diff --git a/renderers/video_renderer.c b/renderers/video_renderer.c
index e92ac4a..efa396a 100644
--- a/renderers/video_renderer.c
+++ b/renderers/video_renderer.c
@@ -53,6 +53,23 @@ static gint64 hls_duration;
 static gboolean hls_seek_enabled;
 static gboolean hls_playing;
 
+
+typedef enum {
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_VIDEO         = (1 << 0),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_AUDIO         = (1 << 1),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_TEXT          = (1 << 2),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_VIS           = (1 << 3),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_SOFT_VOLUME   = (1 << 4),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_NATIVE_AUDIO  = (1 << 5),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_NATIVE_VIDEO  = (1 << 6),
+  GST_PLAY_FLAG_DOWNLOAD      = (1 << 7),
+  GST_PLAY_FLAG_BUFFERING     = (1 << 8),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_DEINTERLACE   = (1 << 9),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_SOFT_COLORBALANCE = (1 << 10),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_FORCE_FILTERS = (1 << 11),
+  //GST_PLAY_FLAG_FORCE_SW_DECODERS = (1 << 12),
+} GstPlayFlags;
+
 #define NCODECS  2   /* renderers for h264 and h265 */
 
 struct video_renderer_s {
@@ -268,8 +285,12 @@ void  video_renderer_init(logger_t *render_logger, const char *server_name, vide
                     g_object_set(G_OBJECT (renderer_type[i]->pipeline), "video-sink", playbin_videosink, NULL);
                 }
             }
-
-            g_object_set (G_OBJECT (renderer_type[i]->pipeline), "uri", uri, NULL);
+            gint flags;
+            g_object_get(renderer_type[i]->pipeline, "flags", &flags, NULL);
+            flags |= GST_PLAY_FLAG_DOWNLOAD;
+	    flags |= GST_PLAY_FLAG_BUFFERING;    // set by default in playbin3, but not in playbin2; is it needed?
+            g_object_set(renderer_type[i]->pipeline, "flags", flags, NULL);
+	    g_object_set (G_OBJECT (renderer_type[i]->pipeline), "uri", uri, NULL);
         } else {
             switch (i) {
             case 0: