Internet Video

Today’s digital video systems can produce excellent quality visual and auditory experiences at relatively low cost. However, Internet users still encounter many problems that result in an unsatisfactory experience. Although the situation has been steadily improving, buffering delays, incompatible formats, blocky, blurry images, jerky motion, poor synchronization between audio and video are not uncommon and lead to frustration to the point that the user experience of video services involving search is greatly impacted. User’s expectations are raised by their familiarity with broadcast television systems, where well defended standards, mature technologies, and abundant bandwidth prevail. In this chapter, we provide background information to shed light on the complexities involved in delivering IP video. We address the practical issues that video search engine systems must resolve in order to deliver their “product” – relevant video information – to users.