Why does the CDN send FLV video as flv-application/octet-stream instead of the more commonly used video/x-flv? This causes issues behind proxy servers that block application/octet-stream mime types. Most other flash video (e.g. ones send with video/x-flv content type) work just fine.
The mimetype “flv-application/octet-stream” is also fairly common for FLV (especially when delivered streaming). Firewalls should enable both types.
Is it really that common?
Adobe says it’s supposed to be video/x-flv (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ActionScript/3.0_ProgrammingAS3/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9b90204-7d48.html). They do say some applications might require the application/octet-stream subtype, but from my experience, the vast majority of streaming flv video on the web doesn’t do this (because we’ve never encountered a problem in the past).
Look at youtube for example (this video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmDYXaaT9sA)
[code]Status=OK – 200
Connection=Keep-Alive
Proxy-Connection=Keep-Alive
Content-Length=205842500
Expires=Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:31:12 GMT
Date=Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:31:12 GMT
Content-Type=video/x-flv
Server=gvs 1.0
Accept-Ranges=bytes
Last-Modified=Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:00:43 GMT
Cache-Control=private, max-age=23028
X-Content-Type-Options=nosniff
[/code]
So I understand why it might be good for a firewall to support both types, I still don’t understand why you’re using this alternate subtype / what necessitates it. .
This mimetype used to be preferred for FLV video ~5 years ago. Later, the video/x-flv came into used. Our CDN hasn’t changed it since, probably due to concerns around applications breaking.
Why do you use the FLV files actually? Note any recent version of the Flash plugin can play MP4, which has much better quality.
I’m only using it as a failback for maximum compatibility.
