RealONE Player Generation Three: RealPlayer G2 Forrest Stroud
RealPlayer G2
RealNetworks released the third generation RealAudio client, RealPlayer G2, in late 1999 with audio and video quality far superior to previous releases. The G2 release gets its name from the G2 music codec introduced by RealNetworks for the most advanced audio streaming technology ever.
RealPlayer G2 also supports the newly announced W3C standard Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), which allows for the layout and synchronization of multiple data types and offers a broadband multimedia experience even over low bandwidth connections.
With the huge size of many sound clips (250+ KB not uncommon) and video segments (2+ MB) as well as the seemingly perpetual congestion of the Web, the audio, video, and Flash on-demand streaming made possible by RealPlayer G2 is indeed a blessing for many users.
With a headstart on its only major competition (Microsoft's Media Player), RealPlayer looks to have taken the lead in what has quickly become an extremely intense race for market share. While RealPlayer's advantage is partly due to the large number of sites that serve RealAudio and RealVideo content, another important factor results from the massive improvement made to the client in its four years of existence.
