ARCHIVED: About streaming audio or video

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.
Note:
The WWWDM service will be retired on June 30, 2018, and Digital Streaming Media account creation was suspended in April 2017. IU's Kaltura service is available to IU community members who need a media streaming service.

Streaming audio or video is delivered by a streaming server, which can deliver a constant flow of audio and/or video across a network that might be slow or congested. It is much like watching television with an antenna; you will receive only the video that you will be watching immediately. If there is interference in the transmission (i.e., network congestion), the streaming player will compensate by lowering the quality, but it will try not to stop the stream.

In contrast, video files that reside on a web server will be downloaded for viewing, instead of streamed. Viewers will need to wait for enough of the video to be downloaded before they can view it. This can be a preferable means of transmission if you want to preserve the quality of your video for all viewers.

This is document ajwi in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-07-01 00:17:05.