Here in Australia our ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) promotes its iView link at which viewers can catch up with programmes we might have missed. The programmes are streamed, most are available for fourteen days, and iView is unmetered with five ISPs. ("The ABC is in negotiation with other ISPs to offer ABC iView unmetered to their customers.") I am fortunate to be with one of the five.
When one starts iView, the site contains a box indicating whether usage will be metered or unmetered, a graph from "Poor quality" to "High quality," and the following text: "Your internet connection can stream video at ____ . We recommend 1.1 Mbps (1126 kbps) or above for optimum viewing."
In my case the graph shows me just about in the middle between "Poor quality" and "High quality" -- I am just below the middle line. The text currently reads "... can stream video at 421 kbps". On the occasions I have used iView there has not been much of a variation from that figure. That quality and speed mean that when I try to use iView, the programme stutters. It runs for a minute or two and then pauses as the streaming "catches up" with what I am viewing. The first couple of times I tried to watch something, I gave up very quickly. However, eventually the day came when I REALLY wanted to see a programme and didn't want to give up. I also REALLY didn't want to put up with the stuttering / buffering.
I had found in the past that I could solve the problem with YouTube videos by noting their length when starting them, then muting my PC's sound and going to another browser window (or playing Hearts or doing emails) until just about the time the video was due to end. I would then go back to it, turn my sound back on, and use the "Replay" option to watch the YouTube video without experiencing the stuttering. This method, however, did not work with iView's streaming video (as I found to my dismay when I tried it and after the half hour or more of the programme's time had expired -- in comparison to usually much shorter waiting times for YouTube videos -- I could only start it again complete with stuttering).
Since then I have experimented and found a solution. I start iView and then go to the programme I want to watch and start it. As soon as it has started to play, I click on the Play/Pause button. Then I do something else for ten to fifteen minutes (emails, surf in another window, put a load of washing in the machine, rake a few leaves, etc.). When I come back and click on the Play/Pause button again, the programme plays without stutter for some time. Eventually it begins to stutter again, and I use the Play/Pause button again.
Of course, if I were watching the programme on the ABC on TV, there wouldn't be these interruptions. To "console" myself about them, I think of them as "commercial breaks" (albeit extended ones) when I would most likely get up and do something else anyway. (For readers not familiar with Australia's ABC, it has no commercials. The only things it screens other than programmes are promos and previews for its own content.)
I discovered the BBC has a similar programme when I was trying to find a BBC production that was no longer on iView. I also learned that content agreements and/or management rights dictate the length of time the programmes remain available for online viewing at both sites. I have not provided a link for iView because it is for domestic consumption only (as is the BBC link).
As I cannot utilise the BBC link, I have not checked whether the BBC has any "free content" arrangement with any ISPs. Neither have I checked whether any American networks have comparable arrangements, for domestic or other viewers. Perhaps American viewers could enlighten me / us about whether any exist.
Merna B.
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A comment on: What's the difference between streaming and downloading a video, and how does it impact the limits my ISP imposes?
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17-Jan-2011