STREAMING VIDEO - HOW IT WORKS (AND WHY IT SOMETIMES DOESN'T)

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STREAMING VIDEO - HOW IT WORKS (AND WHY IT
SOMETIMES DOESN'T)
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• Streaming video The exciting new technology that
  allows video producers to share their work
  inexpensively with a worldwide audience.
• By now, you have at least heard of streaming
  video the exciting new technology that allows
  video producers to share their work inexpensively
  with a worldwide audience of Web surfers. Maybe
  you have viewed, or at least attempted to view,
  some streaming video yourself. And if you are
  among a select few, you have actually attempted
  the feat of creating your own streaming videos
  and placing them on your Web page Bravo! We
  salute your bravery.

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• Whatever your level of experience with streaming
  video, you should know (as a videographer and a
  reader of this magazine) that the technology that
  makes it happen, exciting though it is, does not
  always work the way it should. Streaming video
  has been touted as a means to give videographers
  everywhere their own television station and
  broadcasting license but if a television station
  operated as poorly as many streaming video sites
  do, it'd have very few viewers, due to the number
  of hiccups, false starts, glitches and system
  crashes they'd encounter while trying to watch
  their favorite programs.
• In this article, we examine how streaming video
  technology works, in hopes of explaining why it
  sometimes doesn't. In the end, we hope to give
  you the means to avoid some of the common
  pitfalls that streaming video producers must
  face.

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• Packets and Routes
• Before we attempt to launch into a discussion
  about streaming video, it may be helpful to cover
  just a couple of basics about how the Internet
  operates.
• Basically, the Internet is a way to connect your
  computer to other computers around the world, in
  order to share information in the form of e-mail,
  Web pages, music, video, pictures, etc. The
  connection to other computers is not a direct
  connection, however before your information can
  reach other people's machines, it must make a
  series of jumps from computer to computer as it
  traces a successful route. Packet servers, the
  big, powerful computers that form the backbone of
  the Internet, transmit information along in the
  form of distinct packets of data.
• The preceding two concepts are crucial in
  understanding how streaming video works, as we'll
  see shortly. It's actually far more complex than
  that, but this simple view works for our
  purposes.
• As progressive streaming is the least expensive
  approach, it's the method that's most often used
  by amateur videographers and allows video to be
  served directly from a Web site with no
  additional software. One example of progressive
  streaming is Apple's QuickTime, which kick-starts
  your browser and starts playing a
  progressive-streaming clip before it has
  completely downloaded. Although it was not
  designed with streaming in mind, even the
  venerable MPEG-1 format can be coaxed to
  progressively stream with many software players.
  In both situations, random access of the video is
  not possible and if you want to watch the last
  second of the video you will need to download the
  entire file.

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• The Real Thing
• Real streaming video, on the other hand, is most
  often used by producers and distributors with
  deeper pockets, since it requires a special
  software server. A streaming server is a
  specialized piece of software that controls the
  actual streaming of the video, often adjusting
  the data rate on the fly to compensate for the
  vagaries of the Internet. It lets viewers jump
  ahead to later portions of a clip, skipping
  entire portions without downloading them.
  Streaming video files can remain on the server,
  so no matter how long they are, you don't have to
  worry about it taking up your hard drive space
  (although the files can sometimes be found in
  your Internet Temp directory). This can also work
  as a theft-prevention and redistribution security
  tool.
• You probably won't purchase and install a
  streaming server yourself. Most ISPs will not
  allow you to install a server on their computer -
  at least not for free. A number of companies will
  rent you space on their streaming video servers
  for a flat fee or based on volume. There are also
  a half-dozen or so companies (see Free for All
  sidebar) that will give you space on their server
  for free or at a very low cost. These companies
  generate revenue either from advertisements or by
  only offering limited services for free (file
  size/volume limitations). Although you generally
  cannot construct your own Web pages with embedded
  streaming media, free is free.

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• Better than Sliced Bread?
• A common misconception is that video streamingis
  of superior quality to progressive streaming. In
  fact, the opposite is true because progressively
  streamed video plays off the user's hard drive,
  the quality is only limited by how long you want
  to make your viewers wait to download the
  streaming video clip. With true streaming,
  however, the quality varies widely with
  connection speed and the amount of congestion
  currently clogging up the Internet. As you view a
  streamed video, you may notice the picture
  breaking up now and then faces fall into horrific
  little pieces, and landscapes suddenly turn into
  a broken mosaic that breaks apart in front of
  your eyes. All very amusing, but not the desired
  effect, to be sure. Remember those packets and
  routes we discussed? You can see the effects of
  that technological wonder at work as you watch
  your real-time streamed video clips fall apart
  when Internet congestion increases. (One solution
  for viewers watch your real-time streaming
  videos at night, when Internet traffic is at a
  lull.)

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• Ready for the Future
• As more and more Internet users gain access to
  high-speed broadband DSL and cable modems, many
  of the problems with streaming video will begin
  to disappear. Also helpful will be the ongoing
  upgrade of the main Internet backbone itself more
  packet servers, faster connections between them,
  etc. For now, however, we must make do with the
  tools we have.
• The easiest way to stream video is simply to post
  your video to your web page. If you do so, be
  sure to encode for progressive streaming.
• Keep your videos short.
• Keep the resolution low.
• Reduce the frame rate (to 15fps or less).
• Compress, compress, compress.

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• Click here for more details about video
  streaming
• https//www.fame.live/