|
Capability
|
Rating
|
|
Browser compatibility and percent
of browsers with Plug-in
|
Excellent.
|
|
Interactive sound design capabilities
|
Fair. Format is designed primarily for streaming media.
Simple synchronized media presentations such as slide shows, audio
with moving text, captions, and pictures.
|
|
Software cost for encoding and streaming
|
Free to $695 to $21,595+.
Basic Server with 25 simultaneous streams is free. Basic Server Plus
(60 streams) costs $695. The full-featured Internet Solutions Server
(400 streams) costs $21,595.
|
|
Level of documentation and support
|
Outstanding.
|
|
Audio encoding and content generation
|
Easy.
|
|
Audio authoring and delivery
|
Medium to Easy.
Medium difficulty to set up dedicated RealServer. Easy to post
RealAudio files on standard web server for playback without bandwidth
negotiation and other dedicated server features, etc.
|
|
Audio fidelity and compression
|
Excellent.
|
|
Low-bandwidth performance
|
Good/Excellent.
RealNetworks' RealServer provides bandwidth negotiation for all
types of bandwidth connections from 14.4 Kbps modems to T1 lines.
RealMedia is designed to look at the user connection speed and then
serve a stream that is optimized for that user's connection.
|
|
Server performance and quality of software tools for large-scale
streaming
|
Outstanding -- RealServer.
RealNetworks has the most sophisticated servers, hands down.
RealMedia running on Unix is the preferred method for the most robust
and reliable streaming possible.
|
