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From: Wojciech Puchar <wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl>
To: Jos Chrispijn <jos@webrz.net>
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Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: Streaming server
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> I already have FreeBSD installed. Just wondering if there is a streaming 
> server for it.
> Hardly can believe that dedicated download (by opening the remote file in a 
> media player) will be more efficient that a streaming server that takes care 
> of bandwidth throttle and average processing time on (http) requests.

so please test as it's true :)

actually youtube player does not throttle at all - just load as fast as 
possible into memory while playing at normal speed.

look at progress bar below movie window. if your network connection is 
fast, it quickly gets from beginning to end, while current position mark 
advances as movie is played.

in mplayer you can set buffer size, if you'll set it as large or larger 
as movie - it will behave the same way with FTP/HTTP provided movie.

realplayer do the same thing, and supports both URL's and "live" streaming 
protocol.

i  don't know what windoze browsers do given URL with say .avi file - does 
it have builtin player or just run windoze media player?

AFAIK media player can play from URLs too.


so - FTP/HTTP do provide exactly the same functionality as "video 
streaming", but in the same time is cachable by proxies, and easy to 
download to disk.