Microsoft to introduce Windows Media 7
By Paul Festa and Wylie Wong
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
April 9, 2000, 9:00 p.m. PT
Microsoft tomorrow will show off new Windows Media technology in hopes of edging
past competitor RealNetworks in the battle for Internet audio and video software
dominance.
Microsoft will unveil its technology at this week's National Association of Broadcasters
convention in Las Vegas. The updates are tailored for training professionals; computer users
with high-speed, or broadband, connections to the Internet; and content providers concerned
about copyright protection.
The technology will be released in test form as Windows Media 7 in
May. Like RealNetworks' Jukebox software, the new Windows
Media Player organizes, stores and plays digital media on personal
computers.
The Windows Media updates come as Microsoft plays a
hardscrabble game of catch-up with RealNetworks, which has thus
far dominated the consumer market for streaming media players.
According to recent measurements from Nielsen/NetRatings,
Microsoft came in third in Internet users' choice of audio-video
Internet software for the month of November, accounting for only 3.2
percent of consumers' choices.
RealNetworks' RealPlayer was the choice of 12.1 percent of
consumers, and Apple's QuickTime was chosen by 7.4 percent.
But few analysts doubt that Microsoft is chipping away at its rivals'
leads, and with tomorrow's announcements, the company seeks to
demonstrate that it is bringing its considerable engineering resources to bear.
The company says that it latest update will display a frame rate of 60 frames per second over a
300-kbps connection and faster. That compares with 30 frames per second in existing players,
according to Microsoft.
Calling Windows Media 7 a "broadband-ready media platform," Microsoft's general manager of
marketing for digital media, Dave Fester, said the company is preparing for a mass migration to
broadband connections.
"With WindowsMedia.com, we're seeing about 25 percent of visitors to the site selecting
broadband content as the default," Fester said. "The whole market is moving very, very rapidly
to broadband, and we're going to be positioned to be there."
Microsoft is plugging the increase in video frame rates as a step toward the convergence of
television and Internet media, suggesting that Internet broadcasters can deliver video quality
comparable to that seen on traditional broadcast networks.
The company also is updating its digital rights software for letting content providers add
security protections against illegal copying. One addition to the Windows Media Rights
Manager is "secure audio path" technology, which protects audio content at every step of the
way from the server to the listener's computer.
Another feature of the Rights Manager will let content providers establish "business rules."
These will let publishers set parameters for use such as how many times a video can be
watched or whether a credit card account can be automatically billed.
A third addition to the Windows Media Player is Windows Media Screen, which lets people
such as technical instructors or software demonstrators stream screen captures, or a series of
still shots, of the computer desktop.
Microsoft also will offer a new software developer's kit, tools that let Web developers customize
Windows Media Player technology. |
