Thursday, February 3, 2011

Things To Know About Online TV Player Technology

By Ben Sparks


Media software and digital technology have reached such a point that there are a great number of sites that allow you to watch programming by means of an online TV player. How is this possible? What is the technology that has brought this about?

Streaming media and P2P software are the two methods in which television and other video programming is "broadcast" to internet users. When one says that video is streaming they are saying the video signal is encoded as digital information, pushed to the site offering the content and distributed in digital "packets" as media content to end-users, that is, the viewers. Since there is a constant back and forth of signals from users to sender, the transmission is smooth and video quality is usually excellent. P2P stands for "Person-To-Person." In such a network each person in the network downloads the video and as they do others in the network are receiving the video as well as it is uploaded to everyone online in the network. This can be a problem as large numbers of viewers are needed to maintain a strong stream. If a video torrent is weak the image will look poor and move slowly. Sound will also be affected. The torrent will be weak the less users there are in the P2P network.

Also, there are two ways of viewing programs online: live broadcast and on-demand. Live digital broadcast is made possible by streaming and will thus not be available to users of P2P protocols. Livecasting works online as it does on television: the event being viewed online is happening as it is being broadcast or in the case of prerecorded programming is viewed online at the same time it is premiering on television. With on-demand, the content is always pre-recorded, and is made available after the television broadcast is over. In this case the viewer selects the show he wants from either a menu of program titles or categories, then selects from a list of available episodes. He may then watch the program, and may watch it whenever he likes as long as that episode is available.

Television content is made available, broadly, in two ways. Either by means of live broadcast (often called webcast) or video on-demand. Streaming networks make possible webcasting and imitates the way television delivers its content. When others are watching your show on television, you will be watching the same episode online. Video on demand offers previously recorded and aired programming stored on a site where you can choose from the list of offerings and view online or download to your media player. Though not simultaneous with broadcasting, you can watch on demand programs at any time you wish.

The viewer interface is the software that allows media to be played. Examples include Adobe Flash Player, Quick Time, Windows Media Player and others. These programs can be downloaded free online from the providers, often it comes with operational software or your computer, or the website has the player embedded. Streamed content makes it possible to watch the program on your media player without downloading, though some sites offer that option. The site server delivers the program data to your media player. There it is decoded and shown to you when you press play.

So, the digital media revolution has brought better, faster and affordable programs and application for delivering, storing and viewing video. As such, it is possible to recreate the experience of watching television on the internet through online TV player technology, and because of this, demand has increased and websites have sprung up with free content to meet that demand.




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