How to perform testing for audio/video streaming websites

With the coming of broadband the importance and relevance of audio/video streaming has increased to a pretty impressive level on the internet. Almost all media related websites contain video/audio streaming in one form or the other. Streaming videos is a good choice when you don't want people to download your videos and share with others. Here are some quick steps to test video/audio streaming.

Before we test web audio/video we expect the user to have the necessary plugin (eg: flash) installed.

1. Ensure that the video/audio is playing for all flash enabled browsers.
2. Ensure that a meaningful message is shown to users using a browser without flash/ the necessary codec.
3. Ensure that the audio is in sync with the video.
4. Ensure that the required player controls are shown in all browsers.
5. Ensure that only users who have paid to access the video can stream the video.
6. Ensure that 'premium' videos display valid meaningful message for users who has not paid to watch it.
7. Ensure that the video player allows playing the video at lower bit rates so as to reduce buffering with available bandwidth.

These are the very first test cases that come to my mind when I think of testing audio and video streaming. Is there anything more to add to the list? Let me know using the comment box below.