Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (2621)	4/14/1999 7:12:00 AM
From: Champolion	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5843

RNWK or IATV? ...and the public is starting to recognize that companies such as ACTV [NASDAQ: IATV] can do much more than RNWK. Besides, IATV has solid relationships with both Internet infrastructure operators (AT&T, @Home) and CATV companies (TCI, Fox News Networks). To top all that, Liberty Media is pouring money into IATV. Streaming audio and video (RNWK) is nice, but how about streaming TV/Web access (IATV)? One thing IATV's tech. can provide: You are watching a game. You can pick any camera angle you prefer. You can "click" any player on your screen, and get detailed statistics about his career (downloaded from the Internet, through your cable service). In the same way, you can view a video of his best games, etc. During the game, you want to learn more about an advertised product, you "click" the product, and your TV turns into a Web based source of information. Etc. IATV's tech. is available now, why would anyone settle for streaming audio and video, when you can have all that? Brief, my question is: Why would anyone buy RNWK instead of IATV?

To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (2621)	4/14/1999 1:32:00 PM
From: Cesare J Marini	Respond to of 5843

But the software giant, frustrated in its efforts to attract recording stars and major labels to its new format, mustered only a few independent artists and labels for its launch event in Los Angeles Tuesday night. I have a few friends in the entertainment industry, and they all seem to feel that MSFT is having a pretty tough time attracting studios and artists and that the problem will continue. Simply put, nobody in Hollywood likes MSFT very much, mostly because they see what happens to companies that get in MSFT's way, even if they are a partner. "There will be a VHS-Beta war," said Robert Martin, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. "A couple formats will survive, maybe a couple will combine." That has to be one of the dumbest statements I've ever read, and clearly shows that this "analyst" doesn't get it. The whole reason there was a VHS-Beta war in the first place was because the HARDWARE was not compatible. SOFTWARE does not have that problem -- you can always adapt the player to support a new format when it becomes popular. Think about it for a moment -- would there have been a VHS-Beta war if Betamax owners could have just gone to a local store and had their machines retrofitted to play both Beta and VHS tapes -- for FREE? Such is the beauty of software.

To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (2621)	4/14/1999 4:26:00 PM
From: Mark Fleming	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5843

Note on RNWK's acquisition of Xing: In acquiring Xing for $75mm, RNWK's buying Xing's proprietary technology and utilities for content creators; Xing performs file conversion to MP3 format. Its claim to fame is that it does this quickly. On the other hand, it does not apparently create a full-resolution (let's say, truly CD-quality) MP3 file. Some of my elves are saying Xing's MP3 implementation is fairly crude and doesn't really do justice to the MP3 format. MSFT may have a point. More on this in future posts. I sent the above comment to a personal friend within XING who is in the know. The following is his comment: "That's not true. The Xing implementation is higher quality than any of the other MP3 implementations, and the variable bitrate capability produces even higher quality. We used to hear the same criticisms about our JPEG and MPEG video implementations because people couldn't believe our speeds."

To: B. A. Marlow who wrote (2621)	4/16/1999 8:26:00 PM
From: DoggyDogWorld	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5843

<< On the other hand, it does not apparently create a full-resolution (let's say, truly CD-quality) MP3 file. Some of my elves are saying Xing's MP3 implementation is fairly crude and doesn't really do justice to the MP3 format. MSFT may have a point. >> Xing released a new encoder a few months back. Quality is vastly superior to the previous version. I heard MSFT used a version of MusicMatch Jukebox that contained Xing's old encoder. Had they used the latest the results would have been much different.