Causes of Buffering
Buffering could be caused by any number of issues. If your videos are buffering check the following:
Default Resolution - If you uploaded videos in 4k and you have your theme configured to play the highest resolution, then your video may buffer when playing in 4k if the network is slow or has low speeds.
Playback Speed - If you have your playback speed set by default to play at 1.5x or 2x normal speed, this may cause buffering especially on slow networks or slow wifi.
Encoding or Codec Conflicts - The root cause of many issues with streaming performance is due to an issue with the original video file uploaded to Spotlightr. It's typically due to codec issues when the video file was transcoded, or other issues with frame rate or bit rate.
If you are having an issue with playback likely caused by encoding issues there are 2 ways to address it: using our 2 pass conversion process when you upload your videos or using a tool called Handbrake to optimize your video file for web use.
You can try either of these options as they are both effective. It's recommended to use web optimized video files whenever possible anyway, as this ensures that your videos are working well across multiple devices and browsers. So going through these processes will only help performance overall.
Optimize Video File with 2-Pass Conversion
The first option is to re-upload your video by using the two pass conversion option. It's slower to upload and process but it can produce much better results and fix any buffering or stuttering issues. Two-pass conversion is a helpful especially when the video file has odd variable bit rates and/or odd codecs.
You may access two pass conversion by selecting the gear icon before you upload your video and check off the box for 2-pass conversion:
Optimize Video File with Handbrake
If 2-pass does not help, we advise you to use a free tool called Handbrake to convert your video to MP4 and optimize it for web streaming.
Click here for instructions on optimizing your video with Handbrake.
This will optimize your video and compress it while still maintaining high quality for web streaming. After optimizing the streaming performance should be remarkably increased.
Once that is done and you have a new video file, you can then just replace the file source of your Spotlightr video. Replacing the source of your already created Spotlightr video will keep all of the settings you already configured and you will not need to replace or change any embed codes.
In any case, if you are still having an issue or would like more help please feel free to send any problematic videos to our support team and we will optimize and upload it for you. You may upload the video to any cloud platform like Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, etc and send us a link to download it from there.