Microsoft ActiveMovie technology is another reason why Internet Explorer 4.0 is the best browser on the market for viewing cool multimedia sites. ActiveMovie supports all the popular Web-based audio and video formats, including MPEG—the format that allows TV-quality video and CD-quality audio. To reduce waiting time, ActiveMovie uses "progressive downloading," which lets you start playing an audio or video clip while it's still downloading in the background.

ActiveMovie provides the following:

• Fast and easy playback of all types of media on the Internet, including MPEG Audio and Video, AVI, QuickTime, MIDI, AU, WAV, and AIFF.
• Software-based MPEG playback, which delivers full-screen, television-quality video on mainstream systems.
• A flexible, extensible architecture that can easily integrate new technologies.