gets within about 5 seconds (00:54 / 00:59) of the end/buffered(?) time indicator, the second number jumps to around 00:55 / 02:54, the "Buffering" indicator appears, and the video freezes;
If no action is taken by the user, the video stays in this state indefinitely;
If the user clicks on the time slider, the video continues normally;
Occasionally (1 in 20 tries), this user interaction has to be repeated when the video freezes ("Buffering") again.
I have tried various combinations of flashvars to try to get the buffering/freezing to stop, but the only thing that seems to work is removing the plugin & disclaimer entirely.
Can anyone suggest flashvar settings that will sort out the buffering situation?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Scott

Answer 1

Silviu:
Your description of the issue makes sense to me, but I still have some noob-ish questions/comments:
What tool are you using to analyze the stream, to identify 404s, etc.?  Is it something that's freely available?
I have installed Strobe Media Playback 1.6, Sprint 3, so I believe I am up-to-date;
You mentioned re-writitng the plugin; is the source for the plugin included in the download package?  After a quick scan, it's not obvious to me where that would be...
I did forward your last post to the administrators of the live stream.  I'm not sure if their response addressed your points.  Can you let me know if anything was lost in translation?
8/29/2011 2:01 pm >>>
Hi  Scott,
             This may have to do with the DVR functionality. For the  moment, please disable DVR functionality on the player. Second, the Live Streams  are cached, so if you want to test with the direct stream with no cache, change  the ip to XXX.XXX.XXX.122 to XXX.XXX.XXX.123 (I might have those reversed). 
Sent: August 29, 2011 10:17 AM
Hi guys:
I have been having an issue with the disclaimer for the live stream, and  have been in touch with Adobe to get some help with their plug-in.  You can view  the thread at:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3889440#3889440
The Adobe employee who responded to the thread describes the issue as  follows:
The main player loads the live stream, but then immediately pauses it and  loads the advertisement plug-in, which plays the disclaimer;
Once the disclaimer has played, the main player tries to pick up the stream  at the point at which it was paused;
The server starts responding with 404 for some older fragments, possibly  indicating that they have already been deleted.
How long are fragments of the live stream kept on the server after they are  initially requested?  Can this be increased to account for a 45 s disclaimer,  without negatively impacting performance?
I will keep up the dialogue with the guy from Adobe to get more information  on work-arounds (until he gets tired of my newbie questions), but if we can  address the issue by adjusting a setting on the server, it would be preferable  to hacking the plug-in (one of his suggestions).
Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Scott