Is Macromedias Shockwave a true streaming media player?
Many Web sites use Macromedia’s Flash/Shockwave for audio and visual effects, but it’s not a true streaming media player. It is popular because it can display short audio and video clips quickly, without a long waiting period. The Shockwave browser plug-in is available as a short and free download. QuickTime can also display Shockwave. What difference does it make if content is streamed, rather than downloaded? Audio and video files can be very large. You would spend many minutes or even hours waiting for them to be downloaded to your computer if they weren’t streamed. Streaming media technology allows you to see or hear the content in just a few seconds, instead of having to wait for it. Your only wait is a few seconds for a “buffer” to be built up that helps avoid interruptions caused by Internet traffic problems. In the majority of cases streaming media is used to maintain control over the distribution of the media files (because it is difficult to record media streams).
