Although the word "streaming media" is a little strange, with the advent of broadband era, "streaming music" and "streaming movies" are cited more and more frequently. But the word "Liu" is a newly coined word, and it is difficult to see through its literal meaning at a glance. But if you switch to "online music" or "online movies", you may suddenly realize-oh!
In fact, "streaming" is to explain the channel phenomenon of these music online communication. Because of the use of circulation channels, online music and online movies can be realized in our lives. Because of this importance, "streaming media" has naturally become another synonym for network audio and video in the network world.
Recall that since the invention of paper, the media have used words and pictures as the media. More than ten years later, because of the appearance of radio, movies and television, human beings were able to enrich their communication with a large number of visual and auditory elements in music and movies. In just a few decades, music and movies have become the most mainstream media and indispensable sources of information and entertainment for human beings every day. In the late 1980s, after the birth of the Internet, which was regarded as the greatest invention at the end of the 20th century, it was still presented in the form of words in the first four or five years. I believe readers over the age of 30 can still remember how BBS, FTP and Gopher used dialing mode in text mode. With the improvement of bandwidth, the appearance of WWW protocol and the popularity of Netscape, pictures will be presented on major websites within one or two years. According to the historical track of the evolution from static media (words and graphics) to dynamic media (music and movies), the prevalence of online music and online movies should be taken for granted; However, some characteristics of the Internet have hindered this evolution.
Many people know that bandwidth is one of the major reasons that hinder online music and online movies, but in fact, the instability of transmission quality is another major reason. Because the Internet is interconnected rather than interconnected, the bandwidth that users can actually use can never be fixed. In other words, the bandwidth provided by ISP is usually only the theoretical maximum. Dial-up users of 56KbpsModem may only have a connection speed of 28 kbps/ sec or even lower when they are congested, while users of "broadband" such as ADSL/Cable(360 kbps/ sec) may only have 100K. Even if there is no congestion, the connection speed may still vary from +/- 10% to 30%. Users can use the connection speed viewing software, such as Netmedicpro, NetMonitor, Anyspeed and so on * * * to enjoy the software and view their real-time connection speed.
Unstable connection speed is the second biggest killer of network audio and video (the first is bandwidth, of course). Imagine that when music is sometimes audible and sometimes inaudible, the audience's reaction is certainly not good. Or, listen to it after downloading it all. One or two songs may be ok, but not if it's a two-hour movie. Streaming media channel is the best way to solve this part of the problem.
The so-called streaming media channel is actually to create a buffer on the user's computer and download a piece of data in advance as a buffer before playing. When the actual network connection speed is less than the speed of playing data, the player will access the data in this small buffer to avoid the interruption of playing and maintain the playing quality.
One of the most famous programs that use streaming media channels is RealPlayer of RealNetworks, and the current version is already 8.0. However, the earliest RealPlayer was called RealAudio, and the company name has not been changed to ProgressiveNetwork of RealNetworks. RealAudioPlayer can only play music. 1995, Streamworks launched by Xing Company is the first audio and video player with streaming media channel. However, with the change of the market, RealNetworks gradually unified the market of streaming media programs with its stable quality and convenient use, and acquired Xing Company, which once dominated the decoding of programs by software MPEG. Also, because of the acquisition of Xing, RealNetworks was able to shine in the later RealVideo and still survive under the free pressure of Microsoft in the later show.
One of the main reasons for the success of RealNetworks is that it adopts a new generation of streaming media channel-RTSP (Real-time Streaming Protocol), and uses a dedicated streaming media server, RealServer, to replace the WebServer using the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) channel. Therefore, when playing audio and video content to users, it can achieve faster and more stable effect than WebServer. In addition, because the file in streaming media format will not leave the played data at the user end after playing, it is also considered by musicians to be safer and more protected by copyright than MP3. At that time, the popularity of RealAudio brought a burst of popularity of online music, and many music websites mushroomed. The RealVideo format introduced by RealNetworks after the acquisition of Xing also brought audio and video into the Internet world. RealPlayer formally integrates the formats of streaming music and streaming movies and becomes RealMedia (. RM)。 RealPlayer also changed its name to RealPlayerG2, which represents the stream formats of "Generation2" and "New Generation", and also supports the presentation of HTML in windows in RealPlayer. Smil (synchronized multimedia integration language) is used to strengthen the application of streaming format in HTML, and also supports the playback of MacromediaFlash (called RealFlash), which has the momentum of a new generation of multimedia browsers. Microsoft did not pay attention to RealNetworks at first, and was not optimistic about the future of streaming media. At 1997, it saw that RealNetworks was a great success for consumers, and Microsoft also launched NetShow streaming media platform on WindowsNT, although it was free (compared with 1995 USD charged by RealNetworks). However, after the poor technical ability of the market and users, they began to invest a lot of resources in the field of streaming media. First, they bought another heavyweight streaming video manufacturer, Vxtreme, and launched WindowsMediaPlayer, claiming to replace "many playback programs that users are now loading on their computers".
Then, Microsoft and RealNetworks got the knowledge of * * * and decided to explore the streaming media market together with RealNetworks***. Microsoft invested in some shares of RealNetworks and obtained some technologies and specifications of RealPlayer5.0 for $30 million. Subsequently, Microsoft put its WindowsMediaPlayer (including the support for Real5.0 streaming format) into the default assembly of Windows98, and the alliance between Microsoft and RealNetworks was vaguely formed. However, the media are not optimistic, and remind investors of their own experience in the dispute between IE browser and Netscape browser. Just a few months later, RobGlaser, perhaps the president of RealNetwork and the former senior vice president of Microsoft's multimedia department, found that Microsoft's purpose was not simple, which reminded him of the painful experience that had happened in Netscape browser, and filed a lawsuit in court on the grounds that Microsoft violated the contract and made WindowsMediaPlayer not support RealPlayer5.0 format. He also attended the hearing of Microsoft's anti-procrastination case and testified against Microsoft. The cooperation was completely interrupted and the two sides turned against each other.
Of course, Microsoft was also angered by RealNetworks' actions. The company invested more resources in streaming media and launched Windows Media 4.0 (the new name of Netshow), which greatly improved the quality and function of media playback. By the time of WindowsMedia7.0, most of the functions have been completed, and the quality is equivalent to that of RealPlayer7. The most important thing is that WindowsMedia is completely free, from the platform WindowsMediaServer, the production tool WindowsMediaEncoder, to the development tool WindowsMediaSDK and so on. , completely free, in contrast, RealNetworks has no financial resources. From $65,438 +0.995 RealServer to $20.995 RealPlayerPlus, Microsoft obviously wants to kill RealNetworks with the "free solution" that it used to deal with Netscape.
Microsoft's latest streaming media player WindowsMediaPlayer7.
Only RealNetworks will not sit still, step up the launch of RealPlayer7 and RealPlayer8, claiming that the quality is better than Microsoft WindowsMedia, and actively explore enterprise markets such as ISP/ICP, with RealServer server software as the main sales force. At the beginning, Netscape was mainly a consumer-oriented market, and ordinary consumers were extremely sensitive to prices. Of course, Netscape for money can't beat the free InternetExplorer. The large-scale ISP/ICP that RealNetworks mainly focuses on this time is obviously not only concerned with money, the quality of network broadcasting, but also the most important multi-platform compatibility. At this point, Microsoft is obviously limited by its inherent limitations and only supports its own Windows platform. Users of Apple and Linux can't see files in MicrosoftWindowsMedia format on the Internet. RealNetworks is not the case. In addition to RealPlayerforWindows, there is also RealPlayerforMac. Because more than 70% content producers in American media still use Mac to edit music and movies, it is really not easy for these people to watch the playback effect on PC after editing on Mac, so RealPlayer can still occupy a place in the streaming media market under the protection of professional users of Mac. In addition, RealNetworks is also expanding business opportunities in the direction of providing a platform for content charging, and has established its own media space with the strength of15 million registered RealPlayer users around the world. It seems that RealNetworks will not let Microsoft eat the pie of streaming media in a short time!
Three platforms of streaming media RealNetworks, Microsoft, Apple and Apple.
In the last issue, we introduced the history and working principle of streaming media, and also made a browse of streaming media platforms of RealNetworks and Microsoft. In this issue, we will further evaluate three major streaming media platforms, such as RealNetwork, Microsoft and Apple. The purpose of appraisal is to let readers who are new to streaming media not make mistakes when they have the opportunity to choose the most suitable streaming media platform for their website or company-it took millions of yuan to find that they only need one-tenth of the original functions; Or greedy and cheap to choose a free platform only to find that they can't be installed without the assistance of experts-these are the common lessons of the authors. In fact, all streaming media platforms, good or bad, basically do the same thing. The first thing is to compress and encode the general non-streaming format into streaming format files, and then send them to the streaming server for management and send them to the designated audience (users). After downloading, users will play music or movies through the streaming media decoder. To understand the differences among RealNetworks, Microsoft and Apple, it is best to understand them from the perspectives of completeness, compatibility and full support from third parties.
complete
Because RealNetworks has been developing streaming media for a long time, its product line is quite complete, which is also a big advantage of RealNetworks. From the whole process of streaming media, RealNetworks has corresponding products in every link, from creation, transmission, servo to back-end download and playback, and each product has two versions. The basic version is free to download, with limited basic functions. If you want to be fully functional, you must buy the Plus version, which is fully functional. For professional streaming media coding engineers and large websites with thousands of netizens, the integrity of products is very important. As far as the author is concerned, RealNetworks has a complete product line and complete functions, which can provide TotalSolution for professional users.
Target product name price trial version remarks
inside
allow
manufacture
Edit and edit audio and video files, and output them to AVI/MPEG/DV or streaming StudioBasic for RealVideo $89.95.
Convert general audio-visual content into streaming format realsystemprocerplus $199.95 realsystemprocerbasic.
Making a slideshow webpage that can be streamed Real Slide Show Plus Real Slide Show Plus $99.95 Real Slide Show Basic
Convert PowerPoint file into streaming format RealPresenter Plus $199.95 RealPresenter Basic.
get through
broadcast
Play music player Real Jukebox Plus $29.95 Real Jukebox 2 Basic, mainly playing MP3 music format.
Play streaming media and other formats of movies and music RealPlayer Plus $29.95 RealPlay er8 Basic.
Microsoft's WindowsMedia Streaming Media System Platform also provides a fairly complete product line, from Windows Media Author and Windows Media Finder at the production end to WindowsMediaEncoder with coding and WindowsMediaServer with content servo transmission. There is also WindowsMediaRightsManager, which protects intellectual property rights, but compared with RealNetworks, it is a bit insufficient in the functional depth of each product; Of course, for a completely free streaming media platform, such a function is indeed valuable. In addition, WindowsMedia provides more servo load simulators than RealNetworks, which allows the system to simulate the actual online load, test the limit of the system's servo capability, and prevent the system from being overloaded when too many users flood in. WindowsMediaEncoder also provides a screen capture function. This screen capture function can record all the contents of large and small windows and the process of cursor movement in a highly compressed streaming video file, which is a very useful tool for users with educational and training needs.
Most descriptions and answers of WindowsMedia can be found on the website.
Another disadvantage of WindowsMedia is that its tools and instructions are scattered everywhere, and no centralized website can find them all at once. In order to find all the application tools and manuals of WindowsMedia, users must search Microsoft's website (a very large website). Here are most readers' tools, except WindowsMediaServer on Windows2000 Professional CD-ROM, the rest can be found on the Internet.
Free download in /windows/windowsmedia. As for instructions and troubleshooting, users can go to the website to find it faster; Unlike RealNetworks, which has a guide for editing, coding, uploading, servo, downloading and playing, users may have to try several combinations and often check Microsoft's English website to find the most suitable operation method. But you got what you paid, didn't you? For individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises without any software budget, it is quite cost-effective to legally own a complete streaming media platform by purchasing a copy of Windows2000 Professional Edition. But for MIS professional users whose time is money, the RealNetworks system supported by full agent seems to be a less headache solution.
Apple's latest version of QuickTime is 5.0.
Apple's streaming media platform is at a disadvantage in integrity, because Apple only has QuickTime (Darwin) streaming media server (an open source server architecture) and Apple QuickTime pro(29.99). Users must purchase the VideoPro2 encoder (US$ 499) produced by Sorenson to convert audio and video content into QuickTime streaming media format. If they want to broadcast live, they must use sorenson broadcaster( 199 USD), which is also an optional content stream. Moreover, if you want to format audio and video content into a multi-bit rate stream format that can correspond to different bandwidths, users must purchase an additional set of MediaCleanerPro ($599); ) produced by TerranInteractive. It's really inconvenient for users to buy such a set, but in a word it's cheaper than RealNetworks' scheme and there is no limit on the number of users. Moreover, for users who are used to MAC, QuickTime format will always be their favorite!
compatibility
In terms of compatibility, RealNetworks can get the highest score, and it is also the only platform that can cross WindowsMac and Linux, Solaris and HP /UX user streaming services. For the consumer websites that want to attract the most, the platform of RealNetworks can guarantee the highest compatibility. Relatively speaking, it is understandable that Microsoft's support for platforms other than Windows is much worse. For WindowsMediaforMac, the startup speed is nearly one year slower than that of WindowsMedia7forPC, not to mention Linux, which recently threatened Windows.
Another point that RealNetworks is worth mentioning is that its RealServer can provide the most kinds of streaming media formats. In addition to RealNetworks' own RealMedia format, it also supports Apple's QuickTime format. In other words, users of QuickTime don't have to use the more popular AppleDarwinStreamingServer to set up the streaming media server, but can use the advanced RealServer for transmission. This makes WindowsMedia, which only supports its own format, bemoan itself.
ActiveX control components of WindowsMedia can be easily added to MicrosoftFrontPage2000.
Although Microsoft's WindowsMedia has been criticized for only supporting the Windows operating system, the popularity of the Windows operating system in the consumer and SME markets is much higher than other systems, so if the target of streaming media is ordinary consumers, this shortcoming can be ignored. Coupled with Microsoft's comprehensive support for other family products, such as the complete integration of MicrosoftOffice2000 and WindowsMedia, users can easily add streaming media components in Word and FrontPage, making it easy for users who are used to Microsoft products to get started. In addition, Microsoft claims that WindowsMedia can make full use of the system performance of Windows2000 more than other streaming media platforms. These innate advantages of WindowsMedia are also a major consideration for Windows users when choosing streaming media platforms. So strictly speaking, whether the system dependence of WindowsMedia is a disadvantage or an advantage depends on the user's perspective.
RealNetworks is very active in attracting third parties and has its own membership plan.
Apple's streaming media platform was launched late, which is a boon for QuickTime users (Apple claims that QuickTime users exceed one million, but it is still far below RealNetworks' RealPlayer and Microsoft's MediaPlayer), bringing users into the streaming media field. However, most critics regard this as Apple's commitment to Mac users. In fact, there are far fewer users using QuickTime on PC than RealNetworksRealPlaer and MicrosoftMediaPlayer, which shows that Apple still concentrates its limited resources on serving Mac users. However, QuickTime is a truly compatible platform for Windows and Mac.
Third party support
In the support of third parties (third-party application software providers), the three companies have their own advantages, and they all try to get more third parties to support their streaming media standards. As a result, RealNetworks seems to have many partners. After all, RealNetworks is still a few years early in the field of streaming media. There are 32 Microsoft WindowsMedia providers on the Microsoft Windows Media webpage, and 62 of RealNetworks' Tier 2 and Tier 3 RealPartner partners belong to the software category.
RealNetworks is very active in attracting third parties and has its own membership plan. As for Apple's streaming media platform, there are far fewer Mac users than PCs, and there are far fewer third parties than RealNetworks and MicrosoftWindowsMedia. However, many of these third parties have professional development standards, so engineers based on Mac need not worry too much. Comprehensively evaluating the performance of the three platforms in terms of completeness, compatibility and support, the author recommends that large websites and enterprise users can choose RealNetworks as the streaming media platform, because they can get complete functions, the highest compatibility and sufficient support from third parties, but of course they must have enough budget; The best choice for small and medium-sized websites and individual users is Microsoft's WindowsMedia streaming platform. In addition to its low price (all downloads are free except the connection fee), its best compatibility with Windows2000 and MicrosoftOffice cannot be ignored. As for Apple's QuickTime platform, it is somewhat inferior in practice because of its incomplete functions, but if you are a Mac user, QuickTime still has its unique charm. I hope it helps you!