A media player in the streaming context is software that receives audio and video data sentby a streaming server or a web server. The data comes from an audio or video file speciallymodified (encoded) for continuous transmission over the Internet. During transmission, the mediaplayer is in constant contact with the server to ensure delivery of all the data. The media playerconverts the data into information that can be displayed on a screen or drive speakers to createsound.

Hmm. That s not totally accurate. If we were marketing experts (which we re not), we d definea media player this way: A media player is an opportunity to capture the attention of an Internetuser with a compelling audio and visual experience in order to impress the user with a particularbrand and/or convert the user into a paying customer.

Actually, both descriptions are accurate. The point is that the major proprietary streamingmedia players double as media playback applications and opportunities to market goods and services.If you want to understand streaming media, you should understand that one doesn t usually existwithout the other in some form. That s why media players offer so much more thanPlay/Pause/Stop.

Software manufacturers sell their products primarily on the strength of the software sfeatures. If you carefully examine all the features of the leading streaming media players, you llfind incredible similarity. They may look different, the commands and menus have different namesand layouts, and the underlying code may be different, but the number and types of features relatedto audio and video...