That really depends on your needs as a content provider. If you are broadcasting live shows, or offering longer movie downloads, streaming may well be the option for you. Alternately, if many of your users are on low-bandwidth connections and your media clips are limited to a few minutes, you may want to consider using a progressive download system.

The difference between downloading a movie and streaming is simple; streaming allows users to watch a movie in real time with a buffering period. Viewers are limited by the speed of their connection and network congestion. Downloaded movies reside locally on the end users PC, therefore not encountering the same limitations as streaming.

A bifocal lens only allows you to have two vision distances (near and far) while progressive lenses give you all your range of vision from distance, intermediate and near in a smooth progression. Most people like the newer technology of the progressive because it allows for more natural vision and cosmetically they look nicer because there is no line. The upside to standard lined bifocals is that the peripheral vision is sometimes better.

With Progressive Download, the media is actually downloaded to a consumer's computer and played as it is buffered (loaded to memory). The primary goal of progressive download is consistent quality no matter the connection speed, meaning the file will play exactly the same from computer to computer. If your consumer has a high-bandwidth connection, it may appear to be streaming.

The Content Download Agreement is the license that a buyer agrees to when they purchase an image from Fotolia. Fotolia offers three download agreements the standard RF license, extended RF license, and the exclusive buyout license. For more details add an image to the shopping cart, select a license, and click on the contract link to view the details of the license. back to top

A stream is a way of thinking about digital information for which there may be no ending point. The most conventional form of digital information is the file. Files always have a beginning and an end, but streams may or may not, and therefore software which uses streams must not require finding the end of the file in order to process it. Streams are usually delivered in packets which are self-contained, and usually allow seeking (i.e. fast forward) for further points in the streams.

Our 65 channels of the best 100% commercial-free music are available online and are the same as what SIRIUS listeners hear in their vehicles or homes. The SIRIUS news, sports and entertainment channels are not available online - but you may preview samples of their content on the pages themselves. There may be several reasons for this. For one, we suggest that you disable all pop-up blockers (the Google toolbar, Norton Internet Security) at the moment you attempt to launch the SIRIUS Player.

interlaced picture is divided into two halves, the odd and even scan lines. These are "halves" are displayed odd, even, odd, even, etc., at a rate of 60 frames per second. So, in reality at any given time you are only seeing half of the picture (although because the frame rate is so high, your eyes don't notice it.) Interlaced scanning sometimes results in screen flicker and visible scan lines. Standard analog TV signals are interlaced signals.

There are two advantages to a streaming format. 1) Like TV, it provides an effortless means to learn about new content without having to actively search for appealing material. 2) Using the streaming format, we can get radical improvements in the efficiency of our bandwidth usage. For more details, again, read our TECHNOLOGY page.

This phone icon is attached to a wallpaper or ringtone that you can download directly from the web-based portal. Upon clicking the phone icon you will be prompted for your mobile number. Enter your mobile number and click "Send". The content will arrive on your mobile device shortly.

Progressive Download does have an advantage in that it offers high quality no matter the connection speed of the consumer. Even though play may be choppy during the download on slower connections, once the entire clip is downloaded the quality is the same as what a user with a high-speed connection would have. Progressive download can be ideal for short video clips, and the user can have the ability to pause, stop, rewind, and fast-forward that they won't have in streaming media.

Unlike streaming, podcasting does not provide live data transfer. Podcasting is a mechanism for transferring content which is already completely produced. You can download podcasts into your computer and listen to it anytime and anywhere. With streaming, you listen to the audio content as it is being downloaded. Podcasting provides a more suitable means of transferring high-quality media content to users with low-bandwidth connections than does streaming.

Streaming is a protocol that enables the user to watch the video shortly after clicking the link. You are requesting pieces of video as you watch it, and nothing is saved to your hard drive. By downloading a video, you must wait until the whole file is copied locally before you can watch. And you will have to remove the file yourself once you are done watching. Each protocol has its pros and cons, so the best choice depends on the type of web site or content you are offering.

Downloading: Your computer saves the entire file to you hard drive. Often files will begin playback before it is finished saving, but you cannot fast forward beyond what is on your hard drive. Streaming: The file is not saved to your hard drive and plays back in ???real time' as it is received. Some streaming formats support multiple bit rates allowing the server to adjust the stream for the viewers connection speed.

Streaming is the technology for delivering video and audio over a network in which the server delivers a stream of multimedia data just in time for display. Streaming operates under a continuous interaction between client and server. That is, the client requests a multimedia file and the server plays that request. The server delivers data at a rate based solely on the client's demand -- the rate at which the multimedia is being played.