Comparing Embedded "Live" stream options
 

This page compares the two primary media formats we are hosting. Until recently live events were exclusively streamed Windows Media format, but recent upgrades to the Flash server allow us now to stream via that platform as well. To see how they compare, we created a mock encoding situation and ran the event via each platform. The archive files created during those test are used here to show the quality seen during those sessions.

The sample clips below are the encoder archives from sample live streams, created from the same source on the same hardware in a live streaming scenario.

The video and audio source of these streams was a DV tape playing back a professionally produced event. The CPU on the encoder was a dual core Athlon X2 6400 3.2ghz per core chip. Flash Media Encoder v 2.5 was used for the Flash stream, while Windows Media Encoder 9 was used for the Windows Media file. The Flash Encoder performance limitations determined the maximum quality of the comparison files, as the computer would not support higher quality Flash settings without running into CPU limitations. We adjusted the Windows Media encoder to match the settings we were able to achieve with the Flash encoder. This artificial limit was chosen to compare the output quality of either live stream at the same bandwidth level.

The clips below are all about 580kbit/second, 320x240 pixels, 29.97 frames per second, using about 96kbit of the bandwidth for the audio stream.