Article - What is a streaming Flash Video?
Video streaming is used to display videos on-demand via a web browser such as Internet explorer, Firefox or Safari.
Unlike downloading - where one would have to save a complete file locally (onto their computer) before they are able to play it - streaming allows you to play a file as it is being downloaded.
You will notice as you access a streaming video that there is a progress bar at the bottom of the video. Take a look at the image below:
“A” – the bar indicates how much of the video has been downloaded onto your computer from the server.
“B” – the white arrow indicates the “track view” or where ones' location in the video clip (the example shows that the user is at the beginning of the clip.) |
If the video clip is large it will take long to download and “B” will catch up to “A”. The track view (video view) will stop until more of the video is downloaded. One can never view more than has been downloaded.
NOTE:
Every browser contains a function that retains information from a website (called caching). This means that the second, third etc time that you access that same video it will load faster because a “cache” of the file is stored in your temporary internet files. |
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