--- title: "What Is Buffering? Definition and Examples | RentAnOTT" description: "Buffering is a pause in playback while the player waits for more video to arrive. See what causes it on the service side and how to reduce it." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/buffering" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/buffering.md" category: "Streaming technology" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is buffering? Buffering is the interruption that occurs when a video player runs out of downloaded video and has to pause, usually showing a spinner, until more arrives. The technical term for a pause after playback has started is rebuffering. ## How the buffer works A player downloads video slightly ahead of what is being shown and keeps it in a buffer, typically 10 to 30 seconds. As long as video arrives at least as fast as it is played, the buffer stays full. When the download falls behind, the buffer drains, and when it is empty playback stops. ## Causes on the service side - A bitrate ladder with no rung low enough for weak connections - A lowest rung that is still too heavy, or gaps between rungs that are too wide - A CDN that is slow or congested in the viewer's region - Poor cache hit rates, so segments are fetched from a distant origin - Player adaptation that reacts too slowly to a falling connection - Segments that are too long, so one slow download empties the buffer - Overloaded origin or packaging during a live peak ## Why it matters Viewers tolerate lower resolution far better than they tolerate stopping. Each stall raises the chance that the viewer abandons the session, and repeated stalls are a common reason for cancelling. Studies of viewing behavior consistently find that even a small rebuffering ratio shortens watch time. ## How to reduce it - Add a very low rung, around 200 to 400 kbps, as a safety net - Start playback on a modest rung and step up - Measure rebuffering by region, network and device to find where it concentrates - Check CDN performance in the regions where your audience actually is - Tune the player to favor continuity over resolution - Offer downloads for viewers on unreliable mobile networks ## Buffering on RentAnOTT RentAnOTT uses adaptive delivery over a CDN, and its quality analytics report buffering, failures and device mix, so you can see where playback problems concentrate. [See features](https://www.rentanott.com/features). ## Related terms - [Quality of experience](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/quality-of-experience) — Quality of experience (QoE) is the measure of how well video playback works from the viewer's point of view. It is tracked through a small set of metrics collected by the player: how quickly video starts, how often it stalls, how often it fails and what picture quality is delivered. - [Adaptive bitrate streaming](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/adaptive-bitrate-streaming) — Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) is a delivery method in which a video is encoded at several quality levels and the player switches between them during playback, choosing the highest quality the viewer's connection can sustain without stalling. - [Bitrate ladder](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/bitrate-ladder) — A bitrate ladder, or encoding ladder, is the list of versions a video is encoded into for adaptive streaming. Each rung pairs a resolution with a bitrate, and the player moves up and down the rungs as the viewer's connection changes. - [CDN](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/cdn) — A CDN (content delivery network) is a network of servers spread across many locations that stores copies of content and delivers each request from a server near the viewer. For streaming, it is what carries the video segments from the platform to the audience. - [Video player](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/video-player) — A video player is the software on a viewer's device that requests a stream, decodes it and displays it, and provides the controls for watching. In a streaming service it also handles adaptive quality, DRM, subtitles, advertising and analytics. - [Bandwidth](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/bandwidth) — Bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be transferred over a connection, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). In streaming the word is also used for the total volume of video delivered to viewers in a month, measured in gigabytes or terabytes. - [Low-latency streaming](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/low-latency-streaming) — Low-latency streaming is live streaming configured so that the delay between something happening in front of the camera and appearing on the viewer's screen is a few seconds, instead of the 10 to 30 seconds typical of standard internet streaming. ## Further reading - [Choosing a live streaming player](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/live-streaming-player) - [Video bitrate calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/video-bitrate-calculator) - [Offline video in streaming apps](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/offline-videos-streaming-app-guide) ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the difference between buffering and rebuffering? Buffering can mean any loading, including before playback starts. Rebuffering means a stall after playback has begun. ### Is buffering always the viewer's internet connection? Often, but not always. If many viewers in one region or on one device stall together, the cause is on the delivery or encoding side. ### Does lowering quality stop buffering? Usually. That is what adaptive streaming does automatically, provided the ladder has a rung light enough for the connection. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt