Total startup time
Total startup time is the whole wait from a page starting to load to the first video frame appearing. It adds page load time, player initialization time and video startup time. It is the number closest to what a viewer actually feels, since they do not care which part was slow.
Why it matters
Viewers judge speed by the whole wait, not by which system caused it. A team can make video startup fast and still lose viewers to a slow page or heavy player. Total startup time keeps everyone focused on the real wait and shows which part to fix first.
How it works
- Page load time measures how long the page holding the player takes to load.
- Player initialization time measures how long the player takes to become ready.
- Video startup time measures the gap from pressing play to the first frame.
- The three are added to give total startup time, and each part can be checked on its own.
Total startup time vs video startup time: what is the difference?
Video startup time covers only the wait after play is pressed until the first frame appears. Total startup time adds the page load and player setup before that. A service can have fast video startup and still feel slow because its page or player is heavy, so total startup time shows the full picture.
How do I make a video start faster?
Find the slowest of the three parts and fix that first. A slow page needs lighter scripts and images. A slow player needs a smaller bundle and fewer plugins. Slow video startup needs a lower first rendition, shorter segments and a closer CDN. Then measure again with real viewer data. To see which part is slow for real viewers, FastPix Video Data reports all three for each view.
Where it's used
OTT services and online learning platforms use total startup time as the top-line speed metric for their web apps and break it into its three parts to find the slow one.
Where it usually goes wrong, and how FastPix handles it
Teams often optimize one part of startup, usually the video, and miss that page loading or player setup makes up most of the viewer's wait.
Total startup time per view in FastPix Video Data is the sum of video startup, player initialization and page load time, with each part kept separate. That keeps teams from polishing the video while viewers still wait on a slow page or player.
By the numbers
- In a 2012 study of 23 million video views, viewers began abandoning videos that did not start within 2 seconds, and each extra second of delay raised abandonment by about 5.8 percent. (Research quantifies how video stream quality affects viewer behavior (ScienceDaily, 2012))
- Google research published in 2016 found that 53 percent of mobile website visitors leave if a page does not load within three seconds. (Google: 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take over 3 seconds to load (Marketing Dive))
