Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a lightweight plug-in that allows you to watch Silverlight-based content in your browser. It works with most major browsers, including Firefox and Safari. There is no prompt to restart the browser after installation but I recommend you do so because the first site of Silverlight content I accessed after installation simply crashed the browser.
The most important improvements to the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight are smoother streaming, DRM management, and an out-of browser player. The out-of browser player however is dependent on developers embracing it and as yet, there are few examples available. The smooth streaming feature will iron out many of the streaming problems that have plagued Silverlight in the past. If your bandwidth drops below 3Mbps, smooth streaming will kick-in so that your video isn't affected.
Microsoft Silverlight can stream high-resolution video well and supports HD-quality videos. If you want to create content for Silverlight, you'll need Expression Studio and Visual Studio. In fact, this latest release is is of particular interest to developers because it adds 60 customizable controls, new layout containers, 'deep linking' for page bookmarking, search engine optimization, and enhanced data support.
REQUIRED FOR: Video Streaming
SOURCE: download.cnet.com
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (abbreviated WMP) is a proprietary digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player were also released for Mac OS, Mac OS X and Solaris but development of these has since been discontinued.
In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player includes the ability to rip music from and copy music to compact discs, burn recordable discs in Audio CD format or as data discs with playlists such as an MP3 CD, synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3 player) or other mobile devices, and enable users to purchase or rent music from a number of online music stores.
Windows Media Player replaced an earlier application called Media Player, adding features beyond simple video or audio playback.
Windows Media Player 12 is the most recent version of Windows Media Player as of July 2009. It was released in July 22, 2009 along with Windows 7 and has not been released for previous versions of Windows.
Windows Media Player 11 is available for Windows XP and included in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The default file formats are Windows Media Video (WMV), Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Advanced Systems Format (ASF), and supports its own XML based playlist format called Windows Playlist (WPL). The player is also able to utilize a digital rights management service in the form of Windows Media DRM.
*Firefox user? See Windows Media Player for Firefox below.
REQUIRED FOR: Radio Streaming
SOURCE: download.cnet.com
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing animations and movies using computer programs such as a web browser. Flash player is a widely distributed proprietary multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and now developed and distributed by Adobe after its acquisition. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other Macromedia and third party tools.
Adobe Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring program and the Adobe Flash Player, written and distributed by Adobe, that uses vector and raster graphics, a native scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional streaming of video and audio. Strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring environment, the player, or the application files.
Flash Player has support for an embedded scripting language called ActionScript (AS), which is based on ECMAScript. Since its inception, ActionScript has matured from a script syntax without variables to one that supports object-oriented code, and may now be compared in capability to JavaScript (another ECMAScript-based scripting language).
The Flash Player was originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animation, but has since become suitable for creating rich Internet applications and streaming video and audio. It uses vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth and loading time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into web pages.
The Flash Player is available as a plugin for recent versions of web browsers (such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer) on selected platforms. Adobe states that each version of the plugin is backwards-compatible, with the exception of security changes introduced in Version 10.
REQUIRED FOR: Video Streaming
SOURCE: get.adobe.com
Mozilla Firefox 3 or Higher
Mozilla Firefox 3 is a version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser released on June 17, 2008 by the Mozilla Corporation.
Firefox 3.0 uses version 1.9 of the Gecko layout engine for displaying web pages. This version fixes many bugs, improves standard compliance, and implements many new web APIs compared to Firefox 2.0. Other new features include a redesigned download manager, a new "Places" system for storing bookmarks and history, and separate themes for different operating systems.
Firefox 3.0 had over 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, and by July 2008 held over 5.6% of the recorded usage share of web browsers. Current estimates of Firefox 3.0's global market share as of February 2010[update] are generally in the range of 4-5%, and dropping as users migrate to Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and more recently Mozilla Firefox 3.6. Partially as a result of this, between mid-December 2009 and the end of January 2010, Firefox 3.5 was the most popular browser (when counting individual browser versions) passing Internet Explorer 7.
Mozilla ended support for Firefox 3 on 30 March, 2010 with the release of 3.0.19.
REQUIRED FOR: Best Viewing
SOURCE: mozilla.com
Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin
This plug-in allows you to use Windows Media Player inside Firefox, it helps you reproduce all multimedia content found in the Web.
From this version, this added element may be added in Windows Vista and without problems to enjoy the audio/video from the most comfortable browser and with he most solid reproducers.
REQUIRED FOR: Radio Streaming
SOURCE: port25.technet.com
Silverlight for Mac
Microsoft has announced the release of Silverlight 3 for Mac OS X, along with a new version of its Expression design tool. Silverlight 3 is compatible only with Intel-based Macs, and offers better performance, GPU acceleration, desktop tools, and support for higher-quality audio and video.
According to the company behind the Windows operating system, additional video and audio support includes native H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming, full HD (720p+) playback, and an extensible decoder pipeline. For developers, new 3D graphics and animation features have been included, as well as hardware accelerated effects and text improvements to enable designers and developers to create next-gen visuals for the Web.
“Install Microsoft Silverlight on your Mac to make the most of the latest state-of-the-art Web site experiences,” Microsoft says. “Microsoft Silverlight delivers amazing experiences across leading news, sports, and entertainment sites with amazing 2D/3D animations, special effects, smooth, high-quality video that includes HD video and blazing fast performance. Silverlight ‘s Installation is secure, free and only takes few seconds,” the Windows maker assures potential customers.
“Silverlight and Expression fill a clear need in the marketplace for a complete, end-to-end solution that makes it easy for development teams to work together effectively, from concept to deployment, to create the types of rich interactive experiences today’s users expect,” Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Platform at Microsoft, adds. “In a record amount of time, we’ve gone from being the industry newcomer to achieving a remarkable rate of industry adoption, rapidly delivering capabilities such as SketchFlow and IIS Smooth Streaming that are unmatched by other vendors. With more than 6 million developers with .NET programming skills worldwide and a platform that delivers a rich user experience at some of the lowest costs possible, Silverlight ubiquity is a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’”
Silverlight 3 requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Tiger) or later, an Intel processor, a minimum 128 MB of RAM and is compatible with Safari and Firefox. Using the link below, Mac owners can download, install and use Silverlight 3 for free.
REQUIRED FOR: Video Streaming
SOURCE: betanews.com
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