Streaming Vs Downloading

[Scottish Business Owner]

Just wondering if some of the more techy guys can explain this to me.

As I understand things like the iPlayer stream the information from what I guess is a central server. You also have the option to download which is around 200MB for a half hour programme.

Most broadband packages these days come with some sort of allowance. So say for example I download something at 500MB, and my broadband limit is 3GB per month (thats maybe too low I dont know) then this would allow me to download 6 programmes.

How does streaming differ and what sort of downloads are you consuming just by surfing the net

 

[IT Training UK]

Say you download a 100meg video file from the net to your pc. You have used 100 meg of your monthly allowance of download.

say you stream that exact file via (for example the iplayer),you have still used 100 meg of your download limit. only difference is that you have not taken any space on your PC.

I hope this helps, if you have any more questions let me know and ill try my best to answer.

Scott

PS with regards to the dowloads as you surf the net, that is directly related to the content on the sites you are surfing. for example, if you were to surf 10 sites that were purely text based compared to 10 sites that required the user to view alot of video, then you would be using a fraction of your limit with the text sites as opposed to the video sites.

 

[alanbold]

Well there is no easy answer to your question as it depends on many variables. The first response is correct if its the same file but nearly always a video or music file that is "properly" streamed is not the same file that is offered to be downloaded as it has been encoded especially to be streamed and is being sent out via a streaming server not a webserver.

Does this make the streamed file smaller? Well it depends as a streamed file can be streamed at a variable bitrate meaning that if you have say a slow internet connection then the quality of the video you get sent from the streaming server is lower quality and smaller than if you watched the same file on a fast internet connection as a streaming server takes into account the speed of your internet connection. Then again not all content that appears streamed is real streaming but just a downloadable file on a web server that starts playing (ie progressive download ie youtube etc) before the whole file is in effect downloaded as a temp file on your computer.

Streaming should save you bandwidth especially if you have a slow or medium speed internet connection. Remember real streaming means you are watching it using some sort of media software ie windows media center, quicktime, realplayer, the iplayer software etc or using a one of their plugins within a browser.

Do you know what sort of average speed your internet connection gets?

Alan

 

[Power Lunch Club]

Say you download a 100meg video file from the net to your pc. You have used 100 meg of your monthly allowance of download.

say you stream that exact file via (for example the iplayer),you have still used 100 meg of your download limit. only difference is that you have not taken any space on your PC.

So basically there is no difference to your monthly download?

I think also the iplayer downloads are only available to watch for 30 days, whether you download them or not....could be wrong here....correct me folks?

Gordon

 

[stugster]

Streaming is when you actually make use of the data as soon (or almost as soon) as you receive it.

No matter how you download: Stream or Download to your disk, both ways are downloaded to a temp location on your hard drive.

If you're downloading a file, once the file has been completely downloaded, the file will be moved from the temp space to your chosen location. Whereas, with a stream, rather than waiting on the entire file to download, you use what you've downloaded so far.

Now, if you have a slow connection to the Internet and you're streaming media, you may find that the video/radio/whatever file starts to jitter and pause. To prevent this from happening most streaming software (Winamp, Media Player, iTunes, etc. etc.) will "buffer" the download. This basically means that before it starts playing it to you, it will download a percentage of the file to try and prevent the jitter and pauses.

In terms of bandwidth, it depends on what you mean. If you mean the "total amount downloaded", then there isn't a difference between streaming and downloading a file - the end result is the same size. However, if you mean bandwidth in terms of the amount of data being downloaded at any one point in time, then (usually) streaming will take a lot less bandwidth than downloading an entire file - the reason behind this, is that with streaming, you are only downloading what you need at the time (with exceptions),whereas if you download an entire file your computer will try and get the fastest speed available to it.

I'll try and dig up some resources to make my ramblings clearer


[Edit]
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/streaming-video-and-audio.htm

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/internet-tv2.htm

http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=8456&page=1

 

[Power Lunch Club]

Thanks Stuart, that was perfectly clear...

 

[GarryHeavens]

If you download the exact video that you can also stream the data usage will be exactly the same.

eg. Using one of those programs that can download a youtude video. Downloading said video is exactly the same as streaming it in data usage.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Sorry to come back to this. One other thing I want to understand. If i'm streaming it's coming from a server, how does that impact in terms of how much space it uses on my computer? Does it use any space at all?

 

[stugster]

It depends on what the media player is doing. Some players will buffer it up and keep it so you can rewind.

Other streams (mainly radio) aren't allowed to let you store the songs because of PPL/PRS/MCPS licence restrictions, and so you wont be storing any of the data long-term.

A true stream wont keep any data, and will simply process it immediately (i.e. you hear the music) and then the data's gone.