Quote:
Originally Posted by rowan
An error correcting protocol (like TCP) isn't good for a time sensitive stream which can handle occasional corruption. As soon as TCP loses a packet the stream will stall as the source first detects the loss, then performs a retransmission.
Better to have someone's head go blocky for the next half second due to a missed data packet, rather than have the whole picture freeze.
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Multicast: If you are referring to streams without long delay (short buffer times), usually IGMP is being used, due to an easy way to distribute streams to multiple users, using UDP broadcast (IGMP uses RTP over UDP). You can not use multicast on a WiFi connection, so you need some sort of a cable/fiber.
Unicast: At the moment my ISP is using IPTV with HTTP streams (RTSP over TCP) and it works without any problems. I think they are using Wowza, and I see no problems broadcasting it over WiFi. It's not some internet service off of web, but a real regular ISP, which means HTTP streaming is very much possible with IPTV. Probably not the best solution for live event streams (basically any sports event), but the lag is definitely shorter than satellite streams.
You can read more about IPTV protocols here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTV#Protocols