Jack Schofield
Short film and TV-style websites like to use “streaming media”, which means the movie starts within 20 to 30 seconds of clicking the icon or hot-link to display it.
The advantage is that you can start watching a video without having to download the whole thing, which could take from 10 to 20 minutes. The main disadvantage of streaming a film or video clip is that it will inevitably suffer from a slow frame rate, gaps (dropouts) and image corruption due to network congestion and delays.
It will also be small, because a small image requires less data – and, therefore, less bandwidth – than a large one. Websites often offer a choice of 56K and 28.8K videos for different modem speeds. The smaller 28.8K version needs less bandwidth and will usually stream better.
To play back a movie you also need player software, which is usually free.
RealNetworks’ RealVideo is probably essential – Michael Cornish of Atomfilms reckons it has about 85% of the streaming video market – with Macromedia’s Shockwave Flash for cartoons.
Microsoft’s Windows Media Player supports a wide range of streaming and playback formats such as .avi, .asf, .mpg, .mpeg, .mp2 and .mp3, including Apple’s QuickTime (.qt, .mov, and so on), though you may also want Apple’s own player. (Yes, there is a Microsoft Windows Media Player for Macintosh.)
ENDS