Re: Realaudio for GS

[kloesch@nauticom.net (Kevin Loesch)]

In article <59i4mc$35i@crcnis3.unl.edu>, Greg Berigan <gberigan@cse.unl.edu> wrote:
>afn54045@afn.org ("Jonathon D. Williams") wrote:
>
>>Would this be possible?  Are there any plans for this type of program with
>>the upcoming GS web browser and stuff?   It seems to me that the GS has the
>>ability to play the sounds, as you can play .wavs on a GS, but I don't know
>>if it is technically possible to create a Realaudio player for the GS.  It
>>would be a useful program though since much of the audio on the web is
>>moving to a RA format.  Thanks.
>
>RealAudio technology is proprietary and I doubt those that have control
>over it will port it to the Apple IIgs, and licensing it would be a
>losing proposition as any expected sales would fall vastly short of the
>licensing fee.
>
>And without GS/TCP available, you'd only be able to play .ra files, not
>streaming .ram files, and the most of the files available on the web are
>streaming only, with no direct access to the .ra files or ability to
>save them, making it the only secure way to have audio on the web (which
>is why it is so popular).
>


        Realaudio also takes a massive amount of processing power. The files 
are decompressed on the fly and would be more than a GS could handle. Even on 
a pc you need a fast 486(100Mhz+) or a pentium to keep the sound from breaking 
up.

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| Kevin Loesch				|		
| kloesch@nauticom.net			|
| http://www.nauticom.net/www/kloesch	|
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