This is interesting to me because the 'web' seems to
be a rather hostile
environment for streaming.
It's not the "web" that's the problem, it's a few
things (yay! now we get to the meat of the story...)
that are based on what I noted above:
1. packets, i.e., IP
2. the straw, aka bandwidth restraints
As long as a everything is transmitted in packets and
each packet has to be numbered, noted, delivered,
spoken for, and requested; and each packet has to be
crammed through a delivery system of questionable
strength and reliability, streaming is going to be a
problem. Period.
The only thing that will change this is to scrap IP
and packets and (somehow) get to a direct superhigh
frequency "channelling" protocol that permits millions
if not billions of channels all of it streaming at
once or on instant demand. How such a system would
work, I have no idea, but logically in order to insure
interactivity it would require each reciever to be a
broadcaster - to eliminate the heirarchy of
Host/Client. Otherwise, you need a "manager" which
will have to handle the data and insure its
transmission and then you're back to packets and IP.
Also the health effects of such a system blasting that
much radiation through wireless networks - well -
it'll keep the pigeon population down...
QuickTime? (everywhere, cheap, and well done - but
quality is not the best.)
Real? (Boooo - ugly and the client they provide is
EVIL)
Windows Media? (Quality is great, but it's a product
of the Borg...)