Implementing QuickTime Streaming Audio on Your Webpage

Adding QuickTime Streaming Audio content to your website is really quite easy and does not require a special hosting arrangement.

About QuickTime streaming

QuickTime 4 supports two types of streaming: real-time streaming and fast-start streaming. Previous versions of QuickTime supported only fast-start (HTTP-based) streaming. QuickTime 4 now supports RTP, RTSP, and FTP-based streaming.

Any application that can play QuickTime media can play real-time streaming or fast-start streaming movies, such as QuickTime Player, Web browsers, and Microsoft Powerpoint.

Real-time streaming

QuickTime movies that use real-time streaming must play from a server that supports QuickTime streaming.

Real-time streamed media is like a radio or television broadcast. You view streamed media as it arrives at your computer. The media is transmitted so it arrives in time to play at normal speed. In most cases a movie that is streamed in real-time should not slow down or stop. Also, it is not necessary for the movie to be downloaded to your computer. This means you can view a movie that is several hours long or listen to a streamed radio show without needing disk space to store the movie.

Some streamed media is "live." If you are not connected at the time the streaming starts, you'll miss some of it. Other streamed media, sometimes referred to as "stored media," or "video or audio on demand," starts when you choose for it to begin, similar to watching a video tape. Real-time streaming uses real-time transfer protocol (RTP) to transmit data.

Fast-start streaming

Fast-start movies can play from any Web server; the server does not need any special software.

A fast-start movie starts to play after some of the movie is downloaded, and continues to play while the rest of the movie is downloaded to your computer. The movie is transmitted so it arrives as fast as possible using a standard Web protocol. Fast-start movies either use hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or file transfer protocol (FTP) to transmit data.