subject: Watching TV Online - P2PTV vs streaming TV [print this page] Watching TV Online - P2PTV vs streaming TV
In this article, let's get somewhat technical about the watching live or online TV with the help of computers. We all know that this is not an alien concept. People over the world are successfully watching streaming TV and enjoying their favorite TV episodes and shows. You can also download TV shows free and enjoy it. So let's get some knowledge about the basic protocols, which makes this possible. We will also discuss their advantages and disadvantages. The very first protocol is P2PTV means Peer to Peer Television. This is the newest kind of protocol, which has just arrived in the competition. Principle behind this protocol is already used by BitTorrent. However, there is big difference in these two. BitTorrent can accept data packets in random order whereas P2PTV protocol accepts all its data packets in a specific sequence. The difference for the viewer is that in the later case, user can watch the while the download is in progress. The very first advantage of using this protocol is that you get a high quality show. Second advantage is that many legal P2PTV networks are available to choose. The third and major advantage is, this protocol is under constant technical improvement and is getting better with time.Principle behind this protocol is already used by BitTorrent. However, there is big difference in these two. BitTorrent can accept data packets in random order whereas P2PTV protocol accepts all its data packets in a specific sequence. The difference for the viewer is that in the later case, user can watch the while the download is in progress. The very first advantage of using this protocol is that you get a high quality show. Second advantage is that many legal P2PTV networks are available to choose. The third and major advantage is, this protocol is under constant technical improvement and is getting better with time.
Another protocol to have a lot of popularity is online streaming TV media. This protocol exists from recent years. This media works in a very similar way that HTTP works. HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. This is also known as real time streaming protocol or RTSP. In this protocol, packets are sent and accepted in a sequential manner. Some advantages of streaming TV are as follows. First is it looks very similar to internet traffic so in case of heavy traffic your computer will not get blocked. Secondly, this is the oldest protocol and trustworthy. Improvements are being done in this protocol too.
