Date: Fri 21-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-Brand-Real-Player-G2

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE: Real Player G2 Beta

By Bob Brand

Real Networks, the people who gave us Real Audio, have released G2, the latest

plug-in for your browser. They claim G2 is the first streaming media player to

support the playback of SMIL-based (Synchronized Multi-media Integration

Language) presentations, a combination of animation, audio, graphics, text,

and video.

In plain English, if you are using Windows 95/98 or NT v4.0, you will want to

download this free utility. (Note: if you are using Windows 3x, Unix, Mac or

NT 3.5x, you must use Real Audio 5.0)

Frankly, the overall quality of the audio and video has only improved slightly

over the previous version. The throughput of the data arriving over the phone

line (in my case using a USR X2 v.90 with connections in the range of

50-53,333 bits per second) is better. Unlike previous Real Audio versions, G2

does not provide statistics on the frames per second being displayed. However,

there is a reduction in "frozen" images experienced under earlier versions of

Real Video software. Video appears to come through on my system in the range

of 5 to 8 frames per second. The sound quality is noticeably better.

Channels -- A New Feature

G2 sports a new look. Whenever there is a software makeover, the user must

learn how to navigate with the new tool. This is a mixed blessing. While many

of the features remain the same, getting to them often becomes a "trial and

error" experience. For example, G2 comes equipped with 35 preset Channels of

Content ranging from CNN News, CNET News, Bloomberg Business News, All Games

News, Hollywood Wire to Today in Rock History. The wide range of G2 channels

offers something of interest for almost any taste.

Because Windows 95/98/NT allows multi-tasking (several programs to run

simultaneously), the user can view/listen to a 10 minute CNN summary of the

news while working on a Word document or playing Windows solitaire. When

increased traffic on the Internet clogs the pipes, however, the transmission

becomes choppy. This can be annoying.

The best way to reduce this problem is to choose voice only sites when

multitasking, which place fewer demands on bandwidth.

Favorites Still There

My two favorite sites, The Daily Show (with Craig Kilborn) and The

Computerworld Minute are among channel offerings by G2. Clicking the up (or

down) arrows bring them into the launch window. A double click on the icon and

the broadcast begins. However, there is some bad news. The process of moving

the icon of a favorite site to the top channel choice is a particularly

awkward task. Here are the steps involved. First, click on "Add". This brings

you to the Real Networks website. (Note: modifying a web client by forcing the

user to visit a home page is poor design.) On the left side of the screen, the

channel icons are found. Move through the icons in order to find the one you

want to move. Next click the up (or down) command. This moves the icon through

the listing in that direction. Once the icon is positioned where you want it,

click "finish." The Real Networks server then transfers (if you are lucky) the

updated positions to the G2 plug-in on your computer.

Try Them Out

With a multitude of choices, I sampled some of the lesser known selections.

There are many pleasant surprises and a few disappointments when a "not ready

for prime time" site is encountered. While the audio quality of G2 is now

acceptable, the video remains a disappointment. While Real Networks remains

the leader in delivering sound and images to Net-sters, there remains

considerable room for improvement. Nevertheless, G2 is free and worth the wait

required for the download.

There has been a complaint that G2 may have difficulty displaying pictures

properly with some video cards. If you experience this, click: Start ò

Settings ò Control Panel ò Display. Change the number of colors displayed.

This may solve the problem.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.real.com/products/player/

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2122505,00.html

(This is the 117th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, Name of the Game is the subject on tap. Stay tuned. Until next

week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info for

Real People (including links to sites mentioned in this article) can be found:

http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions to:

rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)