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by danielrhodes 6266 days ago
Do you really need streaming? Progressive download is much cheaper to set up and implement.

Only choose streaming if you need to protect the content from downloading.
2 comments
edd 6266 days ago
It really depends on the content you are distributing too, as streaming can really reduce bandwidth. Streaming works much better if you are sending very long recordings as most people won't download the whole thing if you stream it. We found that it really reduced our bandwidth when we moved some long video's to stream rather than using progressive download.
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m_eiman 6266 days ago
Add rate limiting and something like mod_h264_streaming for skipping ahead in the content and you get most of those benefits.

The main thing streaming can do that progressive downloads cannot is live content.

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m_eiman 6266 days ago
Streaming doesn't automatically protected your content, it at best obscures it a bit.

Flash has options for encrypting content as it's sent, not sure if that's been broken yet or not. And if someone -really- wants the content, they'll get it anyway.

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laconix 6266 days ago
Exactly, in fact nothing you can do can protect your content (well short of not letting them view it). As anyone can get a screen recorder and capture it.
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