Battle of the Century

[Mr. DodO]

Streaming vs. Downloading, whaddya YOU think?

[Electro Designs]

Well my answer is not very definite but here goes, If it is under, let's say 100 kb, I'd Stream it, between 100 and 500, I'd load it. And anything bigger load half and stram the rest.

[Naldoman]

If I just want to watch it and forget it, STREAM.
If I want to watch it save to to view later, DOWNLOAD.

If it will take more than 20 min. to download, I'll live without it.

[agent vivid]

**download ... i think it makes animation much smoother

streaming can piss people off if it has to do with interface

yet, small files (<50k) can stream no problem !

ahhh ... choices

=vivid=

[phacker]

I am getting really sick of intros. They are all running together. Unless I think there is something really great at the end of the rainbow, I've gotten to where I click away after the first few seconds.

I say optimize and stream. It takes alot more work, but I have waited for minutes only to see thinly disguised free-source stuff passed off as cutting edge. I try to follow Hillman Curtis' advise and keep everything to a minimum, only present what is necessary to cover the topic.

[Pope de Flash]

Stream it with out an intro!!!! Keep it small, make the content the content. My favorite site is http://www.skipintro.com Regards, Bill

[hrannar]

I agree with da'Pope. There is nothing more boring than preloaders ... especially lenghty ones. Try to stream the whole thing, BUT when necessary make the preloader a part of the main thing. Always give the viewer something to play with, some content making him unaware that he's really just watching a preloader.

Remember Hillman Curtis's words: "Design with the end in mind!" - and that means designing in accordance with the streaming as well. Check your target audience and see what kind of connection they've got. I even tend to set the streaming to 28.8 when I'm designing for 56 to ensure better and smoother streaming. There are lots of tricks out there for optimization - the best source though would be Todd Purgason himself.

In the end it doesn't matter what you use, as long as it has been tested and tested and tested ... and of course, let's hope you never find yourself in the position where you have to keep the viewer waiting for content for more than a minute watching nothing but a screen saying "loading" again and again and again... Wouldn't you think that was boring? And, of course, we all need to remember ... the people out there watching our movies aren't all using DSL, Cable or T3's...

hrannar