HTML5 Video Tag in Chrome - Why is currentTime ignored when video downloaded from my webserver?

Question

I want to be able to play back video from a specific time using the HTML5 video tag (and currently only need to worry about Chrome). This is possible by setting the currentTime

Answer 1

Make sure your web server is capable of serving the document using byte ranges. Google Chrome requires that this works. Without it, seeking will be disabled and setting currentTime will have no effect.

To test if your web server does this, use the following command:

curl --dump-header - -r0-0 http://theurl

The response status must read 206 Partial Content and you should receive only the first byte of the resource instead of the whole resource.

-Phil