This video browser is a plugin to the Netscape browser. It allows you to view movies with accompanying audio in real time over the Internet, all within standard Web pages - without waiting for the entire movie to be downloaded.
This is beta test software. It may cause your machine to occassionally hang or your Netscape browser to spontaneously quit.
VOSAIC CORP MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE
FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY.
VOSAIC CORP SHALL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY THE USERS OF
THIS SOFTWARE.
Requirements
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Netscape 2.0 or later (with lots of memory allocated! See Problems section).
A PowerMacintosh or Performa with PowerPC processor.
Release Notes
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To install the Vosaic software, simply drag the Vosaic plugin file into your Netscape Plug-ins folder. You will have to quit Netscape if it is already running and relaunch it in order for Netscape to recognize the new plugin. If you are using System 7.1.2, drag the Thread Manager extension to your System Folder and let the Finder place it into your Extensions folder.
If you are using System 7.5 or later, do NOT install the Thread Manager extension (it is already built in).
This version supports MPEG audio, MPEG 1 and 2 video, H.263 video,
full-rate/half-rate GSM audio, and G.723 audio.
Extra Features
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Command-click in the video window to get a menu with commands for playing, stopping,
rewinding and fast-forwarding the video.
Web Site
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Our web site is at http://www.vosaic.com. Please come and visit us.
We have cool demo movies you can check out, as well as technical details
and our plans for ongoing work in real time multimedia on the Internet.
Comments
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We welcome comments. Please send us mail at vosaic@vosaic.com.
Problems
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You may have to give Netscape 2.0 more memory. You should give Netscape at least an additional 1500K; large movies may require more. The plugin is currently quite demanding of memory from Netscape's partition. We are working to reduce its memory usage.
This plugin has only been tested so far with System 7.5.3, although it should work with older versions of the System Software as long as Thread Manager is available (see the Requirements section).
Netscape may spontaneously quit, with a dialog box asking you if you wish to save a file. The contents of the file will be debugging output. You can save or not save as you wish (the information will be useful to us if you do save it and view the generated text file later). You should almost certainly reboot your machine if this occurs.
Printing does not work (you will see a blank window). It may not work for a long time, given that Mac Netscape's printing routines when calling plugins appear to be buggy.
There appears to be a problem on some machines when loading the plugin for the first time; other times opening a second page with the plugin causes crashes. We have not yet been able to determine what causes this. If you experience this, please send us information about it and your system configuration (Netscape and System version, machine type, installed extensions and so forth).
We are working continuously to improve this software. Please send us bug reports at bugs@vosaic.com.
Changes
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1.0.0 b11a
Fixed a problem with synchronization that occurred if the Mac had been on for a long time.
1.0.0 b11
Changed a resource ID to make error dialogs show up properly under Netscape Navigator 3.0.
Fixed a problem with G.723 audio that caused it to lose synch with the video or fall silent in the presence of high network errors and after fast forward operations.
Eliminated Navigator window palette manipulations; your window will no longer change to funny colors. Quickdraw dithering is used instead; playback with 8-bit displays is now slower than previously (we strongly recommend 16-bit or higher for best performance).
1.0.0 b10
Fixed an obscure bug that caused problems under rare circumstances with video playback.
1.0.0 b9
Reduced amount of sound buffering slightly.
Fixed a bug with H.263 playback that caused the client to drop most or all P-frames.
1.0.0 b8
The plugin now always uses UDP ports 61801 through 61821 inclusive to receive audio and video data. Previously, it used any available port to receive data, making use with a firewall impossible.
1.0.0 b7
Fixed a bug where G.723 would hang on quitting in some cases.
Modified parameters of adaptation algorithm.
1.0.0 July 15, 1996 beta (designated 1.0b6 to match PC version):
Bug fixes for G.723 audio compression so that stop then play would work.
1.0.0 July 14, 1996 beta:
Preliminary support for G.723 audio compression.
Bug fixes for GSM and half-rate GSM where pressing stop then play would corrupt the stream.
1.0.0 July 10, 1996 beta:
Supports GSM, half-rate GSM, and H.263 now.
Many bug fixes including improved synchronization, better performance on large videos and better bandwidth adaptation.
New animation added for autostarting.
1.0.0 June 4, 1996 beta:
Is now much more graceful at degrading the frame rate at the client when the CPU is overloaded. Sound should play much more smoothly now.
Hyperlinks now work properly on combined audio/video windows.
