Retransmission sends data again after a system detects or infers that earlier delivery was unsuccessful or incomplete. Reliable transports and some applications use recovery mechanisms that include retransmission. Resending can preserve correct data, but it consumes time and capacity; the viewer's buffer and deadlines determine whether that recovery becomes visible during playback.
A practical example
A player may continue showing buffered content while missing data is delivered again through TCP. If losses recur or recovery takes too long, the stored content can run out and playback may pause despite the transport still working to recover correctly.
A common misunderstanding
Retransmission is a response to delivery conditions, not automatically the original cause of them. Diagnose why data needs recovery rather than treating the recovery mechanism itself as the fault.
Related terms
Stable technical definition. Editorial approach