RECORDING AUDIO FOR THE WEB

"center4hp" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

"MP3 files are not made to stream. They are compressed, so they are
small, but are meant to be read as a whole file, not a piece at a time. So

Real Media and Windows Media files are your best bet."

Clarification:

1) So Real Media & Windows Media have different formats... Real Media is
..rm
What is Windows media?

Windows Media is .wmv.

2)Is Real Media the same as Real Player...same extension/format?

Yes.

However, I disagree with the assumption that MP3 don't stream well.
Actually, the MP3 file format is such that any received portion of the file
can be played without needing the entire file. The MP3 file does not need a
streaming server to allow the file to play while being downloaded. All you
really need to do is create a text file with an .m3u extension. Inside that
text file, include a single line that includes the full absolute URL of the
..mp3 you want to stream, i.e.

http://mysite.com/media/mysound.mp3

The only thing you need to be careful of is that the file size is small
enough that the sound doesn't play faster than it downloads. If you keep the
bitrate on the MP3 down to around 64k, it should work fine with little loss
in sound quality.

Gary