Intervu MPEG Player
Intervu MPEG PlayerIntervu
http://www.intervu.com
Once a film is downloaded, it is possible to save it on disk and play it again. However some standard reproduction features are missing. For example it is not possible to change playing speed or alter the size of the visualization window. Test films streamed with InterVU on a local network, played back at near normal speed, but with a 28,9 Kbps modem hookup, the moving images often came across like a slide presentation and the audio was dead.
Quite often the audio was out of synch with the video, even on fast connections. Nevertheless, once the film was downloaded and memorized in the browser's cache, it played back normally. The InterVU MPEG Player was easily installed on our Windows system, but there were problems during our Macintosh test. Both versions have an automatic installation routine, but we were not able to install the InterVU plug-in on Netscape Navigator 2.01 for Mac until we increased the Navigator's memory to 10 MB. The Mac version requires System 7.5.3; for PCs Windows 95 or Windows NT are required.
Webmasters who wish to add MPEG films to their pages must write a simple Embedded or tagged Object to identify the file. The films can be stored on the server or on a remote site. The videos are played as soon as the downloading begins. If you are interested in MPEG films, don't hesitate to get this software, especially since InterVU is a freebie (the company plans in the short future to start operating as a host for MPEGs). InterVU's MPEG Player might not make the MPEG format dominant on the Internet, but it will certainly give MPEG fans the necessary encouragement.
At present MPEG is not the Internet's favorite video format, but this situation might change if InterVU's MPEG Player becomes popular. To start with, in our review it came out as one of the best products vis-a-vis immediate visualization: the MPEG films started playing after as little as 1% or 2% of the file was downloaded; then while streaming, it only took one easy click on STOP to interrupt the transmission and regain full control over the system. This makes the InterVU MPEG Player a good tool for rapid film previewing, allowing the consumer to decide whether or not the entire video file is worth downloading.
Last updated 7-Jan-97
Webmaster Elsy mail to:
elsy@interbusiness.it