Video type for use online

[hooplife]

Which is the best "video type" for Captivate content that is designed to be viewed online?

Progressive Download?

Streaming?

Adobe Media Streaming Service?

[Erik_Lord]

It depends what you have available...

If you select 'Streaming' or 'Adobe Media Streaming Service', then your video needs to be on a webserver with 'streaming' capabilities. in other words, you point to your video's URL on a server that is setup to stream the video.

If you don't have a streaming server for your video, then 'Progressive Download' is the only option...which essentially means your project will have the videos included within it and be delivered from the same server that your overall lesson is being viewed from...

[hooplife]

Is the "streaming" option quite a bit faster? 

I have noticed that when I include videos and the content is viewed online using "progressive download" the video is blotchy and skips (at best!)...

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

While I cannot say whether streaming is "faster", as I understand it, streaming requires special software on the server that monitors the connection speed and serves the video based on the available bandwidth. So it's really just a slightly different way of presenting the video.

The streaming software may be added to your own servers or you may choose to rent space on servers equipped with said software and stream from them.

Hopefully others can speak to the speed issue and also hopefully will correct any misunderstandings I may have about it.

Cheers... Rick

[Erik_Lord]

Rick's got it generally covered correctly.

'faster' all depends on the capabilities of the server the project is coming from and the internet connection the user has.

If a user has a relatively slower connection, it doesn't matter how fast the server and its connection are.

If a user has a zippy connection, then video served from a 'streaming server' is indeed likely to be faster than one served from a non-streaming server.

On the other hand, if the non-streaming (i.e. LMS) server is lightly trafficked and the streaming server is heavily used, you results may be the opposite

One test is to upload a video to a streaming service like YouTube or Vimeo, then embed the video into your project...and see how performance is compared to a version or page that has a locally-embedded video...