Streaming Video with PHP

[optikalefx]

So i have a large video files, 1.5 gigs even.

I made an html5 video player where the source is a php file.

The php file is supposed to go below the web root and serve the video file to the html5 video tag.

 

This all works just fine if the video using a script that uses HTTP_RANGE to serve the file in parts to the client.

The problem is, once one video is playing - i can't do anything else.  Its like the server locks up. I mean i can scrub that video, i can do anything to that page.  I just can't navigate away.  But i can open a new browser and play a new video.  But again, once that first one is playing, or even paused, i can't do anything else.

 

That is of course until i restart apache.

 

Any ideas on how to stream these large files better? I have a feeling they are set to stream and never stop.

This is the code for that

 

function rangeDownload($file) {

$fp = @fopen($file, 'rb');

$size   = filesize($file); // File size
$length = $size;           // Content length
$start  = 0;               // Start byte
$end    = $size - 1;       // End byte
// Now that we've gotten so far without errors we send the accept range header
/* At the moment we only support single ranges.
 * Multiple ranges requires some more work to ensure it works correctly
 * and comply with the spesifications: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec19.html#sec19.2
 *
 * Multirange support annouces itself with:
 * header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
 *
 * Multirange content must be sent with multipart/byteranges mediatype,
 * (mediatype = mimetype)
 * as well as a boundry header to indicate the various chunks of data.
 */
header("Accept-Ranges: 0-$length");
// header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
// multipart/byteranges
// http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec19.html#sec19.2
if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'])) {

	$c_start = $start;
	$c_end   = $end;
	// Extract the range string
	list(, $range) = explode('=', $_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'], 2);
	// Make sure the client hasn't sent us a multibyte range
	if (strpos($range, ',') !== false) {

		// (?) Shoud this be issued here, or should the first
		// range be used? Or should the header be ignored and
		// we output the whole content?
		header('HTTP/1.1 416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable');
		header("Content-Range: bytes $start-$end/$size");
		// (?) Echo some info to the client?
		exit;
	}
	// If the range starts with an '-' we start from the beginning
	// If not, we forward the file pointer
	// And make sure to get the end byte if spesified
	if ($range == '-') {

		// The n-number of the last bytes is requested
		$c_start = $size - substr($range, 1);
	}
	else {

		$range  = explode('-', $range);
		$c_start = $range[0];
		$c_end   = (isset($range[1]) && is_numeric($range[1])) ? $range[1] : $size;
	}
	/* Check the range and make sure it's treated according to the specs.
	 * http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html
	 */
	// End bytes can not be larger than $end.
	$c_end = ($c_end > $end) ? $end : $c_end;
	// Validate the requested range and return an error if it's not correct.
	if ($c_start > $c_end || $c_start > $size - 1 || $c_end >= $size) {

		header('HTTP/1.1 416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable');
		header("Content-Range: bytes $start-$end/$size");
		// (?) Echo some info to the client?
		exit;
	}
	$start  = $c_start;
	$end    = $c_end;
	$length = $end - $start + 1; // Calculate new content length
	fseek($fp, $start);
	header('HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content');
}
// Notify the client the byte range we'll be outputting
header("Content-Range: bytes $start-$end/$size");
header("Content-Length: $length");

// Start buffered download
$buffer = 1024 * 8;
while(!feof($fp) && ($p = ftell($fp)) <= $end) {

	if ($p + $buffer > $end) {

		// In case we're only outputtin a chunk, make sure we don't
		// read past the length
		$buffer = $end - $p + 1;
	}
	set_time_limit(0); // Reset time limit for big files
	echo fread($fp, $buffer);
	flush(); // Free up memory. Otherwise large files will trigger PHP's memory limit.
}

fclose($fp);

}