Streaming Video: Streaming Video at ISU Library

Basic information on streaming video: resources licensed by Idaho State University Library, free internet sites or pay per view.

Please note: Due to license restrictions, off-campus access to purchased streaming videos is limited to ISU faculty, staff, and students only. Community patrons are welcome to use these resources from inside the Library. For more information about licensing restrictions click here.

All videos in collections licensed by ISU Libraries can be used in ISU course management system Moodle. Remote (off campus) use of licensed resources requires users to be authenticated into the resource site.  ISU Libraries manage authentication with a proxy server.  You may need to incorporate this proxy server information into URLs you use in your course management system.

PLEASE NOTE:  Distributors provide the links and embed codes displayed in their sites and referred to in these instructions.  ISU Libraries has no control over these links and cannot assure that links and codes will function across all browsers.

This guide provides information on obtaining and modifying (if necessary) URLs from these resources.

This guide and its content have been inspired by my library colleague deg farrelly from Arizona State University Library. He kindly allowed reuse of the information from his Streaming Video LibGuide.

Streaming video is a means of delivering video content to computer desktops via an Internet connection. A host (server) delivers the file to the receiving computer (client).   Settings at the host’s end determine whether access is available to multiple simultaneous users or limited to a single user.  Unlike video downloads which must transfer to the viewer’s desktop, streamed video plays almost immediately after the viewer hits the “play” button; some content must buffer before streaming begins.  Streaming video also differs from video downloads in that no copy of the file is stored on the end-user’s computer, so files remain relatively secure. 

Playback of streamed video requires that the client’s computer has appropriate player software installed.  Commonly used streaming frameworks include Windows Media, RealPlayer, QuickTime, and Flash.  Some streaming services provide files in the end-user’s choice of formats. 

Because of the generally large size of moving image data files, streaming videos usually employ file compression, a programming strategy that greatly reduces the size of the file through frame sampling and other complex means of reducing image redundancy.  This compression can negatively affect image quality when compressed videos are played full-screen or projected. Even with compression, effective use of streaming video requires a robust, high-speed internet connection.  Dial-up connections generally are too slow to adequately deliver streaming videos

Search library catalog for print and ebooks.