4 ms·
having multicast working on the internet would make this extremly efficient for the distributors (i.e. netflix) but the last mile (i.e. your ISP) still would ha
by mercora 5y ago
having multicast working on the internet would make this extremly efficient for the distributors (i.e. netflix) but the last mile (i.e. your ISP) still would have to deliver the packets to their customers one by one. at Netflix scale it would probably be already very beneficial to do that by broadcasting the stream starting every 5 seconds or something for uncached viewing. (i.e make the player wait for the next broadcast and jump to different ones [or start a new one at desired offset if none exist] when seeking).
Instead of using the internet its also feasible to use the DVB network like this. they could even broadcast a copy long before release so its guaranteed to be ready for offline watching when released. i am almost certain Sky Germany does something similar...
- hansel_der 5y agoa long, long time ago, we used devices called "vcr" to record specific streams that were broadcast over the cable network to have them ready for offline watching.
- mercora 5y agoyes its basically the same thing with DRM on-top.
- the8472 5y agoA hybrid approach would be the best. You could start with an unicast stream and prefetch the rest of the show in the background by subscribing to a few cycling multicast streams. That requires a few gigabytes of temporary storage of course.