859: Streaming Video in 2025

Scott and Wes break down the tech behind video streaming for the web, from transcoding and variants to CDN and access control. They also share insights on tools like Mux, Cloudflare Stream, and ffmpeg, plus tips for managing bandwidth, hosting, and costs.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:50 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:15 The history of video streaming. 02:10 How video streaming works: The Tech. 03:54 How video streaming works: Transcoding. 06:37 How video streaming works: Variants.
ffmpeg. Wes’ R2-video-streaming. Wes’ Transcoding. YT-DL. YT-DLP.
13:13 Dynamic ad insertion. 14:29 Bandwidth and hosting.
Mux.
18:03 Cloudflare. 19:13 The costs.
Wes Bos Tweet Cloudflare TOS. Steve Tenuto tweet.
25:39 Media players.
Media Chrome.
29:42 CDN. 32:04 Access control. 33:35 Solutions.
Mux. Cloudflare Stream. Bunny.net Stream AWS Media Convert. Cloudinary. Bitmovin.
41:55 Some other features. 45:47 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs.

Sick Picks

Scott: Anker MagGo. Wes: PolyCapture.

Shameless Plugs

Scott: Syntax on YouTube.

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