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To: JAC who wrote (669)	1/29/1999 2:03:00 PM
From: HIGHPLANESDRIFTER	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2003

Finally, some more informed discussion!! Somewhat off topic I suppose, but "in the ballpark", I have been considering whether to sign up for cable or ADSL, both of which are available and in hot competition, so the price is good. But for the freeze-up in mid-December, the week I was to decide, I would have it now. Unfortunately, the cable guy says they must bury, and for me that means 400 ft of tundra, so I am now off 'till spring ... The advantage of cable is the big 2-way bandwidth, with even larger to come. The advantage of ADSL today is slightly higher b-width now, but soon to fall behind, and more importantly, a fully dedicated line right to the telco switch ... I was surprised (but should have known, I suppose) that for cable, you are only exclusive to a local neighborhood node, from which you are multiplexed with all the other neighborhood signals back to the cableco switch ... I am told that if they get a lot of subscribers to one node, that the performance can deteriorate markedly (until they split off another node, I suppose) ... I did ask about the reverse direction b-width, and whether one could operate a server (I had in mind small-site web serving and a remotely viewable home security cam ), and was told that the bandwidth was the same in both directions (just don't operate a high-traffic porn site, they said) ... but I did not use the magic word "asynchronous" and may therefore have been mis-led (i know that's not the right spelling, but it looks so awkward as misled or missled ... that's what Saddam is!) Any thoughts on cable vs. ADSL?

To: JAC who wrote (669)	1/30/1999 1:38:00 AM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2003

Here's a summary of current techniques for delivering varying degrees of "video" via the Internet. I'm focusing primarly on ad delivery, since that is what would seem to be of interest here, but will cover the gamut to delivery of streaming programming. I'll go in order of increasing capability: 1. Server-push. This is the oldest technique. You can see this on my web-cam pointing out my living room window at live.net This only works with Netscape browsers, and is relatively inefficient, because there is no inter-frame compression. It works with GIF or JPEG images. Bandwidth requirement is severe for what you get, but it's generally done at very low frame rates. This is the most common technique used for web-cams that have moving images. It used to be commonly used for animated ads, but is used very little for that purpose now. 2. AVI and Quicktime files. About as old as server push. An AVI file is downloaded, and then played after it is completely downloaded. Suitable for higher-speed video, because the AVI codecs do intra-frame compression. Suffers from the initial downloading time, so videos must be kept short. Commonly used for movie previews, though less so lately. Problems with users not having the right codec, and having to endlessly go off and download and install this codec or that. Some use for ads, but not terribly practical. 3. GIF animation. This came along next, and is available in all current browsers. This packs multiple GIF images into one file. There is no inter-frame compression, and GIF generally doesn't compress very compactly, so, like server-push, it has a high bandwidth requirement for what you get. (JPEG would work better on many kinds of images, but you can't use JPEG compression with GIF animation, and there is no "JPEG animation") GIF animation is currently the most common technique used for animated ads. Tools are readily available - there are a number of freeware and shareware GIF animation editors. 4. Dynamic HTML (Javascript using 4.0 browsers). This is supported only on the latest (4.0 or later) browsers. Multiple GIF or JPEG images are first downloaded, and then "flipped" using a bit of Javascript (not Java) code. The most simple technique is the "rollover" - that's when you move the mouse over something, and a picture changes. But it can also be used for simple animations. This is the technique used in the Sesame Ad demo that I have seen on the ESVS web site. Still no intra-frame compression, so not practical for high-speed video. However, because the images are downloaded before they are "played" (it is NOT "streaming") SHORT high-speed sequences are possible. Suffers from the same initial latency of AVI files. Probably the second most-popular technique for ads after GIF animation. 5. Java. Pretty-much wide-open in terms of technique supported - can be streaming or non-streaming, proprietary or non-proprietary, because the code to play the video gets downloaded. Tends to have long start-up times due to downloaded the Java code, and for that reason not practical for ads. 6. Streaming media. This is similar to AVI and Quicktime files, except that the video (or audio) is played while it is still downloading. Suitable for high-speed video because of the high compression rates possible using inter-frame compression. Can deliver live or recorded content. Live content can be efficiently "multicast", but there are still few ISPs that are equipped for this. Microsoft and RealMedia are the most common. Microsoft is built-in to Internet Explorer. RealMedia requires that you download and install a plug-in. RealMedia is the most popular. Commonly used for real-time broadcasts, news, investment information (conference calls) etc. I am not aware of it being used for advertising, except for advertisments that are inserted into content. (e.g. an ad at the beginning and/or end of a newscast, etc.) For streaming media to be used much for ads placed on a page, it will have to first become more integrated into the browser, and a standard chosen by the industry. Whew! There is is. If anybody has any more, feel free to ad them. Hope this helps!