How We Test Streaming Devices

 Testing streaming players is usually a simple process that prioritizes content over performance. Any streaming player worth its salt can play video well, but only a good one possesses straightforward navigation, robust search features and a wide variety of content to suit all tastes.
The first thing we evaluate is the setup, to see how quick and simple it is. From there, we take the user interface for a spin to see what content gets highlighted, what gets hidden, and how easy it is to navigate to our favorite channels. We'll also watch a few different shows on a variety of channels to gauge the quality of the video and audio.
After that, it's onto the extra features, like gaming, voice search and screen mirroring. These factors don't weigh quite as heavily toward the final score, but they're nice to have if they work well, and extremely distracting if they don't

For More : www.streamsofpleasure.com

Streaming media players & services

Millions of Americans now watch video that's delivered to their screen over the Internet. Most don't drop TV service entirely but use streaming as a supplement to it rather than as a replacement. Netflix accounts for most of the action in video streaming, but there are several other options as well, both by subscription and pay-per-view.

You should weigh a number of things when deciding which streaming media service best meets your needs, including the selection of titles it carries. Also consider the types of equipment you can use to get streaming...

For More Info : www.streamsofpleasure.com

How does video streaming work?

 There are three major streaming technologies used nowadays: Progressive Download, Traditional Streaming and Http-based Adaptive Streaming. I will introduce Progressive download in this blog, Traditional Streaming in Part 2 and Http-based Adaptive Streaming in Part 3.

Related Link : www.streamsofpleasure.com

1. Progressive Download
According to Figure one, this is how progressive download at its early version. Basically any content provider will encode its video and put up in a normal web server (server we use to host HTTP pages, nothing special). And as viewers, we need to know the URL of the video file, and we download the video file into our computer. We could only watch videos while the download is completed.

Since I mentioned “Encode” just now, I would like to explain the concept of Encode in a nut shell.

Before putting raw file which is the output from your recording device, you need to compress the video into a format that media player could play, and you will need to choose the right quality. So there are two decisions you need to make here: Video Quality (measured by Bit-Rates) and Video Format.

Video Quality: the higher the bit-rates, the higher quality your video has. For instance, a 100kbps streaming video is phone-video quality but a 10 mbps streaming video is DVD quality. The higher bit-rates requests you to have higher bandwidth to consume.

Video format: There are different file types supported by different media player, such as H.264 (MP4), FlashVideo (FLV), QuickTime (QT), Windows Media (WMV) and etc.
You would always want to choose a video format that could be supported by as many as client devices possible. You may ask why can’t I encode videos into all these formats. The answer is simple, encoding is expensive and you have to keep many files for one video.

Later on, progressive download technology also gets improved. Now, you will notice, when you watch video on Youtube for example, you don’t have to wait for the whole video to be downloaded. You could start watching video once the first few seconds gets loaded.

As showed in figure 3 above, the first dark blue bar shows where you watch until and the light blue bar shows how much video you have loaded into your video browser – which is a buffer. Therefore, once the buffer is filled with a few seconds of video, the video will start playing as if you are watching video in a real time.

However, there could be a problem potentially. For instance, you are watching a video for the first 10 minutes. During this 10 minutes, web server continues pushing videos into the buffer and you loaded another 30 minutes of content. However, after this the first 10 minutes, you decide to close the video. You and the content provided both just wasted 30 minutes of bandwidth. However, media channels made a lot of improvements on this, including trying to slow down the speed of video loading, so media player doesn’t keep loading video in the background.

Another character I want to point out for Progressive Download is, when the file start to be served through HTTP, the video quality couldn’t be changed. If you are loading a DVD-quality of video, even though your bandwidth drops, you will still need to wait for high-quality video to get loaded. This clearly isn’t an ideal experience for viewers.

Defination of Streaming Media

Streaming media is video or audio content sent in compressed form over the Internet and played immediately, rather than being saved to the hard drive..

With streaming media, a user does not have to wait to download a file to play it. Because the media is sent in a continuous stream of data it can play as it arrives. Users can pause, rewind or fast-forward, just as they could with a downloaded file, unless the content is being streamed live.

Related Article : www.streamsofpleasure.com

Here are some advantages of streaming media:

Makes it possible for users to take advantage of interactive applications like video search and personalized playlists.
Allows content deliverers to monitor what visitors are watching and how long they are watching it.
Provides an efficient use of bandwidth because only the part of the file that's being transferred is the part that’s being watched.
Provides the content creator with more control over his intellectual property because the video file is not stored on the viewer's computer. Once the video data is played, it is discarded by the media player.
Media is usually streamed from prerecorded files but can also be distributed as part of a live broadcast feed. In a live broadcast, the video signal is converted into a compressed digital signal and transmitted from a Web server as multicast, sending a single file to multiple users at the same time.

Streaming media is transmitted by a server application and received and displayed in real-time by a client application called a media player. A media player can be either an integral part of a browser, a plug-in, a separate program, or a dedicated device, such as an iPod. Frequently, video files come with embedded players. YouTube videos, for example, run in embedded Flash players.

Streaming media technologies have improved significantly since the 1990s, when delivery was typically uneven. However, the quality of streamed content is still dependent upon the user's connection speed.

Google Chromecast Audio

Google's Chromecast is an affordable, compelling media streamer that lets you watch video from your mobile devices on your television. But it only works with an HDMI connection, and that leaves anything without a big screen out of the game. Now Google has released the Chromecast Audio, a new variant designed solely to turn your speakers wireless for music streaming. It works just like the Chromecast, and has the same low $35 price tag, but it lacks video output and instead connects via a 3.5mm audio jack (with support for stereo RCA and optical audio). And, just like the original Chromecast, it does exactly what it claims to do, extremely well, and at a very reasonable price.

Editors' Note: We have updated this review to reflect the addition of support for high-resolution audio and multi-speaker configurations to the Chromecast Audio. As a result, the score has been increased from 4 to 4.5 stars.

Check this http://streamsofpleasure.com

Design

The Chromecast Audio is a small, black plastic puck about the size of a poker dealer's chip. One side is textured with concentric rings around a Google logo, to give the impression of a tiny vinyl record. The other side is a matte gray plastic. A 3.5mm port sits on the edge of the puck (a short, bright yellow 3.5mm cable is included). There's a micro USB port opposite the 3.5mm port, flanked by a small Reset button and an indicator light. The micro USB port is solely for powering the device with the included cable and wall adapter.

Setup

Without a connected screen on which to display information, the Chromecast Audio doesn't guide you quite as directly through the setup process as the original Chromecast, but it's still rather simple. Connect the Chromecast Audio to the 3.5mm input of your speaker or sound system, plug the micro USB port into the included wall charger, and plug the charger into the wall. Load the free Chromecast app on Android or iOS phone or tablet and choose "Set Up a New Device." Tap Chromecast Audio, and the app will walk you through the setup process and get you connected to your Wi-Fi network.

Multi-Room Audio

You can name different Chromecast Audio devices after different rooms in the house and jump between them in compatible apps. At launch, the Chromecast Audio didn't support streaming music to multiple speakers at once, but that feature has recently been added, putting the device's flexibility closer to the standards set by wireless audio systems from Sonos and Bose. You can now group more than one speaker together and play music on several in the same room, or simultaneously to every connected speaker in the house. You can't split channels apart to different speakers for dedicated stereo pairs, however.
On paper, you can connect the Chromecast Audio to a stereo speaker system or A/V receiver with stereo RCA or optical audio cables, but those connections require additional adapters, since the Chromecast Audio only comes with a 3.5mm patch cable for the aux input found on most speakers. 3.5mm-to-stereo-RCA and 3.5mm (mini toslink)-to-optical adapters are inexpensive and easy to find, but the options would have been nice to get in the box instead of just the little 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable.

The Apple TV

It's been more than three years, but we finally have a new Apple TV. The last time Apple updated its popular media streamer was back in 2012, and it has really started to show its age. Especially when you consider the broad app ecosystems and 4K streaming support offered by competing devices like the Amazon Fire TV and the Roku 4. Thanks to the new iOS-based tvOS 9, Apple has solved one of those problems; the new media streamer now offers plenty of apps. And a new Siri-powered remote makes navigation via voice a breeze. Still, it lacks 4K support, and with a price tag higher than any of our top picks (including the $99 Editors' Choice Amazon Fire TV), it feels like too little, too late.

Design

The new Apple TV has the same matte black plastic design and squarish shape of the previous model. It measures the same 3.9 inches across, but is nearly twice as thick at 1.4 inches. It's still a very tiny box you can stick almost anywhere underneath or behind your HDTV.
This version sees the return of local storage in the form of 32GB of solid state memory (or 64GB for the $199 model), to be used for apps and games. Unless you intend to download a lot of games, the 32GB model should suit you just fine. The reintroduction of local storage doesn't explain the thicker profile of the device. It's likely a combination of storage and increased processing power.

While the box is bigger, its back panel actually holds fewer ports than before. The HDMI video output, micro USB port, and Ethernet port are still there, along with the two-prong laptop-style power connector, but the optical audio output of the last model has been removed. This is relatively minor, since your HDTV likely has its own optical audio output if you want to run audio through a soundbar or speaker system. Still, it's an odd omission considering the larger frame.


The remote has been completely redesigned, and now looks and feels more like an iOS device than ever. It's a flat, slender bar, with curved edges and a Lightning connector on the bottom for topping up its rechargeable batteries. You could easily mistake it for a new iPod touch. The back is sturdy aluminum, and the front is approximately halved width-wise into glossy and matte black sections. The matte black portion holds the built-in touchpad for navigating on-screen menus, along with the Menu/Back and Home buttons. The touchpad is responsive and comfortable, and physically clicks rather than relying on surface taps, so you won't accidentally trigger it.

Microphone/Siri and Play/Pause buttons occupy the glossy section of the remote, along with a volume rocker. Two small microphone holes near the top, one each on the front and back sides, are for voice control. A small black rectangle on the front holds an infrared emitter as a backup control if the Bluetooth connection to the Apple TV doesn't work.

The Amazon Fire TV

Amazon has updated its Fire TV Stick just in time for the holidays, adding a few welcome features to the already excellent media streamer. It's the same hardware as the original Fire TV Stick, but it now includes a microphone-equipped remote so you can use Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, just like you can with the new Fire TV box. It's a bit pricier than the original (which is available with a standard, microphone-less remote), but at $49.99, it still won't break the bank. It's not quite as smooth as the Fire TV, and it doesn't feature 4K video support, but the Fire TV Stick gets you access to the same wide selection of apps and services for half the price. It easily earns our Editors' Choice for budget media streamers.

Design
The Fire TV Stick itself is identical to the original version. It's a simple, black USB drive-like device that measures 3.4 by 1 by 0.5 inches (HWD). There's an HDMI connector on top of the stick, and a micro USB port for power on the side. Amazon includes a small female-to-female HDMI adapter, so you can hook it up with an HDMI cable if it won't fit directly into one of the ports on your HDTV. An included wall adapter and micro USB cable keep the stick running; Amazon recommends using the adapter rather than relying on your HDTV's USB ports.

The remote is a significant upgrade from the squat little bar that comes with original Fire TV Stick. It's identical to the remote included with the current Fire TV—a 6-inch, matte-black wand with only seven buttons and a prominent, circular, glossy-black navigation pad. A pinhole microphone on the end lets you use the Fire TV Stick's voice search and Alexa voice assistant with a press of a button.

Fire TV
Amazon uses a heavily skinned version of Google's Android operating system for its Fire TV products, and the interface has remained mostly unchanged from the first Fire TV. The menu is built around a column of categories on the left side of the screen and a series of large, colorful tiles displaying apps and media on the right side. Different categories like Apps, Movies, and Prime Video broadly sort available media and software, and more granular categories of media and apps like New, Popular, and Recently Viewed are arranged in rows that can expand further into sub-menus.
The interface is built around a curated, Amazon-centric experience that uses Amazon's Prime Video, Prime Music, App Store, and on-demand video selection as the primary sources for whatever you want to watch or listen to. Fortunately, Amazon's Fire TV App Store is fairly large, and you'll likely be able to find whatever non-Amazon streaming service you want with it (Google Play and Apple Music/iTunes are notable exceptions). Searches for movies and shows will bring up anything available on Amazon, but Hulu, Netflix, and other options will also appear if you have the apps installed and your accounts registered on the Fire TV Stick.