5 ms·

Video Upload Latency Improvements at Instagram

47 points by YoavShapira 7y ago

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mychael 7y ago
Medium has a paywall on this page. Here's a cache. https://web.archive.org/web/20190614024004/https://instagram-engineering.com/video-upload-latency-improvements-at-instagram-bcf4b4c5520a?gi=4db83dc4ce6b https://web.archive.org/web/20190614024004/https://instagram...
- drcross 7y ago
  It's pretty sad that they're announcing blog news on medium at all instead of their parent companies multi billion dollar network
  - DoctorOW 7y ago
    To be fair, their parent company's network is if anything more hostile to users who aren't logged in.
- nacs 7y ago
  Faster, readable version: https://outline.com/UvNpVy https://outline.com/UvNpVy
voltagex_ 7y ago
Under "Segmented Video Upload Processing" they explain how cutting up the video before upload makes it easier to process. Does anyone know how they're maintaining audio sync? Every single time I've tried to cut up (mp4/m2ts) video to re-encode it in parallel, I've had it go completely out of sync.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
jakecopp 7y ago
Why not show the video as "uploaded" to the user posting the video (and playback from a local copy), and then publish in the background to other users? Latency of 0 :)
- a254613e 7y ago
  Because that doesn't reduce latency, but instead just makes it look like that which is worse. If the user then copies the URL of their post and sends it to another user the other user will not be able to view it. It would also not be noticeable for the user if an error occurs while processing the video.
  - jakecopp 7y ago
    That's a good point, thanks very much.
- elithrar 7y ago
  Also: if they switch to another app, platforms like iOS will pause/suspend (within a few seconds) the upload before it likely completes.
dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago
In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the option to disable video autoplay. But they wont, because they want to push the narrative that so many users view video-based ads. You know what, we don't view them, we scroll past them. If you really wanted to be honest with advertisers, you would disable autoplay, and then we could really see how many users really click the play button.
- mitheren 7y ago
  I don't disagree with this, but honestly I just wish they'd give me a way to restart a video that had autoplayed. I have to tap to start audio, so if I get to a video a couple of seconds after it has started playing and want to listen to it, I have to wait until it loops around to get to the start.
  - rumori 7y ago
    You can just scroll up and down and it should restart once it get's into focus again.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj 7y ago
How do Medium get away with articles looking like this? This is what the page looks like for me after loading: https://i.ibb.co/9rQMXLF/Screenshot-20190614-183927.png https://i.ibb.co/9rQMXLF/Screenshot-20190614-183927.png
- noir_lord 7y ago
  Since your in android, install Firefox and then ublock origin then go into ublock settings and check the 'annoyances list' and you'll have a much nicer experience. Firefox for Android has got ridiculously better over the last 18mths and is a usable replacement for Chrome for my needs.
- nacs 7y ago
  Here's a version with all the Medium-junk stripped away: https://outline.com/UvNpVy https://outline.com/UvNpVy
treeheckler 7y ago
It seems a bit overkill to spin up a new worker per segment, especially if encountering I/O bottlenecks. Why not make sure to distribute multiple segments to multiple threads on the same (large-enough) worker so it can stitch them all together from the same machine?

47 points by YoavShapira 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Medium has a paywall on this page. Here's a cache. https://web.archive.org/web/20190614024004/https://instagram-engineering.com/video-upload-latency-improvements-at-instagram-bcf4b4c5520a?gi=4db83dc4ce6b https://web.archive.org/web/20190614024004/https://instagram...

drcross 7y ago
It's pretty sad that they're announcing blog news on medium at all instead of their parent companies multi billion dollar network
- DoctorOW 7y ago
  To be fair, their parent company's network is if anything more hostile to users who aren't logged in.
nacs 7y ago
Faster, readable version: https://outline.com/UvNpVy https://outline.com/UvNpVy

voltagex_ 7y ago

Under "Segmented Video Upload Processing" they explain how cutting up the video before upload makes it easier to process. Does anyone know how they're maintaining audio sync? Every single time I've tried to cut up (mp4/m2ts) video to re-encode it in parallel, I've had it go completely out of sync.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

jakecopp 7y ago

Why not show the video as "uploaded" to the user posting the video (and playback from a local copy), and then publish in the background to other users? Latency of 0 :)

a254613e 7y ago
Because that doesn't reduce latency, but instead just makes it look like that which is worse. If the user then copies the URL of their post and sends it to another user the other user will not be able to view it. It would also not be noticeable for the user if an error occurs while processing the video.
- jakecopp 7y ago
  That's a good point, thanks very much.
elithrar 7y ago
Also: if they switch to another app, platforms like iOS will pause/suspend (within a few seconds) the upload before it likely completes.

dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago

In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the option to disable video autoplay. But they wont, because they want to push the narrative that so many users view video-based ads. You know what, we don't view them, we scroll past them. If you really wanted to be honest with advertisers, you would disable autoplay, and then we could really see how many users really click the play button.

mitheren 7y ago
I don't disagree with this, but honestly I just wish they'd give me a way to restart a video that had autoplayed. I have to tap to start audio, so if I get to a video a couple of seconds after it has started playing and want to listen to it, I have to wait until it loops around to get to the start.
- rumori 7y ago
  You can just scroll up and down and it should restart once it get's into focus again.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj 7y ago

How do Medium get away with articles looking like this? This is what the page looks like for me after loading: https://i.ibb.co/9rQMXLF/Screenshot-20190614-183927.png https://i.ibb.co/9rQMXLF/Screenshot-20190614-183927.png

noir_lord 7y ago
Since your in android, install Firefox and then ublock origin then go into ublock settings and check the 'annoyances list' and you'll have a much nicer experience. Firefox for Android has got ridiculously better over the last 18mths and is a usable replacement for Chrome for my needs.
nacs 7y ago
Here's a version with all the Medium-junk stripped away: https://outline.com/UvNpVy https://outline.com/UvNpVy

treeheckler 7y ago

It seems a bit overkill to spin up a new worker per segment, especially if encountering I/O bottlenecks. Why not make sure to distribute multiple segments to multiple threads on the same (large-enough) worker so it can stitch them all together from the same machine?