What are the differences between downloadable video and streaming video?
There are two common approaches to providing video over a computer network – Downloading and Streaming. Downloading simply means transferring the whole file from a server to a computer for viewing – if a file is large in size, this can take a long time – this may put some viewers off and they may navigate away without watching the video clip. Streaming works by playing the video immediately. As long as a suitable download rate is maintained for the remainder of the file, the viewer sees a continuous video clip without any pauses. Streamed media files may progressively download if the client viewer does not support the streaming protocol and download rate is less than the play rate, meaning the video has to pause while the download catches up. There are other advantages to streaming video related to version control and copyright issues – streamed clips cannot be saved to a local machine.
