I access the internet via motel/hotel wireless connections 99% of the time, and 50% of the time the connections are slow, so slow that Youtube will take forever to buffer a vid.

Yet, and I am not complaining, Netflix seems to work fine with streaming movies!

How do they do this? And why can't everyone else do the same thing?

They feed their hamsters anabolic steroids, which enables them to run much faster on those little wheels than the hamsters powering other servers.

Glad I could help.

Cheers!

Rick...

Netflix does a couple of things that helps them (obviously this is a bit of a technical answer):

- The streaming protocol is adaptable to your available bandwidth, which in English translates to crappy wire = crappy quality. The Netflix protocol does a nice job of adapting to changing network conditions in their video player software. Youtube and other public video sites uses a standard players that's are lot less sophisticated, plus uses a public protocol/encoding while Netflix's is proprietary.

- The data is moved closer to you, as in Netflix uses content delivery networks (CDN - essentially servers that replicate the content to places nearer to where you are) so that if you are in L.A you get the data from one edge server, while if in Seattle you'll be routed to another one that's physically closer to you. Youtube does something similar for very popular content, but Netflix's library is smaller than Youtube's (obviously, i.e. longer content but an order of magnitude less choice plus less change).

- Netflix buffer more aggressively that Youtube, in that it's ok to wait 30 seconds for a movie to start, put it's unacceptable for Youtube due to the shorter content. Netflix also has a variable buffer in that as well as reducing quality while you watch, it will 'cache ahead' more if it detects drops. Put another way, Netflix buffers more while you watch while Youtube and others just try to load as much as possible.

- Netflix can use a 'connectionless protocol' of UDP to stream, which in English is more of a way where if you don't get a response the other end doesn't care so much and just keeps going. Web traffic is often through a transport protocol called TCP/IP, with the TCP part indicates some sort of 'did you get this? Shall I continue or send again?', while UDP is more of a 'I'm just going to keep trucking and will check back on you in X cycles', i.e. one is a conversation with reliability and the other is being shouted at until the shouter gets bored and checks if you're listening. Browsing the web needs some reliability while watching a movie it's ok to shout.

Hotel networks are often bad because they are unpredictable rather than inherently slow. Typically bad latency (variable timing between calls, due to network saturation and unpredictable traffic patterns) makes browsing the web a pain but streaming video can be like you've seen, not too bad.

I hope that helped.

That was indeed an impressive bit of explanation there FF! Clearly you know more about this stuff than me.

But you have to admit, my answer was more fun.

Cheers!

Rick...

Agreed

In fact it's a lot like Netflix, often technically good but still not much fun to watch!

Very much so, thank you!

And here I was ready to explain the US Postal system.

You mean a bloated inefficient organization that is designed to lose money?

See, that was simple.

Think Netflix is good, run a trial with OnLive gaming. Cloud hosted games, streaming video to you with no noticeable delay in playing the game. Amazing stuff.

The USPS began as a much more noble agency than it is today. Things like the pony express, railroad, and finally air mail all were very important innovations.

However, in their current state they are simply a reflection of the nation as a whole.



The Jedi Master