Streaming server vs Network sharing(NFS)

[Dave]

That will depend on the application / applet you are using.

It's not clear here whether you are trying to view the media using a link to launch an external media player or by using an applet embedded in a web page. You need to provide much more information.

If your MIME types are configured correctly, and the application supports it, then it should open up and start playback as it is downloading, as long as there is sufficient bandwidth to do so. (The download bandwidth has to be equal or greater to the bit rate the stream was encoded at for this to work.)