RealPlayer Plus 8 Beta Meet The Streaming Media Master Jim Fox
RealNetworks first introduced its streaming media software in 1995 with the release of RealAudio 1.0. Streaming video was added in 1997 with RealVideo 4.0. Each release since then has seen new innovations and functionalities added. The current version, RealPlayer Plus 8.0 (still in beta) continues in this tradition.
What exactly is streaming media? A streaming media player is able to take a large audio or video file and download it in pieces to your computer. This allows the player to actually begin playing the file as it is being downloaded rather than having to wait for the entire file. This concept is great, but of course it is all dependent on network traffic and the speed of each internet connection. To compensate for this, buffering is used. With buffering, a large portion of the file is downloaded before it starts playing, the idea being that the rest of the file will have time to download as it is playing. With a slower connection this does not always work, leaving break-up or gaps in the audio or video streaming.
The folks at RealNetworks are constantly working to improve the efficiency and quality of their streaming media player and this continues with RealPlayer Plus 8.0. Fire up the program and you will see a nice clean interface with a scrolling channel bar on the left and the video screen on the right. The Channel Bar provides one click access to daily programming from a whole host of internet broadcasters. Channels can be added or deleted at will. Player control buttons (play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward) are above the channel bar along with a browser type address bar with forward and back buttons to toggle between different audio or video streams visited recently.
