Anyone Noticed Few Video Sites Have Loop Feature?

[utunnels]

Well, actually I haven't see one site has that feature yet, at least youtube doesn't. Although there are some browser plugins that enable loop.
I'm just curious, anyone knows the reason behind this?

[Lord J Esq]

Maybe they're not quick to roll out features like that because they'd become bandwidth sinks. Just think of all those people loading one or more videos at a time, and then either leaving the tab or leaving their whole computer.

[tripehound]

Do YouTube videos get downloaded into memory, or are they streamed live from the server every time they're played? I don't see how an embedded loop feature would be a significant bandwidth drag if PCs are just pulling the same file from RAM or the browser cache.

[alfadorredux]

Something appears to go into the disc cache (I was on YouTube last night, copying stage directions for the CC Dario subquest), but it's hard to tell from a casual glance at the filename whether or not it's the complete video. Filesize seems to be around 2-2.5MB per minute of video, which isn't really that big. However, a half-dozen of them might still exceed the capacity of some people's disc caches.

[Ramsus]

Flash videos are stored in the browser's cache on the disk usually, so looping wouldn't have any effect on bandwidth usage. If you look for the file header, you can actually pick out which cached files are FLV videos.

Ever notice a lot of DVD players don't have video looping features? I'm betting it's mostly a lack of demand for the feature. It's not a make-or-break feature.

[Lord J Esq]

I love looping. I want to see loop features in all browser-based players moving forward.