Streaming Media - August/September 2007 - (Page 14)

letters to the editor Progressive Party I wanted to take a few minutes to provide feedback to the recent article “Streaming vs. Progressive Download” by Doug Mow, Tom Gilley, and Dane Atkinson in the June/July 2007 issue of Streaming Media magazine [pp. 54–58]. I was excited to see this topic being discussed, as many people on our sales team deal with this discussion each day, but after reading, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment. This article is filled with incorrect statements that I feel need to be corrected. 1. Typically, you are viewing streaming when you see Windows Media or RealNetworks players, and you are receiving progressive downloads with QuickTime and Flash Players (p. 54). This is not true. Streaming vs. progressive download has nothing to do with format and is only dependent on how the site is set up and where the file is being served from. 2. Because progressive download is really just file delivery, it is perfect for existing content delivery networks and, therefore, for supporting a very large viewing audience. Since viewers are downloading the video file, playback is not affected by how fast they are receiving the file. With progressive download and a little patience, the user can view the video without the start/stop buffer breakdown typical of streaming servers, ensuring a higher-quality viewing experience (p. 56). Again, this is not true. When a user has clicked on a video file that is being delivered via progressive download, the media player is launched and viewing starts. Progressive download in this fashion suffers as much, if not more, from buffer and video freezing issues. Your statement assumes that a user is saving a file to their disk first, before playback, and that is typically not the case unless they are specifically instructed to do so. In my opinion, you have misled the reader, as you are comparing file save and local playback to progressive download. 3. Most streaming servers offer some form of digital rights management (DRM) capabilities. (p. 56). 14 STREAMING MEDIA August/September 2007 Not correct. No streaming servers offer DRM. Windows Media offers a DRM server that is installed on a separate server. Windows Media also has DRM technology to encrypt content either during compression or post-compression, but no streaming servers have DRM built in. Apple does not license their DRM at all and Flash Media Server has no formal DRM. 4. While both have the same hardware costs, streaming also requires a software license for each server. In addition, streaming encourages the use of high-cost servers, versus the low-cost nodes used for progressive download. (p. 56). You not only contradicted yourself here regarding hardware costs, but you also have incorrectly stated the licensing fees. Microsoft includes Windows Media Services with every cost of Windows Server (free). Real offers a free open-source streaming server. The Darwin (QuickTime) streaming server is included with Mac OS X Server and is also a free download for the PC platform. The only true licensing costs for streaming servers are Flash and RealNetworks supported server products. 5. Then they want the video to be delivered fast, which is more a product of their network than it is your delivery method. (p. 58). I would argue that saving the file locally and then playing it back is a slower viewing solution then streaming. Streaming starts fairly quickly. 6. While it will be interesting to watch these developments play out, at this time P2P is not a practical delivery method for most any publisher. (p. 58). Take a look at Grid Networks, which is currently building a mixture between a traditional CDN and a P2P delivery method. P2P can be a viable option. Also, here are two items that were also omitted from the article: 7. Download and playback and/or progressive download can result in a much higher file delivery cost. If your content is streamed, you are only charged for the data transmission for the content the user watched. Not all users watch the entire video and streaming ensures

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - August/September 2007

Table of Contents Sweet Sixteen Letters to the Editor Technology and Business Trends IBM Takes Webcasting to the Desktop ROI in the EDU Bank Serves Espresso, Enterprise Video Online Video Advertising: Hit or Miss MLB’s Foul Bawl A Crash Course in Flash Video Newspapers in Multimedia Metamorphosis Webcasting Large Entertainment Events: Seeing Through the Hype Webcasting With Windows Media Can’t Start A Fire . . . A WiMAX Primer Mobile Video at Last Telestream Episode Pro Grass Valley ProCoder 3 Silverlight Is No Flash Killer

Streaming Media - August/September 2007

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