---
title: "Video CDN overview"
description: "How a video CDN delivers prepared HLS, DASH, HTTP-FLV, and MP4 media, when to choose it over managed streaming, and how range and 206 behaviour decide seek quality."
url: "https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/"
dateModified: "2026-09-12"
---

[Home](https://adultinfra.com/) / [Docs](https://adultinfra.com/docs/) / Video and live 

# Video CDN overview

How a video CDN delivers prepared HLS, DASH, HTTP-FLV, and MP4 media, when to choose it over managed streaming, and how range and 206 behaviour decide seek quality.

LAST REVIEWED 2026-09-13

ON THIS PAGE

- [Prepared video versus managed streaming](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/#prepared-video-versus-managed-streaming)
- [Delivery formats and when to use each](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/#delivery-formats-and-when-to-use-each)
- [Range and 206 behaviour](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/#range-and-206-behaviour)
- [What to decide before you configure](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/#what-to-decide-before-you-configure)
- [Rights, approval, and responsibility](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/#rights-approval-and-responsibility)
- [Where AdultInfra fits](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/video-cdn-overview/#where-adultinfra-fits) 

A **video CDN** distributes media you have already packaged. You produce the renditions, segments, and manifests; the edge caches and serves them, honours byte ranges, and shields the origin. This is the mode most adult VOD and tube platforms run, and it is distinct from managed streaming, where the platform ingests and transcodes a raw feed for you.

## Prepared video versus managed streaming

Model Who packages Who transcodes Best for Video CDN You You (or a batch pipeline) VOD and tube libraries, recorded catalogues, pre-packaged live Managed streaming The platform The platform Creator and live-cam platforms that avoid running a media pipeline 

Choose video delivery when you control packaging and want maximum control over ladders, DRM, and cost. Choose managed streaming when the operational burden of ingest, transcode, and packaging is the problem you are trying to remove. They combine cleanly: a platform can run VOD on video delivery and hand only the live contribution path to managed streaming.

## Delivery formats and when to use each

- **HLS:** segment-based, manifest-driven, universally supported by browsers and native players. The default for adaptive VOD and live.

- **DASH:** segment-based, manifest-driven, strong for multi-codec and DRM-heavy catalogues; the common choice when you need CMCD and precise codec signalling.

- **HTTP-FLV:** a continuous byte stream over HTTP with low startup latency and no manifest. Useful for simple low-latency live where a player can hold a long-lived connection, but it does not adapt bitrate.

- **MP4:** a single self-contained file with `moov`/`mdat`. Best for downloads, trailers, and progressive playback; a poor fit for adaptive streaming because it cannot switch rendition mid-play.

## Range and 206 behaviour

Segment-based formats request whole segments, so caching is straightforward. MP4 and FLV rely on HTTP range requests, and this is where seek quality is won or lost.

When a player seeks, it issues a `Range` request. The edge should answer `206 Partial Content` from cache. If the range misses and the edge fetches the entire object from origin, seek-heavy traffic becomes full-object origin egress: the dominant cost failure on tube sites. Store partial objects safely with a strong validator so non-adjacent and overlapping ranges can be served from cache, and verify that `206` responses are genuinely cache hits rather than proxied origin reads. See [Cache control and cache keys](https://adultinfra.com/docs/cdn/cache-control/) for validator and key hygiene.

## What to decide before you configure

- **Format and packaging.** HLS or DASH for adaptive; MP4/FLV only for specific use cases.

- **Rendition ladder.** Resolution, bitrate, and codec set. See [Adaptive bitrate with HLS and DASH](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/adaptive-bitrate-hls-dash/).

- **Cache key and access model.** Public, signed, or token-gated, with a media key free of per-viewer noise.

- **Origin protection.** Private origin and an origin group with a warm standby.

- **Latency target.** VOD tolerates segment-sized latency; live may need [low-latency delivery](https://adultinfra.com/docs/video/low-latency/).

- **Rights and approval.** Confirm you hold distribution rights for every title and that content meets your moderation and age-assurance policy before it reaches the edge.

## Rights, approval, and responsibility

Prepared video means you own the packaging decision, and therefore the rights exposure. Age verification, consent, likeness, performer records, and territorial distribution rights remain the platform’s responsibility. Keep a per-title approval state and a takedown path that can purge derived segments and manifests across all renditions quickly; a hard purge on a hot object can stampede origin, so pair it with request collapsing and soft invalidation.

## Where AdultInfra fits

AdultInfra tunes video delivery for the access patterns adult platforms actually produce: aggressive seeking, concentrated popularity, long-tail catalogues, and origin-egress pressure. If you want to know whether a change is worth it, start with [Adult video CDN](https://adultinfra.com/adult-video-cdn/) and bring one hostname and the metric you want to move, or [contact us](https://adultinfra.com/contact/).

**Need this configured for your platform?** [Get a test plan](https://adultinfra.com/contact/) and an engineer will map the resource, cache, and delivery design to your workload.

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