Streaming Media

I was stumbling with old 'Digit Achieves' and I got article which caught my eyes as it was named as 'Streaming Media'. So let's elaborate more on this.

As the Internet speed is getting better and better nowadays watching videos , listening songs online from the sites like youtube, google video, mp3air etc have also increased by the internet user, without knowing how it really works? I guess end user for any technology never care how does that system work but NOT everyone. So let's dig what happens actually when we play multimedia in our browser.

Define Streaming :

Streaming media is streaming video with sound. With streaming video or streaming media, a Web user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. The user needs a player, which is a special program that compresses and sends video data to the display and audio data to speakers. A player can be either an integral part of a browser or downloaded from the software maker's Web site.


The technology and protocols used for streaming are different from used for viewing web pages or for downloading files. It is the technique of continuous and steady digital data (audio/video/graphics) transfer as packet in real time from a data server through the Internet to user's computer. Media files can be played in browser by using any embedded plugins or any media player. Smoothness of media stream is based on internet speed. Different quality may be available for different internet speed connection like glitches in frame or no sound for slow speed connection.

Compression method for media file is essential feature which decide the seamless streaming. Lossy compression formats for audio like mp3, aac, WMA etc. and video formats like mpeg2, mpeg4, h.264, vc-1 etc are used for encoding and converting those large media files to smaller size with compromised quality and so we get .mov , .rm etc. files.

RealNetworks, QuickTime, Windows media and Macromedia Flash are the most popular streaming technologies and many broadcasters (data server providers) assume that the player plugins are already installed in viewer/listener browser.

Streaming methods :

So streaming technology this encompasses media content, the streaming server, plugins and codec software. Streaming is of two types – progressive and real time (live). In progressive streaming, the media file can be viewed or listened while the file is being downloaded. In the case of packet loss, re-retransmission of lost packets are possible. Media files streamed in progressive manner get stored temporarily in viewer's hard drive e.g. HTTP streaming. In the case of HTTP streaming a request for data remains open even after the data is received by the client, so that server can respond at any time.

In real-time streaming, media contents get downloaded temporarily to the user's computer and gives live broadcast of media contents which is entirely depends upon the internet connection speed user has otherwise transmission of media would break.

Media streaming can also be categories as 'on demand ' or 'live'. In the case of on demand, the media files are stored in server for a long period of time and can be transmitted based on user request while live streams are only available at particular time like live TV broadcast. But nowadays due to increase performance and lower cost of the technologies mostly HYBRID (live and latter on demand ) systems are more popular. So now while watching live cricket match , you can pause it and restart from the same place through on demand method.

Transmission Protocols:

For streaming the there are a lots of transmission protocols are available like Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Real Time Protocol (RTP). TCP provides guaranties for the transmission of every bit by giving reliable connection. However UDP is more preferable than TCP for providing continuous transmission of data rather than re-transmission of lost packets. Some glitches might observed while packet loss but that can be recovered or minimized by various error-correction techniques. RTSP and RTP are mostly used in internet for media transmission. These can be used for unicast (one to one communication) or multicast (one to many communication).

PS: For hands on streaming your own media files, just play with VLC player (my favorite one).

Here are some other useful links:

1)Streaming media
2)How Streaming Video and Audio Work
3)List of streaming media systems