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Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (5274)	2/4/1999 6:13:00 PM
From: Michael Olds	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17679

TVontheWeb.etc Please note! The following is in no way a criticism of AMPEX or of TV ontheWeb. I am reacting to my perceptions of the experience. I invested in Ampex before this business broke, it's just a plus for me. As a stockholder my assumption until proven otherwise is that it is I that does not understand the story. For those who are hep it may be instructive to get the perspective of someone who knows diddly about this TV on the Web business. I presume I am in the majority. First. Can anyone provide brief instructions as to how to use the Real Player? Today I downloaded the Real Player G2 Plus and installed it. I then went to the Victoria's Secret site and clicked on a commercial. This ad came onto the Real Player after a pause, called buffering. (Question 1: What precisely is buffering, and if it is storing data on my computer, is it a temp file? And where on the computer does this buffering take place.) The ad began to play. It was pixilated from start to finish, I could not have ordered a bra based on what I saw. .. or a manzier either, for that matter. Then I attempted to see the big event. After a long time waiting out this buffering thing. . . (Can someone explain which of the displays, if any, tells me how much time this buffering will take so that I do not prematurely get pissed and exit?) something someone might have called a show began. No sound at all. (That may have been me). The figures were blurry and small and jerky (no beat) (atsa two end to end bit) between stops and starts (even with double size)(I tried to set up full screen, but in making its adjustments, the Real Player returned to “normal size” and my cursor could not work and operations froze, and I had to exit.) Then I tried the TvontheWeb site. This time I seemed to have less waiting time for the buffer, and I got sound. (I played the Ampex news conference.) But twice the whole show came to a halt with the notice that there was “net congestion”. I did not have the patience to wait for it, but I presume the show would have carried on after the congestion cleared up. The show itself was fuzzy, pixilated and the sound was out of sync. This is what confuses me: I presume there is some kind of major problem getting TV onto computers. I am not at all sure I know what that is. It seems to me that this is going to have to get as good as TV before it goes anywhere. I suppose there are some groups that need the information a very targeted broadcast could provide, but is that enough to make money? And how long is it going to take to get this up to TV standards? At the risk of being redundant, am I correct in assuming: 1. This is hot stuff because this is the best that can be done to now. 2. The advantage over TV of this now and in the future is in its ability to “narrowcast” and provide interactivity. (How, exactly, is interactivity conducted with this technology? Do you send e-mails during the broadcast? I think I heard something about using the Chat room. Do you go to the chat room first, then start the broadcast?) 3. TV and those set top boxes will not leapfrog this technology.