Introduction

By Dr. Edgar Huang and Clifford Marsiglio

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
School of Informatics

Disclaimer: This unfunded independent study does not mean to promote or demote any software programs.

Streaming media technology market is still a chaos today. If an online user clicks on a video to watch it, there is no guarantee that he or she can watch it as he or she can easily watch a TV show after turning on a TV. Video streaming is still a comparatively new technology. Several companies have come up diversified standards. MP4 has been recently designed to be a universal standard for media streaming, but it does not seems likely that it will be adopted by all companies as the sole standard in the near future. Since 1997, Real Network’s Real Media, Microsoft’s Windows Media and Apple’s QuickTime have been regarded as the Big Three in the video streaming industry. In 2004, Macromedia (now named Adobe)’s Flash streaming video joined the already heated competition for market share. Some smaller companies have used Java technology to enable playerless streaming, among which VX30 is a qualified representative.

A video streaming process involves video production, encoding, Web authoring and delivery. A media player is usually necessary to play a streaming video. Each of the Big Three plus Adobe has its own video player. A video encoded in one technology usually cannot be played by another player. For instance, Flash player does not play Windows Media videos; QuickTime does not play Real videos, and VX30 plays nothing but its own kind of video. A common practice based on this fact is that streaming video producers produce one streaming video using multiple encoders to reach maximum number of audience because they don’t know what media players audience have installed on their computers. Considering the fact that multiple versions of the same video must be produced for different bandwidths to achieve a smooth viewing experience, the workload for streaming video producers is tremendous, especially with a deadline pressure.

On the other hand, online users are not always savvy enough to understand why some videos don't play on their computers. The request for a user to download a player or a plug-in, an inappropriately encoded video for an operating system, or inappropriate Web-authoring can all frustrate the user to the point that he or she does not want to come back to the video hosting site to have the same frustrating experience. As a result, no matter how great the content the Web site provides, the content simply can't reach all users.

Time usually takes care of market competitions and picks winners. After almost ten years of technological development in streaming media, is it possible today for streaming video producers to produce high-quality streaming videos with just one technology and to reach all or almost all audience with a fast speed and at a comparatively low cost? Getting an answer to this question is very important especially to those small businesses that are often tight on budget and are inadequately staffed to handle many aspects of the business and to media companies that own a TV, newspaper or radio Web site that have to be constantly updated.

This study is important in a bigger context. By June 2006, U.S. home broadband adoption had reached 60%. According to "Broadband Access and Services in the Home 2006," a report released by Leichtman Research Group, the market can expect continued growth. A 2005 study by AccuStream iMedia Research shows that the consumption of streaming videos is positively correlated to whether the consumer has a broadband connection. Therefore, for streaming video producers, knowing what technology works adequately and how to appropriately stream media will greatly benefit all parties including users, the content provider and the media hosting company.

This independent study is not funded or commissioned by any company. The goal of the study is to come up, through an impartial observation, with a ranking on the typical video streaming technologies available in the market. This study will help anyone or any group that are interested in adopting a streaming technology for efficient video streaming.

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