Television Without a Tuner - Common Parts of the Online TV
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Before we start, we should get one thing straight. The legality of streamed television shows is still a question to be decided in court by the judges. The purpose of this article isn't to debate whether they are legal or not. Let's leave that to the judges, and thereby stay out of controversy. Now that we are clear on this issue, we can move on.
First off all, we can split it into two main parts: live streaming and the streaming of a VoD (Video on Demand). Live streaming is when, with a few seconds delay, the show is live. You're watching it at roughly the same time it is being broadcast; a channel that exists on the TV is streamed live towards you through your computer. VoD covers the rest of the shows and videos that are hosted at a server after they are recorded. They are then streamed to your computer on demand, if that's your choice.
Internet television can also be categorized into four groups. First, there is P2PTV (Peer-to-Peer Television), which are software applications designed to redistribute video streams in real time on a P2P network (Sopcast, Joost). And then sometimes the TV company itself decides to stream the show (i.e. your local TV broadcasting company) through its servers.
A company might approach this situation using the same strategy, but they end up charging a fee for the streaming process. This may consist of a one time fee or a monthly fee. And finally, the last one is TV streaming when the content is provided by users; the site is just hosting it (as with YouTube, Yahoo! Videos, MetaCafé, etc.).
- P2PTV has the benefit of offering higher quality when more people are watching the channel. This is due the fact that each viewer is also uploading the data s/he is watching. So while you download the video, you also redistribute it towards other peers. The concept is similar to torrent sites. In this ray of light it is clear that more people means more peers from where you can get the data, and that equates to a more pleasant and enjoyable viewing experience.
Sadly, as for cons, we can say that it has some delay, so you will view the channel a couple of seconds later than you would through the TV. But the biggest flaw is that if there are just a few viewers, you will have very poor video quality or you may not even be able to view the channel at all; it depends very much on the masses. To learn more about P2PTV, check out the following Wikipedia page: here.
- The second way is something that we encounter quite often. Nowadays, every respectable channel creates a server through which they provide online live TV broadcasting of their channel. But more often than not, the streaming server has a limited bandwidth.
Since it is a free service, you will run into the usual sorts of issues with the streaming process. When the server just can't put up with more users, you'll be asked to come back later. Or when you do get a connection, it can be of poor quality. It pretty much depends on the luck of the draw.
- The third option is the best choice because the individual company makes sure that you have the required amount of bandwidth to watch your favorite channel, but this service isn't free. But hey, as the saying goes, you can't have both the wolf and the rabbit too – at least not yet. Still, don't be sad, there is some hope; read on.
- The last group offers the aforementioned hope. The shows are hosted on the site, but they aren't streamed live. Instead, you can just download the show and watch it afterwards. You can also watch it while you are downloading it, so you may watch your favorite show even if you missed it while it was broadcasted live.
All of them are based on a few basic ground rules. For example, they are device independent as much as possible (to maximize usage) and they can be accessed from anywhere on the earth (as long as the distribution rights are in place).
Internet Television usually has the following properties:
- Potentially supranational, worldwide footprint.
- Any user can use it, generally unknown users.
- Video quality is best effort, Quality of Service not guaranteed.
- Generally it uses below 1 Mbps.
- Receiver is a PC.
- Resolution is QCIF 176 × 144/CIF 352 × 288.
- May not be stable.
- May not be secure.
- Copyright of the content streamed: often unprotected.
As you can see, quite often the quality of videos can be pretty low. The paid applications offer higher quality, however, and you must not forget that this requires a connection speed of 1.5 to 3 Mbps for a STTV (standard television) – 720X480 resolution.
The IP-based platform offers some great advantages compared to the traditional TV that all of us are using. We can sum those up in the following ways:
- Interactivity: it can be personalized to accommodate your personal taste and needs.
- Video On Demand (VoD): watch the movie you want with no commercials and you can watch it when you want it.
- Converged Services: integration and convergence of many other practical applications, like radio streaming, etc.
As for disadvantages, we can note that it is very sensitive to packet loss and delays due the fact that it is based on the Internet Protocol.
Higher quality is offered by IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), but please keep in mind the following: “IPTV is not TV that is broadcast over the Internet.” IPTV is the future rival of the Internet Television. While this isn't directly related to the topic of this article, you can read more about this here. There also exists a not-so-commonly spread modification that is more efficient than Unicast (Broadcast) – it’s called Multicast. You can read about this here.
Next: Let’s See What We Have >>
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