A Complete Guide to Web Design

Adding Video to an HTML Document

Table 20-1: Streaming Video SummaryTechnology

File Type

ReferenceFile Type

LiveBroadcast

Player

Encoder

Server

Delivery

1

BandwidthOptions

RealVideoRealNetworkswww.real.comRealNetworkshas announcedits new G2system; it wasnot available asof this writing.

.rm

.rpm

yes

RealPlayer 5.0 (free) orRealPlayer Plus (com-mercial product)(Windows 3.1/95/NT,Mac)

RealVideoEn-coder or AdobePremier Plug-in(Windows 95/NT, Mac)

RealNetworksBasicServer 5.0 (free)and BasicServer Plus 5.0(full-featuredcommercialproduct)(Win 95/NT,most Unix)

UDP andHTTP

Optimized for 14.4 and28.8.Separate files arerequired for specific bitrates.

NetShowMicrosoftwww.microsoft.com/netshow

.asf

.asx

yes

NetShow Player(Windows 3.1/95/NT,Mac, Unix)

NetShow Tools(Windows 95/NT only)

NetShow Server(Windows NT4.0)

UDP, TCP,and HTTP

Separate files requiredfor each bitrate (28, 56,128, etc.) as of thiswriting. Scaling willcertainly be added to afuture version.

StreamworksXingTechnologieswww.xingtech.com

.mpg

.xsm—embedded.xdm—non

• embedded

yes

Streamworks Player(Windows 95/NT, Mac)

Xing MPEGEn-coder(Windows 95/NT)This is acommercialproduct

StreamworksServer(NT, Linux,Solaris, Irix,HP-UX, Unix)

UDP andHTTP

Aimed at high band-widths (250kbps andhigher); files can be“thinned” to servemultiple ban dwiths, butseparate files are recom-mended for specific bitrates.

1 UDP continuously pushes data through an open connection stream; however, UDP connections are problematic for some firewall configurations. Some vendors have respondedby adding the capacity to revert to HTTP delivery if the UDP connection fails.