Introduction: With the introduction of Java, a programming language that enables you to download mini-programs to run, and Microsoft’s new Active X technology, hypermedia and multimedia comes alive with eye-popping special effects. This multimedia includes the streaming video and audio capabilities of Microsoft Netshow. In this site I focused on the audio-visua applications with the use of RealPlayer.

Stream: its called streaming multimedia. Compared to the ordinary audio and video that you can download from the Internet, it’s far superior in one very important way. The content begins playing almost immediately. Presentations arrive in data "streams." You don’t have to wait for the whole thing to download before play begins. To smooth out the data flow and eliminate the static, streaming builds up several seconds’s worth of sounds before beginning to play. (A buffer is simply a storage area in memory). It then continues to drop arriving data into one end of the buffer while it pulls a smooth stream from the other end. RealPlayer is capable in both stream and non stream applications.

It is important to get the sound data through the Internet as efficiently as possible so that your buffer doesn’t run dry. Therefore, streamed data is compressed as much as possible, using a lossy compression schemes. Your streaming player's biggest task is to decompress it. Compression and decompression cause their own set of problems. However, in general, it is the best way to get a lot of data through the Internet as quickly as possible.

Pros and Cons of Stream: In everything there is almost always pros and cons. First, advantages are the following:

• There is no limit on file size because you don’t have to download an entire file before it starts to play.
• Streaming enables live Internet broadcasting, much like radio and television except for the slight buffering delay.
• You don’t have to wait for an entire file to download before it starts to play, as you do with traditional audio files.

Next the disadvantages are the following:

• When traffic is heavy on the Internet or the server is overloaded, you most likely experience some brownouts --- short periods where the buffer runs dry and you hear nothing but static. This can ruin the mood of piece, to put it mildly.
• Decompression requires intense computation, which eats up processing time. In order to use the stream effectively, you need to have faster CPU. (Pentium 266 is not fast enough).
• Sound quality is poorer than other audio and video files.

Microsoft NetShow: NetShow is a new streaming multimedia technology developed by Microsoft specifically to complement Microsoft NetMeeting, the Microsoft Telephony.With the Netshow server, which runs on Microsoft Windows NT, content producers can draw from a wide variety of input sources, including recorded or live video and audio as well as graphics. In NetShow, what you see depends on what type of data you are downloading. Sometimes, you will see an in-line video, with no controls.

Using RealPlayer: RealPlayer is not only for "stream" applications. In non-stream applications the files must be downloaded before playing. Included with Microsoft Internet Explorer is Progressive Network’s RealPlayer 4.0, which enables you to access realAudio-compatible audio and video sources on the Internet. RealPlayer can handle both Real Audio and Real Video. As with NetShow, exactly what you see depends on what type of data you’re downloading. Like NetShow, RealPlayer gives you the basic VCR control ( Play, Pause, and Stop ). Unlike Netshow, though, RealPlayer doesn’t have markers. You can use the Forward and Back controls, as well as the slider control, to move around in those parts of the presentation that have already been downloaded. Another difference is that you can navigate RealAudio and Real Video content by clicking News, Tech, Sports, or any of the other buttons on the navigation panel. If you access a RealAudio sound, the player looks exactly the same, except that it doesn’t have the video panel.

How To Use RealPlayer

• First of all you want to Download the free player from
• Then you want to install the program to your hard drive. The program will install as a stand alone and as a plug-in for Microsoft Explorer browser and the Netscape Communicator.
• After the progam is installed it will probably will ask you to register it for montly updates on the software and it will display an icon on your task bar (Windows 95).
• Double click on the icon to start the program and it will play a demo Real Video file to demonstrate its video capabilities and to show that the program is working.
• Next you want to Check out the Links with RealPlayer content on the Internet.Click here to go to my links.