The basics of streaming audio or video
Streaming audio or video is delivered by a streaming server, which can deliver a constant flow of audio and/or video across a network that might be slow or congested. It is much like watching television with an antenna; you will receive only the video that you will be watching immediately. If there is interference in the transmission (i.e., network congestion), the streaming player will compensate by lowering the quality, but it will try not to stop the stream.
In contrast, video files that reside on a web server will be downloaded for viewing, instead of streamed. Viewers will need to wait for enough of the video to be downloaded before they can view it. This can be a preferable means of transmission if you want to preserve the quality of your video for all viewers.
Note: UITS no longer supports the QuickTime and Real streaming servers. To stream audio and video files, you should instead use the Adobe Flash or Windows Media streaming servers; see Streaming audio and video over the web at IU. To convert QuickTime files to other formats, use Adobe Media Encoder, which is available in Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5 and CS5.5) from IUware. To convert Real files to other formats, use the RealPlayer Converter, and follow the RealPlayer Converter guide.
