Best live video streaming technology

[j21099]

Folks,

How many of you have ever used the very popular Flash video streaming technology to do live video streaming for real? I guess very few. Do you know what the best live video streaming technology is today? This could be an expensive question because, once you have invested in a wrong technology, chances are you will stick to it. As a result, you will pay a big price later in many senses.

Live video streaming is widely used in distance education, Web conferencing, online movie delivery, broadcast and so on. Knowing the answer to this question is important to streaming video producers and their companies, schools, government agencies, or organizations. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is not available.

Right now, we are conducting a study to compare eight popular or not-so-popular live video streaming technologies. Please help us help you get the answer. It’s our promise that the process of filling out the questions while watching the live streaming video via each technology will be fun.

Our study is being conducted for the sake of gaining knowledge of live video streaming technologies. We are not interested in promoting any technology being investigated. This is an independent study unfunded by any company.

Although your participation in this study is totally voluntary, we are eager to have you included in our study. Your participation and honest response are crucial to the success of the study and subsequently to the large community of multimedia producers.

We will publish the findings and conclusions from the study online this summer and will notify you right after the study is posted together with the tutorials of how to do live streaming via each of these eight technologies.

YOU NEED A BROADBAND CONNECTION TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS TEST.

Please click the following link to go to the testing page.

http://www.iupui.edu/~nmstream/livestreamingtesting.php

This live test will last for 7 days from today, May 21 to May 29, next Tuesday. You can test anytime during these 7 days.

Your time and input are very much appreciated. Thank you for being part of the study.

Kind regards,

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Informatics Streaming Gang—Dr. Edgar Huang, Geoffrey Coryell, Todd Kirk, Clifford Marsiglio, Jason Sisk, Jennifer Stewart

[Joe The Dude]

You forgot to a very important question to your survey:
1) Is the Audio in sync with the video?

It may just be me, but when I come across a video, be it live or pre-recorded, if the audio isn't in sync, I get so irratated that I stop watching.

Also, the only video that worked for me was the first one.
All of the others are dead links (yes, I copied and pasted as instructed).
You may want to check them to ensure they are working.

I'm on a high-end dual core PC.
Currently, I have DSL (1.5Mb down).

I'll try again tomorrow.

[thecoalman]

From a webmasters point a view the best technology is the one that that the most amount users are going to find acessible. If they have to install anything then it's out, the clear choice IMO is WMV .

Edit: Just to add I would have have suggested one more option to your survey, "I wouldn't install this piece of S*** if you paid me" . Specifically under the real media section. :P