What is the Difference Between Video Streaming and Downloading? 



A lot of people prefer streaming videos online to downloading them. But, what exactly is the difference between video streaming and downloading? Have you ever asked this question before? This is what you should know.

Difference Between Video Streaming and Downloading

Compared to downloading media files, streaming is faster and more efficient in real-time. A device's hard disk stores a copy of the entire downloaded video file, and the video cannot be played until the download is complete.

However, when it comes to streaming, the browser plays it without really copying and saving it. And, instead of loading the entire file at once, the video loads incrementally, and the data that the browser loads is not saved locally.

You may have asked: What is the process of video streaming?

Audio and video data are transferred across the Internet in packetized form, just like other types of data. A little portion of the file is contained in each packet, which is then interpreted as audio or video by an audio or video player in the client device's browser.

Meanwhile, some streaming techniques use TCP, others use UDP. Since UDP and TCP are transport protocols, data packets can be moved between networks using them. The Internet Protocol is utilized with both (IP).

Before sending data, TCP establishes a dedicated connection and makes sure each packet arrives in the correct order.

What are Some Ways to Speed up Streaming?

The same kinds of lag and performance drops that affect other types of web content also affect streaming. Like with any kind of content accessed over the Internet, the hosting location matters a lot because the streamed content is stored elsewhere.

When a user in New York tries to stream from a Netflix server located in Los Gatos, the video material needs to travel 3,000 miles to get to them. During that journey, the video may not play at all or take a long time to buffer.


As a result of this, distributed content delivery networks (CDNs), which store content in places all over the world that are considerably closer to viewers, are heavily used by Netflix and other streaming providers. 

CDNs significantly improve the performance of streaming. Across all Cloudflare data centres worldwide, Cloudflare Stream leverages the Cloudflare CDN to cache and serve video content. This lowers latency for quicker video startup times and less buffering.

What Causes Streaming to Lag? 

The following are what causes streaming to lag:

  • Network Latency: Several elements affect latency, such as the location of the content that users are attempting to access.
  • Network Congestion: The performance of streaming might be hampered by sending an excessive amount of data over the network.
  • WiFi Issues: Enhancing streaming performance can be achieved by restarting the LAN router or by using Ethernet rather than WiFi.
  • Slow Devices: It requires a significant amount of computing power to play videos. Streaming performance may be affected if the device streaming the video is slow overall or has a lot of other processes going on.
  • Insufficient Bandwidth: Home networks require approximately 4 Mbps for streaming video; higher bandwidth will probably be required for high-definition video.

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