0

I've always wondered if using a remote desktop is the same as looking at a series of pictures online. As far as I can tell, the client machine I use to log onto a remote desktop produces (draws) a series of images on the client screen in real-time in response to the changing screen content of some remote machine.

However, looking at a series of images online often results in plenty of bandwidth and data usage (>100MB per hour) whereas RDPs only seem to use about 20MB per hour even with a lot of window-switching within the RDP. How so?

How is the "visual content" of a remote desktop transmitted to a client? Is this the same as how content of images is transmitted?

SNag
  • 1,082
  • 1
  • 10
  • 12
  • 1
    Much like MPEG2 only the parts of the screen that change considerably are transmitted... This means that a whole screen re-draw in unnecessary. – Kinnectus Sep 14 '14 at 21:06
  • RDP generates (a lot of) the window on the client side. VNC and alike do full desktop screenshots like you're thinking, utilizing techniques similar to what @BigChris mentions. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Sep 14 '14 at 21:38
  • possible duplicate of [What's the difference between RDP vs VNC?](http://superuser.com/questions/32495/whats-the-difference-between-rdp-vs-vnc), [Difference between vnc and Windows Remote Desktop?](http://superuser.com/questions/137797/difference-between-vnc-and-windows-remote-desktop). Both have excellent answers that explain how the technologies work. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Sep 14 '14 at 21:39
  • Thanks! All good now -- _RDP works by sending instructions on how to draw the screen to the client computer. Rather than sending a picture of a Window, the host machine sends a description of the window to the client machine, then the client machine is responsible for rendering an image and displaying it._ -- from [Difference between vnc and Windows Remote Desktop?](http://superuser.com/questions/137797/difference-between-vnc-and-windows-remote-desktop) – SNag Sep 15 '14 at 06:30

0 Answers0