Why is content from cable/satellite TV always in sync on multiple TVs, but two iPads with the same stream are pretty much out of sync?
In: Technology
* Cable/Sat TV/Over the Air are sent out via “broadcast” which means the same data is sent everywhere at the same time.
* If a device receiving that signal doesn’t get some of it, there’s no way to tell the broadcaster, and even if there was, they wouldn’t resend it because it would mess up everyone else’s signal.
* Before we had wires and computers connecting most of the world, we used radio waves to send sound and images out to people and so broadcast was the only way to do it.
* Now that we have powerful computers and wires running to most places, we can send data via a two-way conversation and if the receiving device doesn’t get some of it, it can ask for it to be re-sent.
* This is why two ipads watching the same stream will almost never me in sync.
* That data has to travel over the internet which is a huge and complicated.
* Data gets lost on the internet *all the time*.
* We just never notice because the system is very good at re-sending that lost data right away.
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