What is “streaming video” anyway?
Streaming video is a sequence of visual data that is sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the viewer as it arrives. Streaming media refers to the combination of visual and audio data. This guide uses the term streaming video to refer to visual data that may or may not contain audio. With streaming video, 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 uncompresses data 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. Two common players are RealOne (for PC’s) and QuickTime (for Macintoshes).
