Video Streaming Gets Critical Look from IUPUI New Media Experts

INDIANAPOLIS – Web-site developers are always on the lookout to improve their streaming capabilities for their customers. A recent Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study helps steer them in that direction.

The project, “Searching for an Ideal Streaming Technology,” investigated five video streaming technologies of Flash, QuickTime, Real, VX30 and Windows Media.

“Our study shows that VX30 has the best overall performance,” said new media expert Edgar Huang, associate professor at the IU School of Informatics on the IUPUI campus. “If a company or organization is looking for a streaming technology that has little learning curve, encodes Web-author streaming videos fast, generates decent image quality and is inexpensive, VX30 is the top choice.”

Huang and Clifford C. Marsiglio, manager of development at the IUPUI Testing Center, conducted the unfunded independent study, which does not endorse any software programs.

The researchers also concluded that Flash might be preferable to streaming video producers who don’t care about that technology’s long encoding time and large size files, and if a company or organization can afford the high set-up and maintenance costs. According to the study, Flash streaming video has the best user accessibility, generates the best image quality, and has the shortest initial buffering time and least rebuffering.

“The streaming media technology market is chaotic today,” said Huang. “If an online user clicks on a video to watch it, there is no guarantee that he or she can view it as easily as tuning in a television show.”

Video streaming involves production, encoding, Web authoring and delivery, and a media player such as the five studied are required for on-line users to access the stream. It’s common for producers to create one streaming video using multiple encoders because they do not know what media players consumers have installed on their computers.

“Considering that multiple versions of the same video must be produced for different bandwidths to achieve a smooth viewing experience, the workload is tremendous for producers who are under deadline pressure,” Huang said.

On the other hand, on-line users do not always understand why some videos don’t play on their computers, and attempts to access an inappropriately encoded or Web-authored video might discourage them from revisiting the hosting site.

The “Searching for an Ideal Streaming Technology” study and accompanying tutorials can be found at www.iupui.edu/~nmstream. More information about the School of Informatics Media Arts and Sciences program is at http://newmedia.iupui.edu.