Pseudostreaming is a protocol that can be installed on regular HTTP servers such as Apache, Tomcat, IIS or lighthttpd. It uses a server side script for Flash-to-server communication. The player sends a HTTP request to the server with a start time parameter in the request URL’s query string and the server script responds with the video stream so that its start position corresponds to the requested parameter. This start time parameter is usually named simply start. This same technique is used by the ultra-popular YouTube service which uses lighthttpd servers.
The biggest advantage of using pseudo streaming or any other streaming solution is the ability to seek in the timeline to positions that have not been downloaded to the player. This is most desirable for full-length movies because the visitor can seek to the last scene of a 2-hour movie if she wants to. Here are some more benefits of pseudo-streaming:
- Random seeking to any part of the timeline at any time.
- Starting playback in the middle of the clip’s timeline.
- Provides integration possibilities to custom streaming servers and server-side scripts.
- Both FLV and H.264 files supported.
Want to learn how to set up pseudo-streaming in PHPmotion? Visit our Guide to installing Pseudo-Streaming in PHPmotion.
Pseudo-Streaming examples
Click the play button then click anywhere on the timeline to skip forward to a part of the video that has not yet buffered. You will notice that the video will start to buffer for a few seconds then play again from the point where you clicked.