STREAMING GLOSSARY
Definitions, examples and related terms for this part of your viewing setup.
TERMS & EXAMPLES
IPTV means television delivered using Internet Protocol networks. It describes a delivery method rather than a particular player, channel package or subscription. An IPTV setup normally involves a source of programmes, network delivery and software or hardware that plays the stream. Managed television networks and internet-based services can use different delivery arrangements.
Read more →HTTP Live Streaming, or HLS, delivers media using playlists that describe available streams and small media segments. A player downloads and plays those segments in sequence. HLS can support live or on-demand video and multiple quality choices. Its behaviour depends on the playlist, encoding, server and player implementation.
Read more →MPEG-DASH is an adaptive streaming system in which a media presentation description tells the player how to obtain timed pieces of media. It can describe different qualities, audio tracks and other presentation components. The standard defines delivery structure; actual playback still requires compatible codecs, software and access to the media.
Read more →The Real-time Transport Protocol carries information useful for delivering timed media, including sequence numbers and timestamps. Receivers can use that information to order packets and coordinate playback. RTP does not itself guarantee bandwidth, prevent packet loss or provide a complete subscription system. It is often used alongside other control and transport protocols.
Read more →The Real Time Streaming Protocol provides control operations for media sessions, such as requesting playback or stopping a session. It is separate from the media content and from the transport used to carry that content. A supported RTSP address therefore needs a compatible server, player and underlying media arrangement to work.
Read more →User Datagram Protocol sends independent datagrams without building TCP-style reliable delivery into the transport. Applications using UDP must decide how to handle missing, repeated or out-of-order data when that matters. Its limited transport overhead can suit real-time systems, but UDP alone offers no guarantee of fast or stable media playback.
Read more →Transmission Control Protocol supplies applications with an ordered, reliable byte stream between endpoints. It detects missing data and uses retransmission and flow-control mechanisms as part of delivery. Many web-based streaming requests use TCP, but the application above it still decides what content to request and how much media to buffer.
Read more →Hypertext Transfer Protocol defines how clients and servers exchange requests and responses for resources. Streaming systems can use it to request playlists, segments, images and account-related data. HTTP describes the exchange; it does not by itself determine a video's codec, picture quality, catalogue or the permissions attached to an account.
Read more →HTTPS is HTTP carried over a secure transport protected with TLS. It helps authenticate the server named in the connection and protect data against reading or modification in transit. It does not verify a service's commercial promises, make credentials safe to publish or guarantee that downloaded content is appropriate.
Read more →QUIC is a transport protocol built over UDP that incorporates secure connections and multiplexed streams. HTTP/3 uses QUIC, although many streaming systems use other HTTP versions and transports. The practical result depends on endpoint support, network conditions and application behaviour; the protocol name alone cannot predict viewing quality.
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