What is streaming video

Only recently have internet speeds increased enough to make this process workable in real time. Apple now has some games that include only their core functionality in a download, and then they stream new levels or other content as users need it via a process called on-demand resources. Similarly, Google Stadia is a new game streaming service that allows you to use any device that can access a browser to play video games — no discs, downloads, or consoles required.

Other services for streaming games and apps are probably in development. Live streaming works similarly to streaming other types of content, but live streaming is used for special events like sporting events or political debates. As you watch, the stream temporarily stores and displays small amounts of data on your device, then discards them as you continue. That web server connects to a media server, which beams the content to your device using a real-time protocol RTP and a real-time streaming protocol RTSP.

Those protocols allow video files to be sent in a smaller compressed form, and then viewed in a higher quality decompressed form on your device. Like any type of streaming, when you watch a live stream, you never receive an actual file — you get only the parts needed to deliver your live viewing experience at any given time. Recently, social media platforms have started incorporating live streaming elements, such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live.

Get instant playback: No need to wait for content to download. Streaming lets you start watching or listening to what you want almost immediately. Avoid high costs and piracy: It would be expensive to buy a CD or digital download from every band you like. And downloading albums from torrent sites is illegal. Streaming gives you the best of both worlds: a small monthly fee to a streaming service replaces the need to either buy or steal all the content you want to access.

Live streaming gives you access through your laptop or other device. Access content from abroad: Are you traveling abroad but still want to watch your favorite TV shows from back home? One of the benefits of a VPN is that you can change your IP address to stream your favorite content from your home country on the go. Struggling to stream your favorite content? Here are some ways you can improve streaming on your computer, phone, or other device:.

Boost your Wi-Fi: You need a fast enough internet connection to properly stream. Try boosting your home Wi-Fi signal strength to improve streaming speed.

Reduce buffering: Internet speed may not be the only factor causing buffering. See our tips to reduce buffering while streaming. Unblock streaming options: Are you travelling abroad and find that your normal streaming options are blocked from your current location? Use a VPN to unblock the websites you want to stream from. Protect yourself if streaming on public Wi-Fi: While catching up on shows might seem like a great way to spend your airport layover, there are a lot of risks to using public Wi-Fi.

Try cleaning up your PC or speeding up your Mac for better all around performance. In rare cases, you may even need to upgrade your RAM for better streaming performance. While streaming is very convenient and popular these days, there are a few downsides to keep in mind.

If you have Fios, Fios TV One is a powerful all-in-one with voice remote and seamless Netflix integration to get to what you want to watch faster — including select shows in 4K quality.

Learn more. Even more exciting is the growing number of streaming apps joining the ranks that will offer a world of new content. Variety is definitely the future of streaming apps with something for everyone.

As mentioned, streaming requires a certain amount of speed for optimal performance. Many video streaming services offer minimum speed recommendations based on quality of content resolution.

The higher the resolution like 4K, the more speed is needed for virtually flawless music and movie streaming. To see recommended speed guidelines, visit the FCC website. The good news is once you've signed in, the streaming app will save that information so you don't have to do it again.

Most apps have an interface that lets you choose your favorite shows and browse others. With on-demand streaming you can watch one at a time, or "binge-watch" several in a row. You can pause the show to get something from the kitchen, usually even for live events like sports.

Streaming media's flexibility is one of the key reasons it has become so popular. Streaming providers must determine the best way to get their content to your device in a way that's easy for you to use. High-quality images, audio and video files often start out very large. Although still imagines aren't streaming, as an easy-to-imagine example let's say your smartphone has a megapixel camera.

A still photo you take with that camera has a print size of 9. That's larger than you need for a quick social media snapshot, but the larger file size means you can use the photo for other things, in this case perhaps a poster. Our phones create bigger sound, video and image files because it's generally a better idea to create a large file and shrink it down.

It's harder to enlarge a smaller media file with a high-quality result. Streaming providers use file formats that maximize quality over typical internet speeds. Compressing them is done using codecs , instructions for coding and decoding visual and audio information in a standard file format. Lossless formats capture more of the original file's fidelity but have larger file sizes. Many formats, however, are lossy — they remove some of the information in the file but attempt to keep as much of the original as possible.

To compress audio and video files, a lossy-format codec may identify parts of the video that it can copy and apply later in the show. It deletes the redundant information to keep the file size down. Codecs may also reduce the number of colors in the video, lower the resolution of the video or reduce its frame rate.

Lossy audio codecs may remove frequencies from the original recording that most people can't hear, around 20 Hz to 20, Hz. While that may help save on streaming bandwidth, it can cause problems, too.

You may have experienced some side effects of file compression while you watch a show if images seem washed out or pixilated. If you're running with your earbuds in, you may not hear a heavily compressed music file, but with nice headphones, you just might. Streaming providers want to make sure their service is as fast and reliable as possible, which means developing specialized systems to handle the traffic. At the time, the streaming video company had just become a global service with 4, servers in locations around the world.

It had been developing its own CDN since to get the service ready for global traffic. Netflix Open Connect, as it's called, requires the assistance of internet service providers ISPs all over the world. Their ISP partners embed the equipment in their networks.

Netflix then uses the devices to connect customers to the closest service point in the network. Bandwidth is not to be confused with the speed of the streaming, which is a measure of how fast the content can be downloaded.

Related to bandwidth is the concept of latency or delay. Latency is the amount of time taken for the information to reach the end user. It is also known as ping rate and can be experienced as the lag when you wait for a video to load. Streaming is by its very nature different from downloading. Instead the video data packets are transmitted a few at a time, so that the video loads in parts instead of in one go. Only once the entire file has been downloaded can the video start playing.

From a relatively new concept in the early s, streaming has become almost a household name today. So many of our activities on the internet involve content consumption in the form of streaming. Here are just a few examples of streaming. There are numerous other examples too which use streaming technology. Any form of media consumption where the content is transmitted to the end user in small pieces of data packets instead of being fully downloaded first can be considered to constitute streaming.

Accessing streamed content does require payment in some form. For example, if you are trying to stream movies or TV shows, you will need a fast enough internet connection, a streaming device smart TV, gaming console, a laptop or even a mobile phone.

Besides these, you will generally have to pay for a monthly subscription to access one of the common streaming platforms. Each of the platforms will have their own rates and accessibility so check their individual plans before subscribing. Although streaming technology has definitely made the viewing or listening experience much better for the user, it is still subject to the same kind of delays and performance issues as other types of content.

If you are experiencing issues with your streaming, start by troubleshooting your internet connection. This means double checking if you are connected to the right network, ensuring that there are on loose connections and rebooting your wifi router and modem if necessary. See if the streaming picks up speed when you lower the resolution or video quality.