Streaming is the delivery of audio or video over a network in a continuous flow, so playback begins after a small portion has arrived rather than after the whole file is downloaded. Music, film, TV and live events are commonly consumed this way.
Why it matters
Streaming quality depends on bandwidth, latency and how the service adapts to conditions. Most services use adaptive bitrate streaming: the media is stored in several qualities and cut into short segments, and the player switches between them as the connection changes. Content delivery networks place copies of segments near viewers to reduce delay and load on the origin server.
Example
A video is encoded at 480p, 720p and 1080p, each split into segments of a few seconds. On a stable connection the player requests 1080p segments. When the connection drops, the next requests move to 480p, so the picture gets softer but does not freeze.
Common mistakes
- Confusing streaming with downloading. A stream is normally not saved as a file you can keep, though apps may cache parts of it.
- Blaming the service for buffering when the cause is local Wi-Fi congestion.
- Serving long videos from a single small server instead of a CDN.
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यह पेज सामान्य जानकारी है, जिसे हमारी संपादकीय टीम ने लिखा है और दस्तावेज़ीकरण बदलने पर अपडेट किया जाता है। सर्वर और प्रदाता अलग-अलग होते हैं, इसलिए बदलाव पहले सुरक्षित तरीके से जाँचें। देखें: संपादकीय नीति और अस्वीकरण.