becomes the rendering engine for video content referenced from an HTML file. So the emphasis here is on rich media, linking video and audio, with conventional web text and images, and also with PowerPoint presentations. Java players A number of companies have developed players based on lightweight Java applets, sometimes called playerless players. One, HotMedia, is part of IBM s WebSphere product. Clipstream Video from Clipstream Technologies is another typical example of a Java solution. Television set-top boxes Streaming is not just for PCs. New designs for set-top boxes now can display an IP stream as well as conventional cable and satellite television channels on Media players 253 Resize Handle Control Panel Media Playback Pane: Audio Animation SMIL Video RealPix RealText Related Info Pane: HTML JavaScript other Web Technologies Secondary Browsing Window: HTML JavaScript other Web Technologies Media Browser Pane HTML JavaScript other Web Technologies Figure 13.9 RealOne media portal from RealNetworks.
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installs with a Picture Viewer that can display still images. The QuickTime Pro version can save movies, create slide shows, and add soundtracks. RealPlayer The RealPlayer has changed from a straight player to media portal. RealPlayer 8 was superseded by the version 9 RealOne Player. This player also can be used as a music store and to listen to Internet radio through the subscriptionfunded RadioPass. CD-burning is supported, as are downloads to portable music players. Earlier players supported most operating systems. The RealOne player is aimed at the consumer, and is available in two versions for Windows and Mac OS X. UNIX and Linux users can use the legacy RealPlayers with RealVideo codec upgrade. When it is finished, the open source Helix player will provide support for the Real formats including RealVideo 10 for UNIX and Linux users. Real also supply players for mobile users, with support for Symbian OS, Palm OS 5, and PocketPC for PDAs. The RealPlayer also can be used with some Nokia cell phones. Windows Media player The Windows Media 9 player is available as a stand-alone player, but its true strengths come when it is integrated into a web browser. The player then 252 The Technology of Video and Audio Streaming RealNetworks RealOne Player version 9 Apple QuickTime player version 6.5 Microsoft Windows Media player version 9 Figure 13.8 Popular media players: QuickTime 6, Real One player, and Windows Media 9.
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Media players 251 Figure 13.7 MPEG-4 player rendering video objects.
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standard supports the ability to change the viewpoint of three-dimensional objects, although existing players do not offer this facility. Proprietary players The majority of players in use today are part of a proprietary architecture. The players are multipurpose in that they can function as a media portal, a standalone player, or a plug-in to a web browser. The players can all play files from the local storage, hard drive, or CD-ROM, or from a stream. Some suppliers sell a version of the player with extended facilities (the basic version being a free download). Typical extras include an audio graphic equalizer and controls for the video display, like contrast and brightness. In the case of QuickTime, the Pro version adds authoring capability. QuickTime Apple QuickTime player has been enhanced beyond its original functionality for playing CD-ROMs. It now has full support for streaming media. The player 250 The Technology of Video and Audio Streaming Demultiplex Elementary streams Scene Description (script or classes) Composition information Decompression Primitive AV objects Composition & Rendering User interaction Hierarchical, interactive, audiovisual scene streams from server reception reports user commands Figure 13.6 Basic MPEG-4 player system.
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sequence of the development of HTML. The standard was the language. The MPEG-4 standard has taken the opposite approach, by specifying the player. That route guarantees a consistent look for content. The standalone player treats a stream more like a CD-ROM or a DVD. The player is dedicated solely to the playback of streams. Rich media is still possible; the Real player can render Flash vector graphics, text, and pictures. MPEG-4 players The MPEG-4 player potentially can offer the content creator much greater flexibility in the formats it can handle. Whereas a conventional media player is limited to streaming audio and video, and possibly still images and Flash animation, the MPEG-4 player can render a wide variety of two- and threedimensional objects. The object can be natural (like rectangular video objects) or synthetic (like avatars). The incoming media files are decompressed as audio-visual objects. The objects are layered in the correct order as specified in the scene descriptor. The MPEG-4 player then processes the video objects into two-dimensional representations appropriate to the player s point of view. This representation is then rendered to the video display. A similar process applies to the audio objects, the only difference being that the objects are mixed rather than layered. The Media players 249 SCENE visual audio synthetic 2-D Complete (3-D) speech general audio video face animation (avatar) 3-D mesh graphics Figure 13.5 MPEG-4 media objects.
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time code and data stream rate. The players may have additional controls for the audio (graphic equalizer) and video (brightness, contrast, color). Players and plug-ins A player can be used standalone or as a plug-in for a browser; each has its merits. The browser-based approach is suited to rich media application. Just as a browser renders images and text into a unified display, the media player plug-in makes video just another component in the display. The player is called with an HTML
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Media players 247 Figure 13.2 Windows Media player with the integrated media guide. Screen shot reprinted by permission from Microsoft Corporation. WEB NEWS Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetaur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo Today Breaking Recent stories 75 Kbps 00:12:06 Figure 13.3 Media player and plug-in to web browser.
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246 The Technology of Video and Audio Streaming Figure 13.1 Media players for wireless, television, and the PC.
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Free of charge Automatic installation Compact software executable No configuration Invisible software upgrades Modest use of processor resources In general, a proprietary architecture needs a proprietary player. This naturally has limited the number of streaming formats, weeding out all but a few. Nobody wants his or her PC cluttered with 10 different players; ideally we would want to install only one. The leaders have been Real, as the pioneers of the technology, and Microsoft, with a huge installed OS base. QuickTime also has very wide usage. It has been tough for other players to compete against the brutal realities of the marketplace. MPEG-4 is gaining ground, especially for mobile devices. The players are available in different versions for different operating systems, but if you are running Linux, for example, you may be excluded from viewing streams created by the proprietary architectures. Portals, players, and plug-ins Players can be used in three different ways: as a content portal, a player, or a plug-in to a Web browser. Real and Windows Media players can be used as portals to streaming media content. The player can be used as a basic player just open the file and play. The third way is to use the player as a plug-in to a Web browser. The streaming is then treated as an integral part of a synchronized rich media experience. The plug-in is the method of choice for rich media. Text and graphics can be combined seamlessly with the video stream into a unified presentation using SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) to synchronize the elements. The new international standard, MPEG-4, has changed the status quo. We now can see a universal architecture that can be applied to any number of media viewers from the cell phone up to high-definition video displays. Typical player Players share a number of features, although the exact details vary from vendor to vendor. First there is a video display area. This can be resized, using interpolation to scale up pictures if a large screen size is set. The VCR-style controls enable viewer interactivity. Hot spots on the display area can also be used much like a web page to link to alternative content. A status display shows Media players 245
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13 Media players Introduction The media player is the public face of streaming media, the equivalent of the television receiver. The original media player was a software application for the PC, to be used like a Web browser. Now streaming has become a popular way to deliver multimedia content; we see players in mobile devices and in home entertainment products like the set-top box. In these devices, the player even may be embedded on silicon chips. The personal computer users could have three or more players installed to provide support for different codecs. Apart from the odd software update to get the latest version, we are unaware of the mechanics of the players. For the content creator the player may be the simplest part of the end-to-end chain, but without it your content cannot be seen. This is where streaming departs from television. We expect our television to display all broadcasts, but imagine if you transmitted NTSC in Europe. Your audience would be zero. To distribute content by streaming, you have to deal with the problem that there is no universal player. Potential viewers may be unable to view your streams. MPEG-4 promises to deliver a universal delivery mechanism, but the safest way to ensure the widest audience is to encode for different players. A corporate intranet may have the luxury of a single player on every desk, but webcasting to the public must deal with diversity. The designers of the architectures have made their players robust, and foolproof to deploy. You rarely will have to be concerned about the set-up of a player, except perhaps setting configurations to transmit streams through corporate firewalls. To make sure that you have the largest possible audiences for your streams, it must be easy for viewers to install the player. By its very nature, the player should not intrude between the content and the viewer. The ideal player should have the following characteristics:
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