Bandwidth wise, it is wasteful because it will continue to download even if the user is not playing the video.Can't skip ahead until that part of the file has been loaded, and it loads from start to finish.
So you can't just click start on a movie and jump right to the end. The major disadvantage to progressive downloading is that you can't skip ahead to a random time in the video until that part of the file has been loaded, keeping in mind that it loads from start to finish - which can be bothersome with a large file. The low bandwidth user will simply hit points where they need to wait for loading. The important thing to note is that the video quality for the two users, low and high bandwidth, will be exactly the same. Low bandwidth users may need to wait for a portion of the video to load before playing, and the video may pause during playback to allow the loading mentioned above. High bandwidth users will see the videos almost instantly and have no issues watching the video straight through. This will only occur if viewing a large video on a fast internet connection on low performance machines. There can be minor performance issues whilst the browser writes the video to the cache, including occasional stuttering which will go away once the video has completely downloaded. If, while watching the video, you surpass the amount currently downloaded, the video will pause until enough of the video has downloaded to allow the playback to continue. You are able to watch the video while the rest of the file continues downloading and is loading into the player. Most users don't even realize what they are watching is not streaming.Įssentially, progressive download or standard is where the video downloads from the beginning of the file and is saved into the user's temporary internet folder or cache. Most videos you watch on the web are actually progressively downloaded.Īnytime you visit Youtube for a short clip, or watch a movie trailer off of Apple's website, you are experiencing a progressively downloaded video. This article will address those questions.įirst this article will go over a quick summary along with the pros and cons of each delivery method.
Now that we are offering Streaming for your videos, as well as the standard progressive download, there are probably questions as to what is a better choice for your business model. Streaming or Progressive Download? How do I choose?