Buffering can cause a sports fan to miss a key moment as playback suddenly skips ahead, or find out in a text message about the outcome of the final play, before they’ve had a chance to watch. Developers building live video experiences hit these limits the hardest - buffering doesn’t just delay video playback, it can cause the viewer to get out of sync with the live event. We talk to developers every day who are pushing up against these limits, trying to deliver the highest quality streaming video without buffering or jitter, challenged by viewers’ expectations and bandwidth. Higher Internet speeds require expensive infrastructure upgrades, and 30% of Americans still say they often have problems simply connecting to the Internet at home. Many mobile users still have to monitor and limit their mobile data usage. Even advanced mobile carriers still limit streaming video resolution to prevent network congestion. People expect all of this to just work, and get frustrated when it doesn’t.Ĭonsumer Internet bandwidth hasn’t kept up. It’s now normal for most people on a subway to be casually streaming video on their phone, even as they pass through a tunnel. Nearly all new TVs and smartphones sold today now support 4K - 8.8 million pixels per frame. VR headsets support 5760 x 3840 resolution - 22.1 million pixels per frame of video. Consumer hardware is pushing the limits of consumers’ bandwidth.
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