PreVU - New beta version 0.9 available free .Plug-in for Netscape 2.0
for Win95 and WinNT ONLY

Overview

PreVU is the first of InterVU Inc.'s series of video software products for the
Internet and Intranets. The PreVU player is a plug-in for the Netscape 2.0 browser.
PreVU allows any MPEG video to be played from any HTML server including videos
embedded within Web pages. PreVU provides first-frame preview of a video before
download, streaming play (viewing) of the video while downloading, and cached
playback afterwards off your hard drive. 

InterVU is giving away the current version of PreVU free so all Web users can enjoy
the power of video. There is a tremendous need for a standardization of Web video
delivery systems, based on existing Internet standards, while adding essential
features for usability and bandwidth conservation. InterVU Inc. believes that PreVU
fulfills this need. 

PreVU is extremely simple and fun to use. If you're interested in the
behind-the-scenes technical details, this primer will help you understand what's
happening when you click-and-play a video using PreVU. 

A Few Terms to Understand

MPEG 
     Standard video compression method developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group
(hence the acronym). MPEG
     video delivers excellent quality with better compression than other methods. 
There are two versions of this standard: 
     MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. MPEG-1 is used for computer-based video on the Internet and
CD-ROMs, while MPEG-2
     is designed for commercial broadcast applications. When InterVU uses the term 
MPEG, we mean MPEG-1 and
     MPEG-2. 

Streaming Play 
     Video viewing or playing the video while it is being downloaded. Streaming 
mode lets you stop the download if you
     decide you don't want the video or have already seen as much of it as you 
need. However, streaming video plays at a
     slower frame rate due to Internet loads and modem speeds. Cached playback is 
much faster since the MPEG file is
     read from your computer's hard drive. Some streaming players drop video frames 
to improve "real time" playback
     performance. This technique ruins the video and prevents high quality local 
cached playback. 

Cached Play 
     Viewing a video file that has been downloaded and is being played back from 
your hard disk. Cached playback
     delivers the highest video quality, limited only by the video file and your 
computer system. 

First-Frame Preview 
     When you load a Web page containing a video, PreVU automatically displays the 
first frame of the video--so you can
     decide if you want to view it without having to download the entire file. 


How PreVU Works

PreVU supports both streaming and cached play, while providing a first-frame preview
of any MPEG video for maximum convenience, efficiency, and image quality. Netscape
2.0 allows companies like InterVU to create their own program modules, called
"plug-ins." When a Web page calls for a feature that Netscape does not have, the
plug-in takes over to provide the necessary functionality. When a Web page with an
embedded MPEG video is displayed, Netscape calls the PreVU plug-in to play the
video. 

http://www.cerf.net/intervu/aboutpre.html