Millisecond Forums

Load Times

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic14055.aspx

By Jesse Hancock - 8/24/2014

When loading an mp3 file to play, it sits for a very long time without giving the user any indication that it is doing anything. This occurs to the point where it can seem like the script has crashed.
Is there something we can do about minimising load time, or providing some feedback to the user to let them know everything is ok?
By Dave - 8/24/2014

Load time primarily depends on the number of files being downloaded and their respective file size. To minimize load time, both should be kept to the minimum possible (particularly file sizes). In concrete terms, with MP3s, it may be unnecessary to use very large files encoded at 320kbps -- depending on what kind of sound you are displaying, a lower bit rate (e.g. 64kbps) may be sufficient. Particularly for voice-only stimuli, 32 or 16kbps may provide sufficient quality, resulting in greatly reduced file size and faster loading.

As of right now, it is unfortunately not possible to provide feedback on download progress. You could, of course, alert participants to expect some load time / apparent freezing via instructions on the experiment's launch page.

Hope this helps.
By Jesse Hancock - 10/27/2014

This seems like a massive limitation. Is there any possibility of a loading bar getting introduced in the future?
By Dave - 10/27/2014

Yes, providing a better sense of the expected loading time (via a loading bar or the like) is planned for future versions.