IPTV Technology

IPTV borrows from three separate worlds: broadcast television, which contributed the container and the programme-guide structures; the internet, which contributed the addressing and the transport; and streaming on demand, which contributed the adaptive delivery techniques. Most of the confusion in this subject comes from expecting one of those to behave like the others.

This section describes what the protocols and formats actually do, and — just as importantly — what they do not do. Where a specification is involved, it is named as the authority rather than paraphrased from memory.

Delivery protocols

The IPTV protocol stackThe four layers an IPTV system is built from, and why they are often confused with one another.In preparation
HLSSegmented delivery over HTTP, and why it behaves the way it does on a poor connection.In preparation
MPEG-DASHThe same segmented approach with different internals, and how the two are chosen between.In preparation
RTSP and RTPSession control and media transport, and why this pair behaves differently from HTTP delivery.In preparation
Choosing a delivery protocolLatency, robustness and complexity compared directly.In preparation

Transport

MulticastOne sender to many receivers, and why it is efficient on a managed network and awkward everywhere else.In preparation
UnicastOne stream per viewer, and the bandwidth cost that implies.
Architecture patternsCentralised, hybrid and cloud-native delivery, and what each is good for.In preparation

Media and quality

Containers and codecsWhat carries the media and what compresses it, kept distinct from one another.In preparation
Bitrate and resolutionWhat the two numbers trade off against each other, and why neither alone predicts quality.In preparation
Latency and bufferingWhere the delay actually comes from in each delivery method.

This section states what protocols do and cites the responsible specification by name. Where a specific range, limit or version matters, the guide says so rather than presenting a remembered figure as fact — see the sources and citations page for how we handle that.

Related sections

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