All things related to multicast

["Richard Mavrogeanes" <>]

I thought the group would be interested to know that we've released the new 
StreamPlayer viewer which has been in beta for some months. 
 
Beyond support for closed captions and other new features, StreamPlayer is 
now totally free, including support for viewing live MPEG-2 streams and 
MPEG-1 streams.  Members are using it today to view live MPEG-2 from various 
sources around the I2.  The free player supports multicast only, is for 
Windows only, and depends a the PC having a DVD player or other MPEG-2 
decoder already installed, thus avoiding the mandatory MPEG royalty payment.  
MPEG-2 decoder s/w is available from us at a small charge if needed.  
Importantly, StreamPlayer does not depend on hardware assist decoders for 
MPEG-2 and gives full screen DVD quality video...even on a 600MHz machine.  
The free player only allows selection via its Program Guide (SAP listner), 
and does not support manual address entry, and operates in a IE browser.
 
I felt that the best way to promote the use of multicast, especially at high 
bandwidth, was to make it as painless as possible, and I believe commercial 
s/w that is free is a huge step in that direction.   But of course, you'll be 
the judge.
 
www.vbrick.com/streamPlayer.asp - is free, but you will have to 'register' :) 
 There is also a non-free ($20) version that includes the MPEG-2 decoder and 
is more feature-rich -- but for simple viewing (the majority of the cases), 
free will do.
 
I'm always interested in the group's feedback.
 
All the best,
 
Rich Mavrogeanes
VBrick Systems