You need the latest Internet video players and viewers. Some are
for video, some are for animations. Most of these are free.- see below
for free downloads. You should have the latest versions of your
operating systems and associated multimedia applications. For
Windows, this means latest versions of DirectX and Internet Explorer.
In addition, you should have a fast connection to the Internet -
cable or DSL - 300 Mbps or faster.
When you visit many of these
video web sites, you often get to choose which bandwidth stream you
want to use - 56K or slower is for dial-up users (those using
regular phone lines), 100 Kbps for those using ISDN or slow
business DSL, and 300 Kbps for those with a fast DSL or cable
modem connection.
Many sites also offer you a
choice of what video player you want to use - much of this is
personal choice and experience. The big three - Windows Media
Player, Real Player and QuickTime, all work well. You may also
find some proprietary video formats. The leader of these is DVIX.
You can get the basic DIVX player for free. Other sites may have
their own players (ie BMW Films).
You may want to be a bit
cautious about some video and multimedia sites, especially those
that offer free video players to watch adult and porn movies as
the viewing programs can also convey various spyware, worms and other
malicious programs embedded in the software package. Be careful.
In addition to streaming video
solutions, you may also find that some sites provide
downloadable videos in AVI, MPEG and MOV formats. These can be
compressed (ZIP or STUFFED). You first download these to your
computer, uncompress them if needed, and then open them up with
your video viewer.
By the way, if you have
QuickTime Pro (and if allowed by the content author), you can
save a downloaded (not streaming) movie viewed in your Web
browser to your hard disk. Then you can watch it later when
you're not connected to the Internet. If it's a streaming movie,
QuickTime Pro will save a small "reference movie" that
points to the stream.
Technically, you need at least a computer with a 300+ MHz
processor, 32 MB RAM and 256-color video card. As usual, with
most things associated with computers, the faster and more
powerful your computer, the better your Internet video
experience will be. You also need lots of spare space on your
hard drive to store all the video files that you may end up downloading
to watch later.
You should also have the latest
versions of your computer's operating system as many older OS
versions don't support the newest Internet browsers or media
players.
Make Your Own Web Site - You don't need to know HTML or
design
FREE SOFTWARE: (click below to download the latest version)
(also check our
free
video tools section for additional video and graphics tools,
utilities and resources)
Three Great (and free)
Internet Browers
For Windows 98 (or higher)
Internet
Explorer
Mac OS 9 (or higher) and:
Internet
Explorer
 Mozilla
- great FREE Internet browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Includes image blocking, pop-up blocking, and now has
junk-mail
filtering (AKA "spam controls"). Mozilla 1.3 also
offers image auto-sizing, an
API
for rich text editing in webpages, newsgroup filters,
dynamic profile switching, nearly 2000 bug fixes, and much more.
 Netscape
Download Players Here
Microsoft
Windows Media Player
Macromedia Flash Player
for Windows - check link for other operating systems (Mac.
Linux, PocketPC, etc.)
Divx Player (More About DivX- including
minimum tech specs)
Real Player
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