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Ask HN: Why isn't internet streaming as smooth an experience as watching TV?

2 pointsby winteriscomingabout 8 years ago
Consider this question to be from someone who doesn&#x27;t really know how television broadcasting works.<p>Whenever someone brings up streaming or even download of content over internet for things like movies or sports or any other program, the first thing that comes to mind is - oh, this could mean slow, buffered viewing experience or even something that might exceed my internet usage limit.<p>However, when it comes to television, I obviously don&#x27;t worry about these lags in buffering or even bandwidth issues affecting the viewing experience. And televisions and the tecgnology behind it has been around for a long time.<p>So, what I am curious about is, in terms of technology, what is it that makes even live events on telivision be a pleasant viewing experience compared to internet streaming and why isn&#x27;t (can&#x27;t?) it be used&#x2F;replicated for internet streaming? Same with the bandwith limits.

1 comment

wmfabout 8 years ago
Traditional linear TV has very expensive reserved bandwidth for each channel. The Internet doesn&#x27;t support bandwidth reservation because it would probably be so expensive that no one would use it.