Play On!
Even as modems have evolved over the past few years from 14.4 to 28.8, 33.6 and 56K (the latter yielding no more than 49K most of the time), alternative technologies such as ISDN, cable modems, ADSL and TCP/IP-connected office networks have pushed the envelope of our expectations of what forms of media the Internet can competently deliver. At ISDN or better speeds, real-time streaming audio approaches CD quality, real-time streaming video becomes a reality and interactive 3D worlds such as VRML or surround video aren't such an exercise in patience.
How Fast? (typical)
Here are some of the leading video and audio technologies on the market today.
Name: Real Player 8 (details)
From: www.realaudio.com
For: For PC and Mac (A beta version of RealPlayer 7 is available for Linux)
Price: RealPlayer 8 Plus is US$29.95.
Status: Beta.
Requirements: To satisfactorily experience Real Player's streaming audio and/or video on your computer, you should have at least the following.
Pros: The most notable improvement in RealPlayer version 8 is its significantly better streaming video image quality. Images look less blocky and files are nearly 30 percent more efficient than in the previous version, especially on Intel Pentium III-based PC, thanks to the special set of instructions built into that processor which the technology exploits. (MacNN has details.) On a reasonably fast connection (assuming good source material, of course), the quality is getting pretty good -- worse than any TV, but hey, we're pioneering here, aren't we? Web page developers can make pages appear or change in coordination with audio/video playback.
In addition to the new release's better video and audio quality, it has been given an extensive user interface makeover, integrating the Player with Real JukeBox and the product formerly known as Download Demon. Like Microsoft's latest Media Player, this "Real Entertainment Center" also provides the ability to change "skins" and display visualizations.
And, if you don't like the RealPlayer interface, or if the idea of having different media players to handle files in Real, Windows Media and QuickTime formats, you might find the ChoiceCaster media player from ESynch handy. You'll still need the respective players from Real, Microsoft and Apple on your system to provide the codecs and drivers that ChoiceCaster uses, but at least it provides a unified interface. PC World has details.
Like Apple, Real sells a version of its player software with additional features. In its US$29.95 "plus" incarnation, Real Player provides a "Perfect Play" mode that downloads as much of a clip as necessary to provide the highest quality experience possible. In general, we found the audio and video fidelity to be significantly better than that of earlier releases. It's a worthwhile download if you want the best RealVideo quality -- and don't mind the caveats mentioned below -- or in the BetaNews.com editorial entitled "It's Been Real - Goodbye RealNetworks."
Cons: RealNetworks is clearly moving toward an advertising-supported business model with this release. There are what appear to be sponsored links throughout the program -- and you have to sit through an ad before nearly every movie trailer, too. As with Microsoft's beta, testers of the new 14MB download from Real are already complaining that the new version suffers from signs of code bloat: excessively high CPU utilization, an occasionally sluggish user interface (particularly in the Jukebox), and perhaps its most serious failing: a propensity to generate those annoying "application not responding" errors that can lead to reboots, crashes, Windows registry errors and other computer misbehavior. Indeed, our PC system's stability declined noticeably after installing the prerelease code... and recovered after removing RealPlayer 8. That is very likely why it is still termed a "beta" release. The player expires in 120 days.
Summary: The new RealPlayer 8, the company says, is an "all-in-one" media player. Like Microsoft's Media Player 7, released two months earlier, the new RealPlayer 8's Real Entertainment Center integrates jukebox, radio tuner, a media guide and advanced multimedia content searching and cataloguing functions. The product also supports sound reinforcement plug-ins such as iQfx 2.0 from QSound that can restore depth to downloaded music that lacks the "punch" of a CD-based original. A product page details these and other enhancements.
The new product bundles a new version of its audio and video streaming software with RealJukebox, which "rips" CD tracks into digital format; and RealDownload 4, which manages files downloaded from the Web. (The "Download Demon" feature of the previous release was our least favorite feature of RealPlayer 7 - at least the new version is as easy to disable!)
The CD recording function, by default, uses Real's secure RMX format that only plays the "ripped" music files back on the computer on which they were recorded. You can, however, manually switch to MP3 format for recording. The option to do this seemed to us somewhat more obscure than on the previous RealJukebox release. In this version, the option to select a recording format is found under a Preferences tab labeled "audio quality." You must also deselect an option to encrypt the files and agree to a copyright terms and conditions page.
The RealJukebox CD Player, like a growing number of CD player alternatives (including the Deluxe CD Player included in the Windows 98 Plus Pack and the forthcoming Windows Millennium Edition), supports the so-called CDDB -- the Internet-based Compact Disc Data Base. This allows the RealJukebox to automatically display the artist, album and song titles for your disc -- along with an Internet-connected "buy now" button for all the other albums by the artist you're listening to.
Real Player provides banners, sales pitches, commercial tie-ins and multimedia links within nearly every aspect of the program -- you'll be assailed by ads before every movie trailer, at the bottom of every music review, here and there on video screens and in every corner of the product's graphical interface -- even the product's elaborate registration process provides ample opportunities for the company to pitch products, third-party promotions and upgrade offers. When a user clicks on hyperlinked areas of the RealPlayer display or elsewhere on the Real Player screen, the software's multimedia links feature automatically pulls up web pages with supplementary information. Indeed, a skilled Web page developer can make web pages appear in coordination with Real Player's video and/or audio playback. (Try this demo from General Magic to see an example.)
The newest RealPlayer's cluttered user interface, like the G2 and version 7 releases before it, thankfully provides the ability to automatically hide the controls when the window is not selected. Graphic EQ and image controls provide tools to make the best of what is often still pretty bad video. Still, the new Real Player's streaming quality, similar to that of Microsoft's newest MPEG-4 V3 codec, clearly sets a new benchmark for RealVideo quality - one that, frankly, leaves Apple's QuickTime 4.x's streaming behind. The race goes on.... See the article entitled "RealNetworks Skins Apple, Microsoft" in Network Computing for more information on serving streaming video.
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
Back in the Summer of '99, Real Networks boasted an 85% market share for its Internet media streaming technologies. By Nov. 2000, it said streaming media players were installed on 99% of U.S -- and again it claimed the lion's share of the market. However, a Media Metrix survey of home PC users that year found that RealPlayer's market share was only 28% of U.S. home computer users -- a number that appeared to further decline to 16.23% by April 2002, according to a survey by Nielsen/NetRatings.
Meanwhile, Microsoft claimed that its Windows Media Player 6&7 had captured 28% and 22% of U.S. home computer users, respectively, in 2000, and the company boasted the largest marketshare among enterprise users of streaming media that year. This trend appeared to continue in 2002, when Nielsen/NetRatings found that Microsoft's player had edged out RealMedia for the top spot with a 28.32% reach among users at work, compared to 26.99% for Real. Support for Apple's QuickTime, however, looked to be up, but only at first glance. As it turns out, Nielsen/NetRatings changed its survey methodology, providing an apparent boost to QuickTime's numbers. Whereas, in the Nov. 2000 report, Media Metrix found that QuickTime was being used by only 4% of U.S. home computer users, the June 2002 report by Nielsen/NetRatings showed QuickTime with a 7.49% market share and a 13.19% share at work. (Read more....)
And, in the wake of high-profile defections to Microsoft's competing standard by Yahoo, Time Warner and others (including PC Buyer's Guide), Real has licensed Microsoft's Windows Media Technologies for inclusion in its next-generation Real Networks products -- the first of which appear in RealPlayer 8. News.com has details, and the San Jose Mercury News offers an analysis of how both sides may benefit.
But Apple's not out of the game yet. On June 12th, 2000, Real Networks and Apple announced a licensing deal to build support for QuickTime streaming into the RealServer 8 platform. The move, seen by many as a way to combat Microsoft's growing market share in the streaming arena, was made at the Streaming Media East 2000 conference on June 12th in New York city, by Real Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who linked up via satellite. ZDNet has additional details.
For Further Reading:
Name: Windows Media Player
From: Microsoft
Status: Version 7 final. (Officially released on July 18th; a final version 6.3 for Macintosh also became available.)
Price: Free Download
Pros: All-in-one app handles multiple media types. Many shortcut keys allow expert users to play, pause, change the volume, customize screen modes, etc. Interface is customizable with optional "skins." Incorporates SRS 3D sound enhancement technology.
Cons: QuickTime support not as robust as that of Apple's QuickTime player (QTVR, for example, is not supported, and some QT codecs are missing). Some video files don't play properly unless the latest version of Media Player is manually downloaded. RealAudio/Video support has been dropped entirely. The resource-hogging player is slower than the 6.4 player at some tasks. Switching to full-screen mode is occasionally troublesome.
Summary: Version 7 of the Microsoft Windows Media Player is a standard feature in Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition and is a freely downloadable upgrade for older 32-bit Windows releases. The Windows Media Player can play streamed multimedia content in addition to local multimedia file types. If installed over an existing 6.4 release or earlier version, it upgrades the existing Windows Media Player and Microsoft ActiveMovie support to provide access to new Windows Media content and supports numerous local and streamed multimedia file types including, to name just a few, WAV, MIDI, AVI, AU, QuickTime (1 and 2), MP2, MP3 and Microsoft's own ASF advanced streaming format. Notably, the product no longer supports RA, RAM or RM (RealAudio/RealVideo) files, as previous releases did.
The player's underlying architecture, dubbed Windows Media Technologies 4.1, provides the ability to stream live audio or video content, convert PowerPoint presentations to Advanced Streaming Format streams, convert AVI to ASF without re-encoding, and embed URLs and scripts into streams. Unicast, multicast, pay-per-view, content licensing, user preference tracking and other functions are also provided, including the ability to design your own skins or, via Microsoft's well-documented application programming interface, to incorporate extended playback features directly into other applications, documents or web-pages.
A few key features are missing, though: there's no support for "wired sprites," as Apple provides in QuickTime, and the server isn't Open Source, either. Worse, Microsoft holds a patent -- and is enforcing its rights -- on the ASF file format that is at the heart of Windows Media technologies. This means that attempts by third parties to develop ASF compatible conversion tools or ASF-to-AVI utilities may encounter the same legal threats the developer of VirtualDub did, after he successfully reverse-engineered the ASF format for his DVD "ripping" utility. This means that companies hoping to create, say, an ASF player for Pocket PCs, Palm Pilots or the Linux platform without obtaining a license could run afoul of Microsoft's legal wrath. It also stands as a good reason why ASF isn't a good format to use, if cross-platform compatibility is your goal.
Still, Microsoft's streaming services, provided for free with Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers, support the majority of PC users and they are fast, reliable and free. And, according to Microsoft, Windows Media is now the streaming media leader among enterprise customers. A press release provides details.
The final release of Windows Media Technologies 7, including Windows Media Player 7, Windows Media Rights Manager 7 and Windows Media 7 SDK, is available for download as of July 18, 2000 from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/. Windows Media Services is included in Windows 2000 Server. A Windows Media Encoder 7 is available. Media Player 8 is currently slated to appear in the forthcoming successor to Windows 2000 dubbed "Windows XP." Among Media Player 8's new features is the ability to encode audio to MP3.
Rights Management
Microsoft, in Feb 2000, first announced an extension to its Windows Media Architecture that enables pay per view and pay-per-download broadcasts of digital content. This extension, known as the Windows Media Rights Manager, is the cornerstone of a deal slated to debut on July 18th, in which Microsoft and EMI Recorded Music will make over 100 full-length albums and singles from popular artists available for download at Microsoft's Windows Media website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/ at prices "comparable to those of traditional retail sales." News.com has details.
Other press releases of note:
Name: QuickTime
From: Apple
Status: 5.0x Final and 6.0 public preview
Price: Free Download (for Windows and Macintosh; third-party support under Linux)
Pros: All-in-one app handles multiple media types.
Cons: Basic free player is severely limited: no full-screen option, no looping, no saving of files, etc. These issues are addressed by a $29.95 Pro edition. Version 5 improves the user interface and improves playback performance. Version 6.0 adds support for MPEG-4, Flash 5 and better streaming.
For Further Reading:
Product: Yahoo Media Player
From: Yahoo's Broadcast.com site (Get it at player.broadcast.com)
For: Windows 95/98/NT/2000
Status: Beta
Price: Free
Pros: Clean interface, with a minimum of ads. Good performance. Many creative "skin" options.
Cons: No full-screen mode in video player. (You can, however, manually drag the lower-right corner of the player window to resize.) Help requires Internet connection.
Summary: Yahoo's new Media player supports formats including MP3, Windows Media and CDs. It also allows playback of Internet radio stations and, like the new players from Microsoft and Real, supports CDDB, the Internet-based CD-lookup service that automatically finds and displays the title, artist, and song titles of the current CD. Also like its competitors, it can be customized via add-on "skins." The player uses fewer systems resources than the newest offerings from Microsoft and Real (but more than WinAmp, a favorite of many MP3 music enthusiasts). However, there is a reason the player seems slim by comparison: the Yahoo Player requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or above to be present on the system, even if Netscape is your primary Web browser. And get this: Microsoft's Media Player must be present on the system for the Yahoo player (which, as noted in the "Cons" section, is less feature-rich) to support ASF and ASX files. One has to ask: why even bother?
For Further Reading:
Name: Liquid Audio
From: http://www.liquidaudio.com/
Price: Free
Pros: Built-in commerce model, ability to burn CDs, good sound quality.
Cons: More proof that the days of free stuff on the Net are fading. Limited selection of supported CD-R drives.
Requirements: To record CDs, the company recommends the use an Adaptec 2940 SCSI card or any card capable of "bus mastering" and one of the following recorders:
CD-R's
CD-RW's
Summary: Client/Server-based system, where bands or record companies lease space on Liquid Audio's servers. End users download and listen to free samples in Liquid Audio's streaming audio format (this requires the free Liquid Player) and, if they elect to buy the song(s), can pay to decode and download CD-quality tunes (usually priced around $1/song), then burn their own CDs, right from within the Liquid Player. See http://www.liquidaudio.com/ for details.
Name: Macromedia Flash 5
From: www.macromedia.com
For: Windows and Power Macintosh, beta for Linux.
Pros: Speedy animation, protects files from being copied.
Cons: Reportedly, up to 30% of web viewers won't -- or can't -- view Flash enabled pages.
Despite the alarming statistic quoted above, we think Flash is one of the most promising -- if not the most promising multimedia and animation file formats on the web. The files load quickly, play smoothly and generally, cause us little strife. Flash is supported directly by Apple QuickTime 4 or later and a Flash player downloads and installs automatically in recent Internet Explorer release on Windows, too.
The Capitol Records Yellow Submarine Promotion Flash animation demonstrates its potential.
A growing number of third-party tools also write Flash files. A few notable titles include Adobe LiveMotion, Swish, Vecta3D, and Swift3D.
For Further Reading:
Audio/Video on handhelds (added June 9, 2000):
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