I don’t quite understand the difference in the technology. An example I’m thinking of is that if you’re streaming a TV program online that has a ton of simultaneous viewership (say, the Super Bowl), you’re liable to run into bandwidth issues—buffering, freezes, pixelated video, etcetera, as the servers are taxed with keeping up with the demand of all the viewers.
The same thing doesn’t happen with cable tv, even though it is also a digital signal coming over a wire. No matter how many people are watching, the cable tv provider is able to put out perfect quality video to everyone with no buffer time.
What is the difference in the tech that allows cable tv to do this but not online streaming video?
In: Technology
Cable TV just broadcast the signal out. Its running on the line 24/7, and sometimes you tune your tv in to watch it.
Imagine one guy with a megaphone just yelling out. It doesn’t really matter if one person, or 1,000 are listening.
The internet requires two computers to communicate back and forth, sometimes packets are dropped, and need to be resent. More viewers means more work for the server, and if too many try to connect at one time, the server can get overwhelmed.
Latest Answers