SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPAIRSON: STREAMING VIDEO 3 MAJOR MEDIA PLAYERS
| Real | QuickTime | Windows Media Player | |
| Servers Platforms | Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 Workstation or Server, Linux 2.2 (glib c6), Free BSD 3.0, Solaris 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, AIX 4.3 and HP-UX 11.x - Compaq Tru64 UNIX 5.1 |
QSS: Power Mac G4, Macintosh Server
G4 or Power Macintosh G3 Mac OS X Server 10.0 Darwin SS: MAC OS X, Linux (Red Hat 5.2 and later, 6.2 highly recommended), Solaris 7 (SPARC) FreeBSD 3.5, Windows NT Server 4.0/Windows 2000 Server |
Windows Media Server & Tools: Intel Pentium II 266 megahertz (MHz) or better |
| Supported OS | Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT 4.0 & Macintosh |
Windows /98/NT/ME/2000 & Macintosh |
Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT 4.0 & Macintosh |
| Video CODEC | (Encodes to) RealVideo with Scalable Video Technology (SVT),RealVideo, (Plays back) MPEG1, MPEG-4, AVI, SMIL, VRML, RealText, RealPix |
Sorenson Video, VP3, Cinepak, Indeo 3., Indeo Video Interactive 4, Video, Animation, Photo-JPEG, Component Video, MJPEG, Graphics, Portable Network Graphic (PNG), MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (with $20 plug-in), ISMA Standard MPEG-4 | Windows Media Video v7, ISO MPEG-4 v7, Windows Media Screen Codec, (Microsoft) MPEG-4 v1,v2,v3, MPEG-2/DVD playback |
| Audio CODEC | Proprietary RealAudio Low, Media and High Bandwidth
Codecs *Refer to: Real Audio |
QDesign Music Codec, QDesign Music Codec 2,QualcommPureVoice,IMA MP3 (MPEG Layer 3 Audio), AAC MPEG-4 | Windows Media Audio (WMA) is the primary codec, Sipro ACELP.net, MP3 (playback only) |
| Protocols | RTSP, RTP, UDP, TCP, HTTP, UDP | HTTP, RTSP, RTP, FTP, SDP, UDP | TCP, HTTP, UDP, UDP, MMS |
| Remote Server Administration | HTTP | HTTP | Automation API with script contained in Active Server Pages (ASP) via web browser |
| Browser Compatibility | Netscape, IE | Netscape, IE, Safari, Chimera | Netscape, IE |
| Live Broadcasting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Simultaneous Live Streaming and recording | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IP Multicast | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Current Production Number | 9 (Helix) | 6 | 9 |
| Can edit encoded files | Yes. Real Media editor only | Yes. Quicktime Pro and all major NLE software | Yes. Windows Media editor only |
| Can play this media in 3rd party players | No | Yes | Yes |
| Can encode directly from DV source | Yes | Yes, but free professional quality encoder (Quicktime Broadcaster) only available on Mac platform | Yes |
| Player size | 8.65MB | 10MB(Windows Version) | 9.94MB |
| Player comes bundled with OS | No | Yes, on Mac OS | Yes. Windows OS |
| Encoder cost | $199.95 (Helix encoder) | Free for Mac OS. On Windows, WinVDIG provides limited encoding abilities-free download | Free download |
| Interactivity | SMIL, Real Arcade allows for full fledged inteactive 3D apps, can control player with javascript | MPEG 4, SMIL, Javascript, Java, Quickdraw 3D, Quicktime VR, wired sprites(requires 3rd party software) | SMIL, can control player with Javascript |
| Player cost | Free. Pro version $24.85 per 3 month subscription | Free. Pro version for $29.95 | Free. No Pro version available |
| Imports into Flash as movie clip | No | Yes. | AVI only. No WMV support yet |
| Export directly from NLE timeline | Adobe Premier, DPS Velocity | All major NLEs | Most major NLEs |
| Plays on Palm OS | ??? | Coming soon | ??? |
| Can programmatically control player | Active X control, C++ SDK | Active X control, C++ SDK, Java SDK | Active X control, C++ SDK, Visual Basic SDK |
| Support for DVD | None | Minimal | Yes |
| Player popup ads | Incessant | Asks user to upgrade to Quicktime Pro | Minimal |