OOk, after trying to view a video a few times i got frustrated because it wouldn't open in
Media Player, I'm guessing it would open in Mplayer but I can't figure out how to do so.
rtsp:// should be supported on the 770/N800 as a transport protocol, as it supports Real Video already/out-of-the-box.
Whether gstreamer supports the combination of codec/resolution/frame rate/audio details, however, is a different question (it sounds like the answer is a "no").
That is what I also experienced: the media player on the N800 only supports streaming of Real media files over rtsp. 3GP (or MP4) is NOT supported over RTSP.
BUT Streaming 3GP IS working over http! (but that feature isn't in the documentation on Maemo about the media player, but that is dated: intended for OS 2006 on nokia 770 ).
Sadly Youtube mobile doesn't support HTTP streaming only RTSP.
you can check for yourself on mobile video site of a dutch ISP. http://video.xs4all.nl/mobile
If you use the "download" link that is the same thing as using http streaming.
(on really big files, you notice that it really IS streaming)
also: On the N800 I haven't been able to stream mp4, 3gp or rm files using the Mplayer application. Windows asf format does work, but the streaming isn't buffered very well, so it is useless on slow connections (I have tried all kinds of settings, so if you got it working well, please post your settings).
Overall the best streaming solution on the N800 is still (in my opinion) real media using rtsp on the normal Media Player application or 3gp using http streaming on the same app.
A quick correction: HTTP is definitively NOT streaming.
HTTP is a download protocol. However, if the client developer is smart, and the content you are about to view is properly encoded, then you can have "progressive download", which means playback starts as soon as enough data is available, before everything has been downloaded. You can clearly understand that when using the Quicktime player: you will see two progress bars, one showing the download progress, and the other the playback progress. Once enough content has been downloaded, playback starts.
It looks like streaming, it behaves like streaming, but it is not streaming
And a big difference are:
- with progressive download, content is stored on your device. Next playback is instantaneous.
- with progressive download, their is no constraint on you connection speed compared to the content bitrate.
The definition of 'streaming' is not that clear. In fact, it only states that it streaming is the technology to ditribute audio and video directly over the Internet. The consortium agreed that RTSP/RTP is the de facto streaming standard. But it didn't rule out any other protocol. So progressive download can be seen as streaming.
