4 ms·

Because you could just seek over them?

• alkonaut 3y ago
  Yes, but the server knows exactly what frames it has sent you and when. If you don't want to watch the ad frames there's nothing the server can do, but it can make sure to not send you the frame that comes after the ad, until the 10 seconds of the ad has passed since it sent you the last frame before the ad.
  • tux3 3y ago
    That works for pre-roll ads, forcing the client to silence them and wait at best (I believe the Twitch streaming service does this) For mid-stream ads, that doesn't work. You could pre-fetch the ad and surrounding video early, so that you can watch buffered content while the server thinks an ad is playing.
    • alkonaut 3y ago
      The server would need to not allow buffering further than the next ad.
      • ethbr1 3y ago
        Multistream client, continually skipping around, and stitching together buffers?
      • meindnoch 3y ago
        Ok, but now you see, it would be a bit more involved than just splicing together static byte streams that even a dumb CDN can accomplish.
  • meindnoch 3y ago
    So basically you would disallow pre-buffering more than an ad's worth of video? I'm not sure about that...
    • alkonaut 3y ago
      Yes. Or at least not past the next ad. No problem buffering up to the following ad.