Spending "quality"' time with the web video

Abstract

For consumers, watching video over the Web is the most popular way to access free and premium content on connected devices. The underlying technology -- HTTP adaptive streaming -- is straightforward; however, due to quality fluctuations, it doesn't always result in a pleasant viewer experience. This can lead to dissatisfied consumers, which then leads to revenue loss in both managed and unmanaged video services for providers. As a solution, the author discusses how the impact of quality fluctuations can be reduced if video content's natural variability is taken into consideration. Here, he outlines a number of requirements and summarizes the solution's steps. While this approach brings a new dimension to the current HTTP adaptive streaming paradigm, it also introduces a number of challenges that must be addressed for a production-grade solution. The author also details these challenges and establishes a roadmap for solutions.