Frameserver

A frameserver is a computer program that streams video to another program, called a frameclient, using a process known as frameserving. The video is sent directly to the frameclient, frame by frame. This way it is possible to use the output of a program (acting as the frameserver) to be used as the source by another program (acting as the frameclient) without having to create intermediate files. The frameserver plays the video while the frameclient records or processes it. Without frameserving the output of a program would first need to be saved to a file which could then be opened by another program. This would however use unnecessary disk space, require more time and could result in quality loss due to compression.

Example: a video editing tool might act as a frameserver to send its output to a codec which will compress the output into an AVI file.

Some popular frameservers are:

Examples of frameclients:

Frameservers are used in: Non-linear editing system

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