Differences of true streaming and pseudo streaming
22 Jun 2014

Differences between true streaming and pseudo streaming

Compatibility

Both true streaming and pseudo streaming work with Flash players like JW Player or Flowplayer and work also with Apple and Android devices. However true streaming is more compatible since it is delivered over multiple protocols like RTMP/RTMPE, RTSP, HLS, HDS, etc.

Performance

True streaming only pulls video chunks from the to the CDN cache that are requested by the end-user. On the other hand pseudo streaming pulls the whole video file from the to the CDN cache. So in particular for pseudo streaming scrubbing is slower if the video file is not yet cached in the CDN cache (e.g., a new video file).

Buffering

True streaming buffers a fixed amount of data determined by the Flash player. On the other hand pseudo streaming buffers the whole remaining part of the video file as fast as the end-user’s connection speed. For true streaming the stream is not saved to the end-user’s disk on the other hand for pseudo streaming the stream is saved to the end-user’s disk, so in particular for true streaming if you replay the video then it is delivered from the CDN cache again.

Please refer to Differences between true streaming and pseudo streaming for more details.

Sincerely your CDNsun team.