How does Streaming affect download limits?

PeterWright wrote on 9/5/2006, 6:11 PM
I've heard from someone who viewed a streamed 24 Mb wmv online, and claimed the following:

To watch cost to me 256 K byts per second
one minute = 15360 Kb = 15.360 Mb =
13 minutes Video = 199.680 Mb (Megabyte )

- so he is claiming it used up 200Mb of his monthly allowance - doesn't sound right, but if anyone can supply an explanation it would be appreciated

Comments

farss wrote on 9/5/2006, 6:29 PM
I think there's some confusion over bytes and bits creeping in there.

If the entire video file is 24 MB then there'll be some overhead maybe for handshaking etc but I cannot see how that can blow 24MB upto 200MB however 24 x 8 is close to 200.
PeterWright wrote on 9/5/2006, 8:47 PM
Yes, there's definitely some confusion Bob.

I'm still not sure on the relationship between download sizes and Streaming.
I know if you were able to ftp download the file it would be 24 Mb, and I would have thought streaming would use less than this.

Hopefully someone has the full story ....
bStro wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:17 PM
Bob's absolutely right. 256 is the number of bits per second, not the number of bytes per second. A bit is equal to 1/8th of a byte.

one minute = 15360 kilobits
13 minutes = 199680 kilobits = 24960 kilobytes = 24.375 megabytes

And a file is the same size whether you download it or stream it.

Rob
dibbkd wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:18 PM
If you stream or download a 24MB file, it's 24MB either way.

Of course if you have downloaded it you can watch it over and over without taking more bandwidth.
PeterWright wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:20 PM
Thanks for the info guys - I'm off to put someone straight ........
apit34356 wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:21 PM
Sounds a little confusing.

But remember, if you are watching a streamed video and restart it, it starts re- streaming the file from the beginning from the host site, not from your browser cache.
This is one technique sites used to stop people from having a saved image.

So, if you stop/pause and went backwards a few seconds or to the beginning like 6 or 10 times, you have streamed a lot of data.
bStro wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:25 PM
Maybe the guy watched it eight times, emptying his cache after each one... <g>

Rob
navydoc wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:52 PM
I'm also confused by this:
"...so he is claiming it used up 200Mb of his monthly allowance."

If this video was streamed from your site (or anyone elses), wouldn't it be using your (or anyone elses) bandwidth allowance, not his?

Doc
bStro wrote on 9/5/2006, 9:56 PM
Some ISPs, Wi-Fi ones in particular, are metered / limited.

Rob
Steve Mann wrote on 9/8/2006, 1:42 AM
"if you are watching a streamed video and restart it, it starts re- streaming the file from the beginning from the host site"

Not if the source is a streaming server. If the host is *really* a streaming server, then you should be able to pause, skip backwards or ahead with very little buffering or overhead.

Here's an example of real streaming:
http://www.akamai.com/en/html/customer/normandatadefense.html

To most people and unfortunately most ISPs, any video on the web is "streaming".

If you are paying for streaming service and you can't jump forward and backward in your video, you aren't getting streaming service.

Steve M.