HTTP streaming vs. RTSP streaming

QuickTime offers two types of streaming: HTTP streaming and RTSP streaming.

With HTTP streaming (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), you put your movie files on a Web (HTTP) server as you do Web pages and image files. Movies are downloaded in their entirety to the computer's hard drive where the QuickTime plug-in plays them. Since the movie is downloaded to the hard drive, you can replay the movie any time you wish and a higher data rate (higher quality) is ensured. If you have Sprite tracks or 3D tracks, these will be visible to your viewers (whereas they won't be with RTSP streaming).

RTSP streaming (Runtime Streaming Protocol) requires a dedicated streaming server which sends out movie data on an as-needed basis; no file is stored on the viewer's computer. If the network is congested, preventing portions of the movie from arriving on time, RTSP will ignore the fact that some data may be missing. However, since RTSP streaming works without files, it's possible to do live broadcasts, where all viewers see the same movie data at the same time. The advantage of RTSP streaming is that viewers don't have to store large movie files on their hard drives, as they do with HTTP streaming.

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