Twitter's new application Periscope broadcasts video. I watched a broadcast just a couple minutes ago first time and I wonder that how can it stream live video without any freezing or annoying freezing (Actually I didn't see any freezing but maybe there was somebody has) on 3g? 2 or 3 weeks ago I have tried Twitter's video post feature and it was a disastrous. What is the difference between live streaming and recorded video uploading? Or is it difference between iPhone and Android?
There's no secret, it's a well established technique which is not Twitter specific.
Uploaded videos are fetched using pseudo-streaming (progressive download) while the live stream is delivered using adaptive bitrate streaming which means there are multiple renditions of the same live stream for different bandwidths. The player can then choose one version that makes the most of your connection.