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What is Video on Demand?

Video on demand lets viewers start prerecorded content when they choose instead of following a fixed broadcast schedule. A VOD service typically supports pausing, seeking, and adaptive delivery from stored assets.

How Video on Demand works

An on-demand service prepares stored programs so each session can begin at an arbitrary viewer-selected time. The playback path resolves entitlement, chooses a rendition set, retrieves media through an origin and caches, and maintains a seekable timeline. Assets may be packaged ahead of publication or assembled just in time from encoded outputs. VOD occupies the distribution stage for prerecorded media and differs from live streaming because the complete timeline and duration are normally known.

Key facts

  1. Responsive seeking requires usable random-access pictures and accurate container or segment indexes; a duration value alone does not make arbitrary positions immediately decodable.
  2. Stable VOD manifests and media can be cached for long periods, but replacing content at an unchanged URL risks stale combinations of manifests, segments, and captions.
  3. Converting a live event into VOD requires finalizing duration, timestamps, discontinuities, and the closing media window; an unfinalized timeline can leave later seeks unreliable.

When Video on Demand matters

Choose VOD for catalogs, training libraries, and recorded events that viewers access asynchronously. Storage, packaging, entitlement checks, and seekable delivery must be prepared before publication.

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