I have heard some of the streamers say that a large % of viewers that have problems with their stream are at the viewers end. I am far, far from a computer wiz, but I ask this. When no one is having problems with a stream, where are the ones that were having problems with the other stream? That big % that had trouble with the other stream just didn't buy this one? I find that very hard to believe. Johnnyt
TL
R; There are a lot of factors. Most of them out of the control of the user or the streamer. Sometimes one stream can be bad and another good for the same user through no fault of either the user or the streamer.
There are a lot of factors that influence stream quality. Sheer upload speed at the streamers end and download speed at the viewers end are the two most people can check easily but they don't tell the whole story.
There is delay (the time it takes the signal to make a round trip to the server) and jitter (the variation of delay between packets) and also congestion of the overall network you are attached to.
If you go through Comcast and have a broadband cable modem, your signal can vary quite a bit. You usually will still get your 100MB download speeds, but if the Comcast network is overloaded (like the evenings when everyone is streaming video) or there is a power outage somewhere so traffic is being re-routed, it can cause all kinds of problems with stream quality. I think most stream problems are due to jitter.
Another issue though is that different browsers process video differently through use of plug-ins. Very often if you get crappy stream quality on youtube it will be better if you start using Google's Chrome browser to watch the videos in. This is because Google is better at dealing with issues caused by jitter and such in the network when playing their videos.
And jitter on the streamer's end can cause problems too. So even if they have a strong signal going out, jitter can make the video appear jumpy to the viewers. The more the stream has to travel across the network (and different networks) the more jitter can be amplified and the harder it can be for your browser to determine how much buffering to do.
Buffering is when your browser stores the video as it comes in and then plays it back at a steady pace. Think of it like a tank with a spigot coming off. If you are filling the tank and the hose is draining it as fast as it comes in, when the water coming in sputters, the water going out sputters. If you fill the tank a little bit first and then open the spigot, the water comes out smoothly no matter what the water coming in is doing...unless the tank gets emptied again.
So if your browser is buffering enough, then the stream will appear smooth. If the stream coming in is fast enough and smooth enough, then the stream will appear smooth.
It seems like Safari has a problem with buffering on certain types of video feeds. It's better now but in the past streaming video on Safari would often have a freeze every second or so. Sometimes if you switch to firefox or chrome it goes away. I was getting that same type of problem on the first day of the Chohan/Busty match. I'm sure it was not on the POVPool's end but it wasn't on mine either. So maybe Comcast was having a lot of congestion for some reason.
So the answer is that there isn't any easy answer. Video streaming has a lot of variables that impact quality and at least half of them are out of the control of the streamer.
As time goes on it will continue to get better. One of the problems with pool streams is that venues often have broadband internet connections, which have great speed, but not so great jitter and delay. A slow DSL connection can be better for streaming than a fast broadband connection. In fact, we did a series of streamed classes last year and we got a 10MB/10MB DSL connection just for streaming. We had virtually zero issues with quality from viewers.
I had that DSL disconnected or I would have tried it on the Chohan stream and I'm sure it would have been fine.
One last thing: Wifi vs. Wired connection - If you can plug in directly to your cable modem or router vs. using wifi do it. You can have great streaming on wifi but wired is always better.
