RE: <nettime> windows vs real

[Eric Miller <eric@OAKTREE.com>]

hi--

hmm, I wouldn't predict the demise of the Real Server just yet, since the
various Real file formats are proprietary and require a Real server to
stream. They just have too much market share right now for people to
abandon the format/server setup.

Now if bandwidth ever catches up, the server might become irrelevant as
people are more likely to watch Quicktime, MPEG/MP3, and other
open-source/open-source-transport formats that don't necessarily need a
specialized server for top performance. 

But I would think that to the consumer, the software player IS the
defining element, not the codec behind it.  People don't differentiate
between encoding methods, they just know what player opens up when they
click on a link. 

Eric

-----Original Message-----
Has anyone seen the press release from Microsoft announcing that Real has
licensed the Windows Media Codec? I think this spells the death of the
RealServer, and the beginning of a new era where the Player now becomes more
important than the codec. 

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