http response 206 for video in internet explorer

Question

I am trying to use the html tag to play a short clip on my intranet site which runs on the SharePoint Online platform. Here is the code I have tried:

<video width="100%" loop="loop" autoplay="autoplay" src="/sites/pathtosite/SiteAssets/videos/clip.mp4" type="video/mp4"></video>

and:

<video width="100%" loop="loop" autoplay="autoplay">
    <source src="/sites/pathtosite/SiteAssets/videos/clip.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source>
</video>

Both versions of these snippets work in chrome and firefox, but no video is shown in IE (v11). When I use the dev tools (press F12) in IE and record network traffic while the page is loading, I see that i get an http response of 206 for the video. It only loads ~12 KB of the file (~5MB total). The initiator column for the request is blank which i thought was weird too.

I understand the 206 is a partial content response, and the browser is supposed to retrieve the file in chunks. It works properly in the other browsers, but IE doesn't request the rest of the file for some reason.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

Regarding :

"@VC.One : The video you posted does work on our intranet site! What does this mean for my mp4 file? It was converted from .mov to .mp4 (H.264) using VLC (file->convert)."

You did not provide any details about the input file, but likely it means your video has an incompatible H264 profile. Encoding with a setting of profile Baseline @ level 3.0 is best for successful playback on all systems.

Solutions :

(1) Within Internet Explorer options, try enabling option (tick) : "Use software rendering".
This should be the simplest way to get video playback. If still problematic, try my other solutions...

(2) Try using a <video> tag setup like this :

<video width="100%" controls loop="true" autoplay="true">
    <source src="myVideo.mp4" type="video/mp4" codecs="avc1.4D401E, mp4a.40.2" />
</video>

(3) Re-encode the MP4 video with acceptable [to Internet Exlorer] settings for H.264/MP4.

I don't convert with VLC but for best results :

• Make sure the input .mov contains...

  • video of H.264 codec (and AAC/MP3 audio, if has sound).
  • H.264 is encoded with Baseline profile.

• If input is not H.264 then un-tick option "Keep original video track" (it must be un-selected).

"@VC.One: I re-encoded the file using HandBrake and it works! Thank you very much for your help."

You're welcome and I'm glad you got a useful suggestion.
PS: +1 for actively trying to solve issue by yourself too.

You used the HandBrake solution, but for FFmpeg users (like me) we can try :

ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -profile:v baseline -level:v 3.0 -color_primaries 1 -color_trc 1 -colorspace 1 -refs:v 1 -strict -2 output.mp4

Finally...

If still any getting issues, then share a (temporary) online link to the input .mov file for analysis.