TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Still Waiting for an Answer

Re: Still Waiting for an Answer

Robert Bonomi (bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com)
Tue, 03 May 2005 04:44:00 -0000

In article <telecom24.194.14@telecom-digest.org>,
David B. Horvath, CCP <dhorvath@withheld_on_request> wrote:

> On Mon, 2 May 2005 17:12:51 EDT, ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu
> (TELECOM Digest Editor) wrote:

>> A week or so ago here, I asked a question about the distinction -- if
>> any -- between 'podcasting' and audio/video 'streaming' which is a
>> technique which has been on the net for a long time.

>> No one has yet replied! Is 'podcasting' just a new name for an old
>> technique? Is it thus named because the (rather specialized) computers
>> which are used for receiving 'podcasts' do not typically do any other
>> functions like 'normal' computers? Is it because 'podcasters' often
>> times do not have any 'regular, over-the-air' type broadcasts to
>> accompany their computerized streaming presentations?

>> Can anyone answer these questions, or is 'podcasting' just much ado
>> about nothing new?

> PLEASE remove my email address, too much SPAM as it is.

> Podcasting is the process of creating audio files that will be downloaded
> into iPods and listened to at the convenience of the downloader. It isn't
> much different from downloading a WAV to a Windows PC and listening to it
> on a laptop during a long flight.

> Actually, the big difference is the iPod is a lot smaller than a
> laptop and the batteries should last longer.

> For streaming, you have to have connectivity for the entire length of
> the artifact (1 hour for an hour long show). With the WAV/podcast, you
> only need to be connected long enough to download the file.

> - David

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But, if I download the entire file to
> whatever system I intended to use to listen, then iPod= 'streaming' in
> that case, doesn't it? And if I were so inclined, I could use a
> search engine to go around all over the net looking for .wav files,
> download them all as found to my jillion GB hard drive and play them
> off as desired. Apparently, if I understand your message, podcast is
> a way of doing that same thing, but 'more effeciently' and 'quicker'?
> PAT]

'Streaming' is "real-time" transfer from the server to the
user-machine, at the rate needed for presentation to the user. And
only that fast.

"Podcasting" is just high-speed file-transfer, for _later_ listening.
second-cousin to napster, kazaa, etc. The audio content is packaged
in a format optimized for iPod use. It's *not* 'real time' transfer,
the whole idea being that you can download much faster than the
listening rate, and you can then be listening _after_ you have
disconnected the 'pod' from the Internet.

It's "off-line" audio listening; like off-line mail-reading, back in
the days of dial-up. You download a bunch of stuff, _fast_, and then
wade through it 'at your leisure', without being tied to the phone
line.

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