Overview: HTTP file delivery
HTTP file delivery exposes media bytes through progressive access or requests for particular ranges.
A player can receive the beginning of a file while more data are still arriving, or ask for a range needed at another position. Those request patterns serve different parts of startup and seeking. The pages here relate the HTTP exchange to the file structure the player must interpret.
Progressive download
Progressive download plays a media resource while its bytes are still arriving, using container information and buffered data to prepare the next presentation.HTTP range requests
An HTTP range request asks for selected bytes of a resource representation, allowing a media player to retrieve the regions needed for container analysis or playback.