Video Preference: Steam or Download?
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- Ollie Saunders
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Video Preference: Steam or Download?
Feel free to explain your votes. Thanks for any contribution. 
- John Cartwright
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- Christopher
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- superdezign
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If it's just a news clip or something, I'd prefer to stream it. But if it's something I want to see in good quality, downloading is the option.
So my vote is circumstancial.
So my vote is circumstancial.
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- Kieran Huggins
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Not so much anymore. Adobe is adding in H264 decoding into Flash Player, so HD streams are going to be more common. Stage6 (DivX video site) does it already too (using DivX codec obviously).Kieran Huggins wrote:Streaming after a click, option to download in a standard format. Though this requires two encodes...
- The Phoenix
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Precisely how I prefer it. This way, if its small, I can just stream it. If its large, I can download it (and possibly shuttle it over to my iPhone). The 'after a click' part is critical, because I cannot stand opening 10-12 links for reading various sites in batch, and one of them starts playing obnoxious background music.Kieran Huggins wrote:Streaming after a click, option to download in a standard format. Though this requires two encodes...
- Ollie Saunders
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Thanks for all the brilliant feedback guys. Keep it coming.
The former - HTTP streaming. Is true streaming a significant factor in your decision then?arborint wrote:By streaming do you mean that the client begins play once its buffer is sufficiently full; or do you mean that the server sends data using a protocol that allows feedback and bandwidth control?
- Christopher
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Well then it depends solely on whether I want to save the video file to disk. If I don't want to save the video file then the solution with the quickest start time and the smoothest play would be my preference. If I want to save the file then I just want throughput.ole wrote:The former - HTTP streaming. Is true streaming a significant factor in your decision then?
Last edited by Christopher on Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- ReverendDexter
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I prefer to download - with streaming, my connection is just fast enough that the content will buffer "enough", start to play, and catch up with itself. This puts it in stutter mode, which I find to be one of the most annoying things in the world. So, I have to pause it, wait for it to load at least most of the way, and then watch it. Meaning I could've just taken that time to download it, not had it eating up a browser window/tab, and watched it in the media player of my choice.
I'd rather download. I'd rather wait all at once before my movie starts, than have to wait at random intervals in the movie. Downloading generally gets you a higher quality video too, because the creators of the video aren't trying to optimize for all possible bandwidths.
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