Ok, so Im trying to clearly demonstrate the different ways for playing a video, and Im getting stuck. There doesn't seem to be any clearly defined terms beyond "streaming" and "live streaming", and the definition of these terms seems to vary from person to person, site to site.
Playing video on my computer is not streaming? But what is the term for this? Local playback?
Playing, on my computer, a pre-recorded video that is kept on a server - is this streaming?
Playing, on my computer, a live video across the internet (like a webcam) - is this also streaming? Live streaming?
Are there any clear distinct terms that help make all of this less confusing?
Hmmm, I don't like any of these answers, even @Jimmery's own self-accepted answer. The answer by user2175703
was close but not quite on point.
This isn't exactly what's going on under the hood with live streaming (its pretty complicated actually), but is close enough to give a good 10,000-ft view of how it differs from non-live streaming.
HTH