Types of Audio & Video Streaming Formats

Hello Friends,

Keeping track of the way media is being delivered on the Internet can be a challenge. The dominant media streaming formats change as new innovators provide better streaming solutions. The most enduring streaming formats are those that can be accessed on all computer platforms and offer the highest quality delivery for the smallest amount of data.

Adobe Flash: The success of Flash is due in large part to the full-featured media player being completely free to download in versions that support most every computer operating system and browser. Flash media uses the FLV extension for video, and FLAC extension for streaming audio.

Apple QuickTime: The QuickTime player is native to the Apple computer platform and uses the MOV file extension. While Apple is known for providing high quality video compression, QuickTime is limited by the need to download a significant portion of the video before playback can begin.

MP3: MP3 is a streaming audio format supported by every Internet based media player. With broadband Internet connections more prevalent, the higher bandwidth requirements of MP3 files make it a good choice for high quality audio delivery. Lower bandwidth MP3s can easily stream instantly with almost any broadband connection.

MPEG-4: The most recent addition to popular streaming video formats is the latest version of MPEG. MPEG-4 uses a special encoding compression format, or "codec," known as H.264. H.264 has been lauded for extremely high quality and very small data requirements, making it the perfect solution to stream high definition video.

Real Media: Real Media once reigned as a major player in early Internet streaming technologies, but was sidelined by poor video performance and lawsuits over implementation of its media player. Real streaming media is distinguished by the same RM extension used for both audio and video files.

Windows Media: Microsoft has leveraged its advantage of being the most used operating system to build a well-entrenched media streaming platform. Windows Media Player is included with every computer running a Microsoft operating system. Windows Media uses the WMV file extension for video, and WMA extension for audio. Many mobile audio devices fully support WMA files.

Best Regards,
John Wilson