If you're familiar with RealSystem, this chapter gives you a quick look at the many changes that affect how you produce streaming media in RealSystem G2.
Based on the most advanced technology available, the open, end-to-end architecture of RealSystem G2 changes the nature of streaming multimedia across a network. With RealSystem G2, you have far more possibilities for creating Web-based multimedia than before.
With RealSystem, you can now stream many popular audio and video formats. Stream WAV without conversion to RealAudio, for example, AVI without conversion to RealVideo.
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Additional Information |
See "Choosing Media to Stream". |
RealText and RealPix let you stream text and create streaming slide shows that use special effects such as fades.
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Additional Information |
See "Choosing Media to Stream". |
RealSystem's open architecture lets RealNetworks' development partners create plug-ins to stream virtually any file type. Automatic download of plug-ins ensures that RealPlayer 6.0 users can play new RealMedia streaming file types as soon as they are introduced.
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Additional Information |
Visit http://www.real.com for information on becoming a RealNetworks partner. |
RealSystem G2 introduces a new family of RealAudio Codecs that provides fast encoding, superior sound, and the ability to encode a single file for delivery at different bit rates.
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Additional Information |
See "Supporting Multiple Bandwidth Connections" for an overview. "Choosing a RealAudio Codec" lists the new Codecs. |
RealPlayer 6.0 removes the restriction that two RealAudio streams played simultaneously must be encoded with different Codecs. The new RealPlayer can now play multiple streams that use the same Codec.
For presentations that include more than one file, you create a SMIL file to specify how and when each file plays. SMIL, which stands for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a standardized language that uses a simple mark-up similar to HTML to coordinate a streaming presentation.
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Additional Information |
For a look at SMIL features, see "Writing a SMIL File". Refer to Chapter 6 for instructions on using SMIL. |
RealSystem G2 introduces simpler methods for supporting multiple bandwidth connections. New Codecs allow a single RealMedia file to contain multiply encoded versions of the source. Or you can let RealPlayer choose between different versions of a presentation based on bit-rate parameters in the SMIL file. Either way, you need just one link on your Web page and your encoded files do not need to conform to any RealSystem naming conventions.
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Additional Information |
See "Supporting Multiple Bandwidth Connections" for an overview |
RealSystem still uses RAM files (extensions .ram and .rpm) to launch presentations, but RealServer's RAMGEN feature can generate these files automatically. In your Web page, you link to the SMIL file and include in the URL special parameters that cause RealServer to generate the RAM file and download it to the Web browser.
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Additional Information |
See "Linking your Web Page to your Presentation". |
Because it still supports the PNA protocol, RealServer 6.0 is backwards compatible with RealSystem 3.0 through 5.0. But it introduces as its primary protocol the RealTime Streaming Protocol (RTSP), an open, standards-based protocol for multimedia streaming. Because of this, URLs that point to media on RealServer now begin with rtsp://
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When communicating with RealPlayer 6.0, RealServer 6.0 uses RealTime Streaming Protocol (RTSP) as its control protocol and RealNetworks' proprietary RDP as its packet protocol. But because RealSystem supports international standards for streaming media, RealServer and RealPlayer interoperate with RTP-based media servers and clients. The following table lists the protocols used with different mixes of servers and clients.
RealSystem is fully compatible with RealSystem 3.0 through 5.0: