PLATFORMS FOR VIDEO

AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA

The web
DVD
Game cut-scenes
Mobile devices
CD ROM
Presentations

THE WORLD WIDE WEB

THE WORLD WIDE WEB IS A MUTIPURPOSE PLATFORM FOR VIDEOS, INTERACTIVE MEDIA AND MEDIA ON A
WHOLE. WHEN THE USER USES THE WEB BROWSER, THE WEB PAGES THAT THE USER MAY OPEN COULD
POSSIBLY INCLUDE CERTAIN ELEMENTS. EXAMPLES OF THESE ELEMENTS ARE TEXTS, VIDEOS, IMAGES AND
OTHER MULTIMEDIA AND NAVIGATION HYPERLINKS.
ON THE INTERNET THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT SITES WHICH ALLOW THE USER TO STREAMING, VIEWING,
UPLOADING ALSO DOWNLOADING VIDEOS. A FEW EXAMPLES OF THESE TYPES OF WEB PAGES ARE YOUTUBE,
MEGAVIDEO, GENVIDEOS AND MOVIETUBE.
ON THE WEB THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEB SITES WHICH INCLUDE THE FORMS OF INTERACTIVE
MEDIA. THIS MEANS THAT WEB PAGES ARE VERY USEFUL FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIA, THIS IS BECAUSE
THE WEB PAGES HAVE THE CAPABILITY OF COMBINING DIFFERENT FORMS OF MEDIA. VIDEOS ARE MOSTLY
USED BECAUSE THEY ALLOW THE USER TO TAKE NOTES AND INSTRUCTIONS.

DVD & CD ROM

DVDS ( DIGITAL VERSATILE DISC) AND CD ROMS ARE THE TWO MOST COMMON WAY OF STORING DIFFERENT TYPES OF
MEDIA AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA. BOTH OF THESE DISCS ARE OPTINAL DISC STORAGE FORMAT. THE DVD HAS EXACTLY THE
SAME SIZE AS THE CD ROM, HOWEVER THE CD HAS 6 TIMES MORE STORAGE CAPACITY.
YET, BOTH OF THESE DISCS ALLOW THE USER TO SORE DIFFERENT FILES FOR EXAMPLE MOST COMMON FILE WHICH IS
STORED ON A DISC IS A VIDEO ALTHOUGH THE DISC CAN STORE DIFFERENT FILES SUCH AS AUDIO. BUT THE DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN DVDS AND CD ROMS ARE THE WAY THE DATA IS DISPLAYED AND THE CAPACITY OF HOW MUCH DATA CAN BE
STORED. UNFORTUNATELY, THE MAIN DISADVANTAGE BETWEEN DVD AND CD ROMS IS THEY CANNOT STORE HIGH
DIFINITION PICTURE DUE TO CURRENT DAYS CHANGE IN FILM MAKING. HOWEVER, BLUE-RAY AND HD DVD ARE THE ONLY
PLATFORMS WHICH CAN SUPPORT THE HIGH DEFINITION PICTURES.
FORTUNATELY THERE IS AN ADVANTAGE FOR THE DVD WHICH APART FROM ITS CAPACITY SIZE IS THAT THE DVD CAN BE
PLAYED ON A DVD PLAYER WHICH MOST LAPTOPS AND TVS HAVE AND SO THE GAMING CONSOLES.
HOWEVER, THERE ARE TWO MAIN USES FOR CD ROMS WHICH ARE KISOSK AS ITS A FORM OF INTERFACE WITH NAVIGATION
ABILITY.

PRESENTATIONS
PRESENTATIONS ARE THE REFERENCE OF AN CERTAIN TOPIC TO AND VARIETY OF AUDIENCES OR AN
INDIVIDUAL LEARNER.
ONE WAY OF CREATING A PRESENTATION IS TO USE A SOFTWARE WHICH ALLOWS THE USER TO CREATE THE
PRESENTATIONS WITH EASE. AN EXAMPLE OF ONE OF THESE SOFTWARE'S IS MICROSOFT POWERPOINT.
THE PRESENTER GIVES CLEAR AND FORMAL EXPLANATIONS OF EACH SLIDE OF THE POWERPOINT WHICH
INFORMS THE AUDIENCE OF WHAT THE TOPIC IS ABOUT. THE PRESENTER GIVES THE AUDIENCE INFORMATION
ABOUT THE TOPIC BY WRITING ON EACH SLIDE A CERTAIN AREA OF THE TOPIC BEFORE THE ACTUAL MEETING
AND ONCE THEY HAVE BEGUN THE MEETING THE PRESENTER JUST SIMPLY NEEDS TO READ WHAT HE OR SHE
PUT ON THE SLIDE AND EXPAND WHAT THEY HAVE WROTE IN MORE DETAIL TO THE AUDIENCE.
A SIMPLY WAY TO INFORM THE AUDIENCE WITHOUT THE USE OF THE PRESENTER SPEAKING IS USING A VIDEO
IN THE PRESENTATION. A VIDEO IS A SMART AND EASY WAY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE AUDIENCE ARE FULLY
UNDERSTANDING THE TOPIC WHICH THE PRESENTATION IS BASED UPON.

MOBILE DEVICES
MOBILE DEVICES ARE MODERN TECHNOLOGY TAKEN TO A NEW LEVEL. FROM HANDLE HAND TELEPHONES
WITH WIRELESS HEADS PHONES TO THE HANDHELD GAMING CONSOLES AND MOBILE COMPUTERS.
NEARLY ALL MOBILE DEVICES MAKE USE OF VIDEOS IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
WITH THE RISING ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY MOBILE DEVISES ARE TAKEN SHAPE FROM THICK AND SQUARE
SHAPED TO THIN AND SMOOTH EDGED WITH A LIGHT WEIGHTED FEEL. EVEN THE WAY THE DEVICE CAN BE
USED HAS BE MODERNISED TO TOUCHSCREEN CAPABILITY TO ALLOW USERS AND EASIER WAY TO NAVIGATE
AND USE THE PHONE.
THE MAIN ADVANTAGE TO MOBILE DEVICES IS THAT THEY HAVE A STRONGER BAND WIDTH THEN MOST OTHER
DEVICES DUE TO THE TECHNOLOGY IN THE DEVICE HAVE BEEN IMPROVED. THIS ALSO BECAUSE THE DEVICE
IS MOBILE MEANING IF IS TRANSPORTABLE THE BAND WIDTH WOULD HAVE TO BE BETTER THEN MOST
DEVICES DUE TO THE DEVICE NEED TO PICK UP THE WI-FI CONNECTIONS IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF WHERE
EVER THE INDIVIDUAL IS LOCATED.

GAME CUT-SCENES
IN THE PROCESS OF CREATING AN VIDEO GAME CUT-SCENE THE CREATOR USES DIFFERENT MODERN TOOLS
ON THE COMPUTER. ONE THING THE DEVELOPER DOES IS TAKE DOWN THE SCRIPT AND PLACE THIS ONTO A
ANIMATIC STORYBOARD WHICH IS LOCATED ON THE COMPUTER. THIS FIRST PROSES ALLOWS THE DEVELOPER
TO LOCK DOWN THE MOVEMENT OF THE CHARACTER AND PLAN OUT HOW THE CUT-SCENE WITH PLAY. THE
SECOND PROCESS FOR THE DEVELOPER IS TO SCALE THE CHARACTER MODEL AND BEGIN TO ADD THE
AMBIENT LIGHTING AND TEXTURES TO THE CHARACTER, THIS PROVIDES THE CUT-SCENES CHARACTER TO BE
MORE REALISTIC.
WHEN PROCESSING THE CUT-SCENE CHARACTERS THEY USE CGI TO PROVIDE THE GAME WITH AN EXTRA
REALISTIC ELEMENT. WHEN TO GET THE REALISTIC MOVEMENT OF THE CHARACTER THE DEVELOPER GETS A
REAL PERSON TO WEAR A BLACK SKIN TIGHT SUIT WITH SENSORS PLACED ALL AROUND THE CLOTHING TO
PICK UP AND FACIAL EXPRESSION AND SLIGHTEST MOVEMENT TO GIVE THE CHARACTER EMOTIONS TO HOOK
WITH THE USER.
CUT-SCENES IN THE GAMING WORLD A CLASSED ALMOST AS A FILM AS THE USER DOE3SNT NEED TO
INTERACT WITH THE GAME THEY CAN JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH AS YOU DO WHEN YOU WATCH A FILM.
HOWEVER, SOME CUT-SCENES HAVE THE USER INTERACT MOSTLY WHEN CHARACTER IS ASKED SOMETHING
AND THE USER GETS TO CHOOSE WHAT THEY WANT THE CHARACTER TO SAY TO CONTINUE ON WITH THE
STORY.

FILE SIZE
THE FILE SIZE IS THE MEASUREMENT OF A COMPUTERS FILE. TYPICALLY FILE SIZES ARE MEASURED IN BYTES OR
BITS. HOWEVER, THE AMOUNT OF DARK SPACE CONSUMED BY THE FILE DEPENDS ON THE FILE SYSTEM. THE
MAXIUM FILE SIZE IS A FILE SYSTEM WHICH SUPPORTS DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF BITS RESERVED TO STORE
SIZE INFORMATION AND THE TOTAL SIZE OF THE FILE SYSTEM.
MOST FILES SIZES ARE MEASURED IN BYTES OR BITS ( USUALLY 8 BITS WHICH ARE BINARY VALUES OF 1OR 0). THE
MOST COMMON FILE SIZE UNITS ARE: BYTES (8 BITS), KILOBYTES (1,024 BYTES), MEGABYTES (1,048,576 BYTES) AND
FINALLY GIGABYTES (1,073,741,824 BYTES). YET THERE ARE MORE FILE SIZES BUT COMMONLY VIDEO FILE SIZES
DONT GENERALLY EXCEEED 1000 GIGABYTES.
NEARLY ALL VIDEO FILE SIZES ARE LARGE AS MOST ENCOMPASS ALMOST ALL FORMS OF MULTIMEDIA. KEEPING THE
FILE SIZE LOW AS POSSIBLE IS VERY IMPORTANT ESPECIALLY FOR VIDEO DEVELOPERS OR USER AS IF THE FILE SIZE
IS TOO LARGE THIS WILL CAUSE THE USER AS IT CAN FILL UP THE USERS HARD DRIVES AND IT MAY ALSO SLOW
DOWN THE USERS COMPUTER SYSTEM. HOWEVER, THERE ARE 4 MAIN THINGS THE USER CAN TAKE INTO
CONCIDERATION FOR COUNTERING THE LARGE FILE SIZE. THE 4 MAIN THINGS ARE : REDUCING THE RESOLUTION
OF THE VIDEO, REDUCING THE FRAME RATE OF THE VIDEO, INCREASING THE KEY FRAME RATE AND THE USER CAN
ALSO CHANGE THE COMPRESSOR. THE 4 TECHNIQUES CAN EASILY HELP THE USER WITH THE FILE SIZE AND WILL
COUNTER ACT THE USERS HARD DRIVE FILLING UP AND THE COMPUTER BEING SLOW.

STREAMING
THE MEANING OF STREAMING IS WHEN AN AMOUNT OF DATA IS SENT FROM ONE INDIVIDUAL TO ANOTHER
OVER THE USE OF AN NETWORK ( MOST COMMON NETWORK THE INTERNET) AND THE INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS
RECEIVED THE DATA IS ABLE TO VIEW IT.

THERE ARE MANY ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STREAMING YET, ONE ADVANTAGE OF STREAMING
IS ONCE A PIECE OF CONTENT IS IN THE DOWNLOADING FASE THE CONTENT CAN BE VIEWED IMMEDIATELY
THIS IS GOOD DUE TO IF THE USER NEEDS THE CONTENT ASAP AS THE USER MAY NEED THAT CONTENT TO
FINISH A PROJECT FOR A DEADLINE.

MOST USERS NEED A PLAYER, WHICH IS A SPECIAL PROGRAM THAT UN-COMPRESSES AND SEDNS VIDEO DATA
TO THE DISPLAY AND AUDIO DATA TO SPEAKERS. A PLAYER CAN BE EITHER AN INTERGRAL PART OF A
BROWSER OR DOWNLOAD FROM THE SOFTWARE MAKERS WEB SITE. UNFORTUNATELY, THERE ARE THE USUAL
INHERENT RISKS WHEN STREAMING A VIDEO FILES AS THE SOFTWARE OR THE STREAMING FILES COULD BE
HARMFUL TO THE COMPUTER FOR EXAMPLE PLACING A VIRUS UPON OI ETC.

ANOTHER ADVANTAGE WHICH CAN HELP THE USER KNOWING IS THAT STREAMING VIDEOS ARE USUALLY
SENT FROM PRE-RECORDED VIDEO FILES, BUT THE VIDEO CAN ALSO BE DISTRIBUTED AS PART OF A LIVE
BROADCAST FEED, WHICH IS QUITE SIMILAR TO A NEWS BRAODCAST FEED.

FRAME RATES

THE DEFINITION OF FRAME RATES IS THE FREQUENCY AT WHICH FRAMES IN A TELEVISION PICTURE, FILM, OR
VIDEO SEQUENCE ARE DISPLAYED. FRAME RATES ARE MEASURED IN FRAMES PER SECOND OR KNOWN AS
FPS.

A HIGHER FRAME RATE MEANS THAT THE RECORDED CONTENT IS PLAYED FASTER. IN A VIDEO WHICH HAS A
LARGE FILE SIZE A LOWER FRAME RATE CAN DECREASE THE AMOUNT OF PERFORMANCE NEEDED ON LESS
POWERFUL MACHINES AND IMPROVE PLAYBACK WHEN STREAMING.

WHEN PLAYING VIDEOS ON THE INTERNET IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE USER TO KNOW THE MAXIMUM FRAME
RATE THAT PLAYBACK PLATFORMS ALLOW. THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT FOR MOBILE DEVICES. A VIDEO EDITOR OR
CREATOR WILL NEED TO KNOW THE MAXIMUM FRAME RATE OF THE WEBSITES AND USE THE DEVICE-SPECIFIC
ENCODING PRESENTS FOR MOBILE DEVICES.

FOR STREAMING VIDEOS THE FRAME RATE DESCRIBES PLAYBACK RATES FOR AVI AND QUICKTIME MOVIES.
THE VIDEO PLAYBACK RATE FOR AN AVI AND QUICKTIME MOVIE IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE PERCEIVED
SMOOTHNESS OF ITS PLAYBACK. THE LOWER THE RATES RESULT IN A CHOPPY PLAYBACK.

DIGITAL VIDEO CAPTURE

COMPRESSION

DIGITAL VIDEO CAPTURE COMPRESSION IS A NECESSARY FUNCTION OF RECORDING VIDEO AND TV SIGNALS
ONTO A COMPUTER HARD DRIVE. BECAUSE RAW VIDEO FOOTAGE REQUIRES LOTS OF SPACE, WITHOUT VIDEO
COMPRESSION, VIDEO FILES WOULD QUICKLY EAT UP GIGABYTES OF HARD DRIVE SPACE, WHICH WOULD
RESULT IN ONLY SHORT AMOUNTS OF VIDEO OR TV RECORDED ONTO THE COMPUTERS HARD DRIVE.

LOSSLESS AND LOSSY COMPRESSION ARE TERMS THAT DESCRIBE WHETHER OR NOT, IN THE COMPRESSION
OF A FILE, ALL ORIGINAL DATA CAN BE RECOVERED WHEN THE FILE IS UNCOMPRESSED. ALL OF THE
INFORMATION IS COMPLETELY RESTORED. THIS IS GENERALLY THE TECHNIQUE OF CHOICE FOR TEXT OR
SPREADSHEET FILES, WHERE LOSING WORDS OR FINANCIAL DATA COULD POSE A PROBLEM.
THE GRAPHIC INTERCHANGE FILE (GIF) IS AN IMAGE FORMAT USED ON THE WEB THAT PROVIDES LOSSLESS
COMPRESSION.

VIDEO FILE FORMAT

A VIDEO FILE FORMAT IS A TYPE OF FILE FORMAT FOR STORING DIGITAL VIDEO DATA ON A COMPUTER SYSTEM.
VIDEOS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS STORED IN COMPRESSED FORM TO REDUCE THE FILE SIZE.
A VIDEO FILE NORMALLY CONSISTS OF A CONTAINER FORMAT CONTAINING VIDEO DATA IN A VIDEO CODING
FORMAT FOR EXAMPLE VP9 ALONG SIDE AUDIO DATA IN AN AUDIO CODING FORMAT. THE CONTAINER FORMAT
CAN ALSO CONTAIN SYNCHRONIZATION INFORMATION, SUBTITLES AND METADATA SUCH AS TITLE ETC. A
STANDARDISED VIDEO FILE TYPE SUCH AS .WEBM IS A PROFILE SPECIFIED BY A RESTRICTION ON WHICH
CONTAINER FORMAT AND WHICH VIDEO AND AUDIO COMPRESSION FORMATS ARE ALLOWED.
CODECS ARE INSIDE EVERY VIDEO FILE CONTAINER. THE DATA IS CREATED BY A PIECE OF SOFTWARE CALLED
A CODEC, SHORT FOR COMPRESSOR/DECOMPRESSOR. YOU CAN THINK OF CODECS AS LITTLE HELPER
APPLICATIONS THAT THE PROGRAM OR THE OPERATING SYSTEM USES TO MAKE OR PLAY THE VIDEO FILE.
WITHOUT THE PROPER CODEC, A VIDEO FILE CANT BE PLAYED BY A COMPUTER SYSTEM. MP4 IS AN
ABBREVIATED TERM FOR MPEG-4 PART 14. IT MAY ALSO BE REFERRED TO AS MPEG-4 AVC, WHICH STANDS
FOR ADVANCED VIDEO CODING. AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, THIS IS A FORMAT FOR WORKING WITH VIDEO
FILES AND WAS FIRST INTRODUCED IN 1998. THE MPEG REFERS TO MOTION PICTURES EXPERT GROUP WHO
IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SETTING THE INDUSTRY STANDARDS REGARDING DIGITAL AUDIO AND VIDEO.

MULTIMEDIA PLAYERS
MEDIA PLAYERS ARE PIECES OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE THAT ARE USED TO PLAYBACK MULTIMEDIA FILES.
MEDIA PLAYERS SUPPORT AN ARRAY OF MEDIA FORMATS, INCLUDING BOTH AUDIO AND VIDEO FILES.

IN ADDITION TO MEDIA PLAYERS THAT PLAY ALL FORMS OF MEDIA THERE ARE ALSO AUDIO AND VIDEO
PLAYERS WHICH ARE DESIGNED SOLELY TO PLAY ONE FORM OR ANOTHER.

THE MOST COMMON THREE MEDIA PLAYERS ARE; QUICKTIME, WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER AND REAL PLAYER.
QUICKTIME COMES WITH ALL MAC/ APPLE SYSTEM PRE-LOADED WHILE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER COMES WITH
ALL MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEM COMPUTERS. REAL PLAYER IS A HIGHLY SUPPORTED PLAYER THAT IS
AVAILABLE FREE TO DOWNLOAD. THERE ARE ALSO OTHER POPULAR PLAYERS WHICH CAN ALSO BE
DOWNLOADED FOR FREE OFF THE INTERNET OR CAN BE BOUGHT.
VIDEOS ARE PLAYED IN MEDIA PLAYERS BY EITHER SELECTING OPEN WITH AND CHOOSING YOUR MEDIA
PLAYER FROM THE LIST OR SETTING ALL OF ONE TYPE OF FILE TO OPEN WITH THAT PLAYER. SOME PLAYERS
WONT BE ABLE TO PLAY VARIOUS FILE TYPES SUCH AS WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER. THIS MEANS THAT THE FILE
WILL AUTOMATICALLY ASSOCIATE ITSELF WITH A WORKABLE PLAYER OR IF THERE ISNT ONE AVAILABLE IT
WILL NOT AT ALL. MEDIA PLAYER ALSO INVOLVE FLASH PLAYERS. A FLASH PLAYER IS FREEWARE SOFTWARE
FOR USING CONTENT ON ADOBE FLASHPOINT, INCLUDING VIEWING MULTIMEDIA, EXECUTING RICH INTERNET
APPLICATIONS AND STREAMING VIDEO AND AUDIO.

RATION
THE RATIO REFERS TO THE LENGTH AND WIDTH OF AN IMAGE ON THE SCREEN THE WAY THE RATIO WORKS IS
THE WIDTH X HIGHT FOR EXAMPLE 5:6 MEANS THE PICTURE IS 5 UNITS BY 6 UNITS.

STUDIOS USUALLY USE THE RATIO OF 4:3 THIS IS THE STANDARD FORMAT FOR TVS HOWEVER TELEVISIONS
HAVE GOT BIGGER AND WIDER THE STANDARD FORMAT HAS CHANGED SO FOR THE WIDE SCREEN AND IS
BETTER FOR HIGHER QUALITY VIDEOS

ONE MAIN PART THAT MAKES RATIO DIFFICULT FOR TELEVISION STATIONS IS ITS HARD TO TURN STANDARD
FORMATTED VIDEOS INTO WIDE SCREEN. THE ONLY WAY I COULD KEEP THE RATIO LEVEL AND KEEP THE
QUALITY OF THE IMAGE GOOD IS BY STRETCHING THE IMAGE.

DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM) IS A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR DIGITAL
MEDIA. THE PURPOSE OF DRM IS TO PREVENT UNAUTHORISED REDISTRIBUTION OF DIGITAL MEDIA AND
RESTRICT THE WAYS CONSUMERS CAN COPY CONTENT THEYVE PURCHASED. DRM PRODUCTS WERE
DEVELOPED IN RESPONSE TO THE RAPID INCREASE IN ONLINE PIRACY OF COMMERCIALLY MARKETED
MATERIAL, WHICH PROLIFERATED THROUGH THE WIDESPREAD USE OF PEER-TO-PEER FILE EXCHANGE
PROGRAMS. TYPICALLY, DRM IS IMPLEMENTED BY EMBEDDING CODE THAT PREVENTS COPYING, SPECIFIES A
TIME PERIOD IN WHICH THE CONTENT CAN BE ACCESSED OR LIMITS THE NUMBER OF DEVICES THE MEDIA
CAN BE INSTALLED IN.
MANY LAWS HAVE BEEN CREATED WHICH CRIMINALIZE THE CIRCUMVENTION OF THE DMR, COMMUNICATION
ABOUT SUCH CIRCUMVENTION, AND THE CREATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF TOOLS USED FOR SUCH
CIRCUMVENTION. SUCH LAWS ARE PART OF THE COPYRIGHT DIRECTIVE, THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM, COPYRIGHT
ACT AND DADVSI.