Make your Web experience sing and dance.Multimedia plug-ins let you see and hear the future of the Internet Today's Internet is a far cry from the less-than-engaging bulletin boards of yore of old time; long ago; as, in times or days of yore. - Pope. See also: Yore . Internet radio Listening to audio broadcasts via the Internet. There are more than 4,000 broadcasts available on the Internet that can be streamed and played by a software media player in the computer or in a stand-alone Internet radio with the software built in. , video and 3D animation has made the Net a much more interesting place to be. Unfortunately, your standard browser won't get you there. To ride the cutting edge of Web development, you'll need to take advantage of the latest Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. plug-ins and players. A plug-in is a multimedia program that works with your Web browser to put more zip into your surfing. It allows you to get continuous audio or video--a process called streaming--while connected to a site and without waiting until the entire file downloads. In other instances, multimedia players, which are browser-independent, allow direct access to audio and video files. Here's what you need to hang 10 on the Net. By now you've probably heard of MP3, the audio compression Encoding digital audio data to take up less storage space and transmission bandwidth. Audio compression typically uses lossy methods, which eliminate bits that are not restored at the other end. ADPCM and MP3 are examples of audio compression methods. See audio codec and data compression. format that makes it easy to transfer music via the Net. Without an MP3 player A digital music player that supports the MP3 format, which was the audio format that started a revolution in online music downloads and distribution. All portable music players, the iPod being the most popular, support MP3 along with one or more other audio formats. you won't get to hear what all the fuss is about. Liquid Audio (www.liquidaudio.com) makes the Liquid Player, a leading music player that allows you to listen to audio files. The Liquid Player also makes it easy to keep track of your digital music files, view liner notes liner notes pl.n. Explanatory notes about a record album, cassette, or compact disk included on the jacket or in the packaging. and cover artwork and make your own CDs if you have a CD-R (CD-Recordable) A writable CD technology using a type of compact disc that can be recorded, but not erased (CD-Rs are "write once" discs). CD-R discs are used to master CD-ROMs, to back up data and to make copies of data for distribution. drive that lets you create your own CDs. Other players include Winamp (www.winamp.com), MusicMatch (www.musicmatch.com) and Sonique (www.sonique.com). Although it's currently the most popular, MP3 isn't the only format for digital audio. AT&T Labs makes the a2b Music Player 2.0 (www.a2bmusic.com). A2b has its own music compression format to compete with MP3, which the company claims has faster downloads and smaller files. If you want to preview a movie, watch a sports event or a live Webcast concert, you need to have plug-ins and players that allow you to get streaming video A one-way video transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play video clips and video broadcasts. Computers in home networks stream video to digital media hubs connected to a home theater. . Macromedia (www.macromedia.com) makes the popular Flash and Shockwave programs. Flash is a plug-in that enables viewing of high-quality graphics and animation. Shockwave is a multimedia player that decodes streaming audio A one-way audio transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play audio clips and Internet radio. Computers in home networks stream audio (mostly music) to digital media hubs connected to home theaters. and video. Shockwave has become the standard for many sites because it handles memory-intensive video files well. QuickTime 4 (www.apple.com/quicktime), developed by Apple Computers Inc., is also popular for accessing streaming audio and video. QuickTime 4 is actually a group of plug-ins that lets you access streaming audio. For Website developers, Apple has developed a companion software package that lets you transfer and edit your photo albums and home movies into QuickTime files that you can post on your site or e-mail to others. Another player to watch for is the RealPlayer from RealNetworks (www.realnetworks.com). The company combined its RealAudio and RealVideo standards to make RealPlayer G2, a player that handles streaming audio, video and MP3 files. Most plug-ins and players are free, can be downloaded within minutes and work with several different operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. . Note that many of the popular plug-ins and players from software developers are available in at least two versions: a basic program that is free, and an enhanced version for sale. Unless you have money to burn, don't bother with the retail versions. Almost all Websites offer content that is compatible with the free versions. Also, the technology is changing so quickly that companies frequently update their releases. Make sure to check each plug-in or player Website for details on system requirements, compatibility, installation and usage instructions. Failing to set up these programs correctly can cause your browser to crash constantly. To keep track of the latest in browser-enhancing technology, sign on to http://browserwatch.internet.com and www.plugins.com/plugins. |
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