Preloading HTML5 video keeps connection opened - spring

Question

I am working in a web application that provides some (html5 compatible) videos to the user. I am using videojs to show those videos with the "preload" attribute set to "auto".
I am aware that browsers usually only load a portion of the video and that is ok for me. The problem is that it keeps the connection opened with the backend (spring-boot) that is dispatching the video by writing to the OutputStream:
while ((read = input.read(buffer)) > 0) {
output.write(buffer, 0, read); // once video is preloaded, it keeps waiting here
output.flush();
}
After 1 min, if the user doesn't hit the play button, it throws a ClientAbortedException: java.net.SocketTimeoutException.
Is there any way to make the browser close the connection once the preload has finished? (Note that for our system, it is important to close the InputStream as soon as possible if it is not being used).

Answer 1

Yes, I agree. This is an issue.
The sugestion below only will work if you are using playlist and segments, like HLS and DASH.
If you are playing static files (vod) and its segments are cached on the browser's cache, you can restart the player using a set timeout function and reload all settings again, replacing the preload attribute with "none", on the ready event. So, you can control the cache in seconds that you want.
var stopcache = true;
// when ready, cache segments by 5 seconds and restart player
player.on('ready',function(){
setTimeout(function() {
if (stopcache) {
stopcache = false; // avoid repeat
player.preload('none'); // or false if API allows
player.autoplay(false);
player.src('');
player.src({
type:'application/x-mpegURL',
src:'//example.com/hls/stream.m3u8'
});
}
}, 5000);
});
// avoid player reload if user played the file
player.on('play',function(){ stopcache = false; });
This is just a sugestion, I didn't try it but I believe that it will work because the playlist and segments are cached by the browser (vod). I use the same technique when playing live videos, reloading the url when user press play after pause, forcing the player starts from the actual live segment.