 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2014) |
This is a comparison of streaming media systems. A more complete list of streaming media systems is also available.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2014) |
This is a comparison of streaming media systems. A more complete list of streaming media systems is also available.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of streaming media systems both audio and video. Please see the individual systems' linked articles for further information.
| Name | Creator | First Public Release (yyyy-MM-dd) | Latest Stable Version (Release Date) | Latest Release Date | Cost (USD) | license | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Media Server | Macromedia/Adobe Systems//Veriskope Inc | 2002-07-9 | 5.0.16 (2020-2-15) | 2020-2-15 | Free Developer and Trial licenses; Subscription Licenses at $33/month; Standard Perpetual License at $995; Amazon Marketplace license starting at $0.13/hour | proprietary | Video, Audio, Data |
| atmosph3re | Guillaume Carrier | 2005-08-15 | 3.0.7 (2015-10-31) | 2015-10-31 | $30 perpetual license | proprietary | Audio |
| Darwin Streaming Server | Apple Inc. | 1999-03-16 | 6.0.3 (2007-05-10) | 2007-05-10 | Free | APSL | Audio/Video |
| Feng | LSCube [1] | 2007-05-31 | 2009-10-14 | 2009-10-04 | Free | GPL | Audio/Video |
| Firefly | Ron Pedde | ? | 0.2.4.2 (2008-04-19) | 2008-04-19 | Free | GPL | Audio |
| Helix DNA Server | RealNetworks | 2003-01-22 | 11.1 (2006-06-10) | 2006-06-10 | Free | RCSL/RPSL | Audio/Video |
| Helix Universal Server | RealNetworks | 1994-01-01 | 15.2.1 (2014-09-16) | 2014-09-16 | Free for 12 months (Basic) and $1,000-$10,000 | proprietary | Audio/Video |
| Icecast | Xiph.Org Foundation | 1998-12 | 2.4.4 (2018-10-31) | 2018-10-31 | Free | GPL | Audio |
| IIS Media Services | Microsoft | 2008-11-07 | 4.1 (2011-11-09) | 2011-11-09 | Free | proprietary | Audio/Video/Data |
| Logitech Media Server | Logitech | ? | 7.7.5 (2014-11-28) | 2014-11-28 | Free | GPLv2 | Audio |
| Nimble Streamer | Softvelum | 2013 | 3.7.1-5 (2020-10-27) | 2020-10-27 | Free | proprietary | Audio/Video |
| OpenBroadcaster | OpenBroadcaster | 2003 | 5.0.0 (2018-01-27) | 2018-01-27 | Free | AGPLv3 | Audio/Video |
| Open Broadcaster Software | OBS Project | 2012-9-01 | 26.0.2 (2020-10-06) | 2020-10-06 | Free | GPL v2 | Audio/Video |
| Plex (software) | Plex Media Server | 2008-07-08 | 1.15.6.1079 (2019-05-15) | 2019-05-15 | Free | proprietary | Audio/Video |
| Red5 (open source) | Infrared5/community | 2003-09-22 | 1.0.9 (2017-06-11) | 2018-12-13 | Free | Apache License v2 | Audio/Video/Data |
| SHOUTcast | Nullsoft | 1998-12 | 2.4.7 (Build 256) (2015-03-31) | 2015-03-31 | Free | proprietary | Audio |
| Unreal Media Server | Unreal Streaming Technologies | 2003-09-15 | 15.0 (2023-01-03) | 2023-01-03 | $995 perpetual license | proprietary | Audio/Video |
| VLC media player | VideoLAN | ? | 2.2.4 (2016-06-05) | 2016-06-05 | Free | GPL v2 | Audio/Video |
| Windows Media Services | Microsoft | 1996-12-10 | 9.6 (2010-04-05) | 2010-04-05 | Free | proprietary | Audio/Video |
| Wowza Streaming Engine | Wowza Media Systems | 2007-02-17 | 4.8.5 build 20200616153358 (2020-06-17) [2] | 2020-06-17 | Free Developer and Trial licenses; Subscription Licenses at $125/month; [3] Perpetual Pro License at $1995; Amazon EC2 with embedded license starting at $0.15/hour | proprietary | Audio/Video/Data |
| Name | Windows | OS X | Linux | Unix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Media Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| atmosph3re | Yes | No | No | No |
| Darwin Streaming Server | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Firefly | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Helix DNA Server | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Helix Universal Server | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Icecast | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IIS Media Services | Yes | No | No | No |
| Logitech Media Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nimble Streamer | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| OpenBroadcaster | No | No | Yes | ? |
| Open Broadcaster Software | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Plex (software) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Red5 (open source) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SHOUTcast | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Unreal Media Server | Yes | No | No | No |
| VLC media player | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Windows Media Services | Yes | No | No | No |
| Wowza Streaming Engine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
 | This section needs expansionwith: information. You can help by adding to it. (October 2007) |
Information about what digital container formats are supported.
| Name | 3GP | AVI | ASF | QuickTime | Ogg | OGM | Matroska | MP4 | MPEG-TS | FLV | ABR | WebM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Media Server | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
| atmosph3re | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Darwin Streaming Server | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | No | No | ? |
| Firefly | ? | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Helix DNA Server | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Helix Universal Server | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Icecast | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | Yes |
| IIS Media Services | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Nimble Streamer | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| OpenBroadcaster | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | ? | ? |
| Red5 (open source) | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| SHOUTcast | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | ? |
| Unreal Media Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| VLC media player | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Windows Media Services | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | ? |
| Wowza Streaming Engine | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| | This section needs expansionwith: information. You can help by adding to it. (October 2007) |
Information about which internet protocols are supported for broadcasting streaming media content.
| Name | HTTP | MPEG DASH | WebRTC | RTSP | MMS | RTP | RTCP | UDP | TCP | RTMP | MPEG TS | Real Data Transport | Web sockets | HLS | DASH | SRTP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Media Server | Yes (HTTP Live Streaming, HTTP Dynamic Streaming) | ? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| atmosph3re | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
| Darwin Streaming Server | No | ? | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
| Firefly | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
| Helix DNA Server | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ||||
| Helix Universal Server | Yes (HTTP Live Streaming, MPEG-DASH, HTTP Progressive Streaming) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||||
| Icecast | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
| IIS Media Services | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ||||
| Nimble Streamer | Yes (HTTP Live Streaming, Smooth Streaming) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| OpenBroadcaster | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | ||||
| Red5 (open source) [4] | Yes | No | In Development | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes (RTMP, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPT, RTMPS, RTMP Dynamic Streaming) | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | |
| SHOUTcast | Yes | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
| Unreal Media Server | Yes (HTTP Live Streaming, Smooth Streaming) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (RTMP, RTMPT, Dynamic RTMP) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| VLC media player | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | |||
| Windows Media Services | Yes (WM-HTTP) | ? | No | Yes (WM-RTSP) | Yes, for WMS 9.0 and earlier; removed in WMS 2008 (9.5) [5] | Yes (WM-RTSP) | No | Yes (WM-RTSP/U and MS-MSB) | Yes (WM-RTSP/T and WM-HTTP) | No | No | No | ||||
| Wowza Streaming Engine | Yes (HTTP Live Streaming, Smooth Streaming, HTTP Dynamic Streaming) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (RTMP, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPT, RTMPS, RTMP Dynamic Streaming) | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Name | HTTP | MPEG DASH | WebRTC | RTSP | MMS | RTP | RTCP | UDP | TCP | RTMP | MPEG TS | Real Data Transport | Web sockets | HLS | DASH | SRTP |
| | This section needs expansionwith: information. You can help by adding to it. (January 2013) |
| Name | Client Playback Synchronization | Web Interface | Graphical User Interface | iOS SDK | Android SDK | Javascript SDK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logitech Media Server | Yes | Yes | No | |||
| Red5 (open source) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| VLC media player | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. Streaming refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content itself.
Helix DNA was a project to produce computer software that can play audio and video media in various formats and aid in producing such media. It is intended as a largely free and open-source digital media framework that runs on numerous operating systems and processors and was started by RealNetworks which contributed much of the code. The Helix Community was an open collaborative effort to develop and extend the Helix DNA platform. The Helix Project has been discontinued.
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an antenna. The term terrestrial is more common in Europe and Latin America, while in Canada and the United States it is called over-the-air or simply broadcast. This type of TV broadcast is distinguished from newer technologies, such as satellite television, in which the signal is transmitted to the receiver from an overhead satellite; cable television, in which the signal is carried to the receiver through a cable; and Internet Protocol television, in which the signal is received over an Internet stream or on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol. Terrestrial television stations broadcast on television channels with frequencies between about 52 and 600 MHz in the VHF and UHF bands. Since radio waves in these bands travel by line of sight, reception is generally limited by the visual horizon to distances of 64–97 kilometres (40–60 mi), although under better conditions and with tropospheric ducting, signals can sometimes be received hundreds of kilometers distant.
Advanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media. ASF is part of the Media Foundation framework.
Shoutcast is a service for streaming media over the Internet to media players, using its own cross-platform proprietary software. It allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding format. The most common use of Shoutcast is for creating or listening to Internet audio broadcasts; however, there are also video streams. The software is available to use for free or as a paid cloud service with additional professional features.
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as television shows and films, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems.
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the content almost immediately. This is known as streaming media.
Datacasting is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital terrestrial television (DTT), but may also be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio. It generally does not apply to data which is inherent to the medium, such as PSIP data which defines virtual channels for DTT or direct broadcast satellite systems; or to things like cable modem or satellite modem, which use a completely separate channel for data.
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for current and upcoming broadcast programming. Some guides also feature backward scrolling to promote their catch up content. They are commonly known as guides or TV guides.
Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is a communication protocol for streaming audio, video, and data over the Internet. Originally developed as a proprietary protocol by Macromedia for streaming between Flash Player and the Flash Communication Server, Adobe has released an incomplete version of the specification of the protocol for public use.
RSS-TV is an XML-based navigation protocol for Internet media services based on the RSS standard.
HTTP Live Streaming is an HTTP-based adaptive bitrate streaming communications protocol developed by Apple Inc. and released in 2009. Support for the protocol is widespread in media players, web browsers, mobile devices, and streaming media servers. As of 2019, an annual video industry survey has consistently found it to be the most popular streaming format.
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that have traditionally acted as controllers or distributors of such content. It has also been used to describe no-carrier cellphones, for which all communications are charged as data, avoiding monopolistic competition, or apps for phones that transmit data in this manner, including both those that replace other call methods and those that update software.
Wowza Streaming Engine is a unified streaming media server software developed by Wowza. The server is used for streaming of live and on-demand video, audio, and rich Internet applications over IP networks to desktop, laptop, and tablet computers, mobile devices, IPTV set-top boxes, internet-connected TV sets, game consoles, and other network-connected devices. The server is a Java application deployable on most operating systems.
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), also known as MPEG-DASH, is an adaptive bitrate streaming technique that enables high quality streaming of media content over the Internet delivered from conventional HTTP web servers. Similar to Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) solution, MPEG-DASH works by breaking the content into a sequence of small segments, which are served over HTTP. An early HTTP web server based streaming system called SProxy was developed and deployed in the Hewlett Packard Laboratories in 2006. It showed how to use HTTP range requests to break the content into small segments. SProxy shows the effectiveness of segment based streaming, gaining best Internet penetration due to the wide deployment of firewalls, and reducing the unnecessary traffic transmission if a user chooses to terminate the streaming session earlier before reaching the end. Each segment contains a short interval of playback time of content that is potentially many hours in duration, such as a movie or the live broadcast of a sport event. The content is made available at a variety of different bit rates, i.e., alternative segments encoded at different bit rates covering aligned short intervals of playback time. While the content is being played back by an MPEG-DASH client, the client uses a bit rate adaptation (ABR) algorithm to automatically select the segment with the highest bit rate possible that can be downloaded in time for playback without causing stalls or re-buffering events in the playback. The current MPEG-DASH reference client dash.js offers both buffer-based (BOLA) and hybrid (DYNAMIC) bit rate adaptation algorithms. Thus, an MPEG-DASH client can seamlessly adapt to changing network conditions and provide high quality playback with few stalls or re-buffering events.
MPEG media transport (MMT), specified as ISO/IEC 23008-1, is a digital container standard developed by Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) that supports High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video. MMT was designed to transfer data using the all-Internet Protocol (All-IP) network.
An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a private server structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally upload video content via the hosting service's website, mobile or desktop application, or other interfaces (API). An example of an OVP is YouTube. The type of video content uploaded might be anything from shorts to full-length TV shows and movies. The video host stores the video on its server and offers users the ability to enable different types of embed codes or links that allow others to view the video content. The website, mainly used as the video hosting website, is usually called the video-sharing website.