Improve initial playback quality for short looping videos in AEM Dynamic Media

Short looping videos (4 seconds or shorter) in AEM Dynamic Media may start playback in a low-resolution rendition and continue looping without switching to higher quality, even when sufficient bandwidth is available. To fix the issue, adjust the viewer’s initial bitrate setting to prioritize higher-quality renditions at startup.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Dynamic Media, all versions.

Issue/Symptoms

When using adaptive video encoding with the Smart Crop Video Viewer, short looping videos (4 seconds or shorter) may initially play in a low-resolution rendition. For these short videos, especially when set to loop, playback may never switch to a higher-quality rendition, resulting in a consistently low-quality viewing experience even under good bandwidth conditions. No error messages are displayed; the issue is a visual quality concern.

Cause

The Smart Crop Video Viewer selects the initial video rendition based on the initialbitrate setting. By default, this value is set to approximately 1400 kbps, which causes the viewer to start playback with the nearest lower rendition (e.g., 700–1,200 kbps). For very short or looping videos, there isn’t enough time for the adaptive streaming logic to switch to a higher-quality rendition before the video loops, so playback remains in the lower-quality rendition.

Resolution resolution

To fix the issue where short looping videos start and remain in low-resolution playback due to adaptive streaming settings, follow these steps:

For more details on configuring the Smart Crop Video Viewer, refer: SmartCropVideoPlayer.initialbitrate