What is streaming

Streaming : When a file is streamed, it is broken into a series of tiny packets that are then reassembled by the player in the correct order. The advantage of creating all these tiny pieces is that the pieces download more quickly and can be played before the file is entirely downloaded. For a very large file (which most video files are), this is really the only way to avoid huge delays while waiting for a download.
         Streaming takes place while you are watching this first part of a video, the server will continue to send over the rest of the video file in the "background" - so you don't have to wait until the whole video has finished transferring before you can start watching.

Progressive download

Delivery of a file over HTTP is normally referred to as ‘progressive download’ or ‘http streaming’. In reality, it is not streaming at all but a very simple bulk download of a video file to the end user’s computer. A temporary copy of the video file is then stored on the local computer so that the viewer can watch the file over and over without having to download the file each time.
          Let’s assume you have a video file encoded at 500kbps. The server delivering the file does not know or care that your video file is encoded at 500kbps; it simply pushes data to the host machine as quickly as it can. This can sometimes give the illusion that the file is being streamed because playback can start as soon as enough of the file is available on the local machine. This obviously restricts the users from skipping to parts of the file that have not yet been downloaded.


Advantages of Streaming

1. You can begin video playback at any point of the video, or skip through the video as you see fit. This is very convenient for users.

2. It makes a lot more efficient use of bandwidth as you are only using bandwidth for part of the video that are actually watched as opposed to HTTP delivery where the whole file gets delivered.

3. The video file is not stored on the viewer’s computer – the video data is played and then discarded by the media player. This lets you maintain more control over your content.

Disadvantages of Streaming

    1. High cost of server software.

    2. Sound quality and stream may be affected by low speed or inconsistent Internet connections.

    3. Requires a preconfigured server