Video Player

Greg Lewandowski
TANGO Interactive video player delivers streaming video and audio. Video stream is delivered using HTTP protocol from a web server. Video contents is compresed using H.263 video compression standard. Audio atreams are encoded using either ADPCM or GSM standards.

This particular version supports arbitrary frame size on playback.

System requirements: To succesfully use this applet, you need a 166+ MHz Pentium machine. Operation on slower CPUs is not guaranteed. On substandard machines the applet may hang, desynchronize, or simply fail. In addition, on substandard machines operation of the entire TANGO system may become sluggish and the system may appear unresponsive.

If you are connected over a slow line, the applet is not guaranteed to operate smoothly. Bandwidth requirement depends on the video clip, At present, it is never lower than 28 kbps (with GSM audio). Some more dynamic clips require at least ISDN bandwidth (128 kbps)

Your computer must have audio card. Without properly installed audio card the applet will not operate (i.e., even video won't play).

How to use: Video applet comes with the interface that allows you to browse contents of the http server directories the same way as you browse files on local disk. Press "Browse" button in the main window to gain access to the browsing interface.

Browsing interface allows you to scan video library contents. Selecte clip is highlighted in red. The status line of the clip browser displays additional clip information.

To open a clip, select it and press "Open" button. The applet will start downloading the clip and wil show the first frame. There is always some waiting time before the video window appears. How long you wait depends on the speed of your network connection.

To start playing the clip, press "Play" button in the video window. The clip will play until you press stop, or until it reaches end of the file. You can stop the clip playback at any time and restart it by pressing "Rewind" button.

In the TANGO session, the master player controls playback on all slave player. They will start or stop synchronously.

Limitations and caveats:

What's coming:


TANGO Interactive support group
Last modified: Sun Nov 8 17:24:29 EST 1998