Windows® 98 Unleashed

Viewing Web-Based Video with NetShow

Microsoft puts the ASF video format through its paces with the NetShow Player that comes with Windows 98. NetShow is essentially an ActiveX control that supports media streaming. This means that NetShow uses special codecs that enable it to decode incoming media streams on-the-fly. The result is that you can view content-rich media with only a few seconds delay. This is a far cry from having to load a large video file that, if you're accessing it from the Web, could take minutes or even hours to download. And there are no storage worries with NetShow because the player doesn't save the incoming stream in permanent ...