Internet Explorer 3.0 can play the most common graphic and sound files you'll encounter on the Internet, including JPG and GIF images, and AIF, SND, and AU sounds.
However, you will stumble across audio, video, and image file types that Internet Explorer 3.0 cannot handle. For these file types, you'll need to set up special helper apps.
And even for file types that Internet Explorer 3.0 does support, you might want to use a helper app that gives you more control over those file types. For example, although Internet Explorer 3.0 can display JPG and GIF files, it does not enable you to
touch up or manipulate the images to improve contrast and color. A more robust helper app, such as LView Pro or PaintShop Pro, gives you such control.
In this chapter, you'll learn about popular helper apps that can be set up for Internet Explorer 3.0 to use. Many of these helper apps are included on the CD at the back of this book. These apps are marked with a CD icon. Other helper apps are readily
available on the Internet; this chapter tells you where to find them.
NOTE
Although many helper apps are offered as freeware (no cost), most helper apps are shareware. You can use the application for a specified trial period, but then you are expected (morally and legally obligated) to pay a registration fee to the developer if you decide to continue using the application.
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When downloading any of the helper apps described here, don't just click on the link for the helper app. This will save the file in the cache, giving it a weird name that you'll have trouble saving and opening. Instead, right-click on the link, and then select Save Target As. This enables you to save the file using its original name.
Internet Explorer 3.0 does a fair job of displaying GIF and JPG files (the most common image file types) directly inside their Web pages. When you open a Web page that has a small graphic file of this type, Internet Explorer 3.0 downloads and displays
the image (see Figure 16.1).
Larger images, however, may appear as icons, links, or tiny versions of the larger graphic. In such a case, you can click on the icon or link to open the full-size graphic image. Or, you can right-click on the icon or link and then select Open, as
shown
in Figure 16.2.
Figure 16.1. Internet Explorer 3.0 can display JPG and GIF images on a page.
Figure 16.2. If a small version of an image is displayed, right-click on it and select Open.
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To display high-quality graphics, you need an SVGA monitor capable of displaying at least 256 colors. If you have an SVGA monitor, and the images look fuzzy or blotchy, you may have your monitor set to use only 16 colors. Make sure the display settings are at least 256 colors at 640x480 resolution (or higher).
Back in the old days (actually only a couple years ago), Web browsers couldn't display graphics. If you wanted to view a graphic, you had to set up a helper application to open it. Now, most Web browsers don't need help to display images.
However, a Web browser isn't a graphics program. It doesn't give you the power to enlarge an image, enhance it, flip it, or perform other graphical gymnastics. If you want to do this fancy stuff with the graphics you meet on the Internet, you'll still
need a helper application.
The following sections explain some of the more popular and more powerful graphics helper apps in use, and show you what you can do with a real graphics program.
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If you already have a powerful graphics application, such as CorelDRAW!, you can set it up as a helper application. However, full-featured graphics programs usually take a long time to run and may not provide you with the immediate gratification you expect from the Web. The helper apps listed here are smaller, run faster, and consume less memory, although they're not quite as powerful.
Price: Free (noncommercial use); $30 (commercial use)
File size: 305KB
Supported file types: JPG, GIF, BMP, DIB, TGA
Download site: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Windows/viewers/lviewp1b.zip
Information: http://world.std.com/~mmedia/lviewp.html
LView Pro is one of the first popular image viewers on the Web, and it remains one of the easiest to use. Though inexpensive (free for the 16-bit, noncommercial version) and small (a quick download of 305KB), LView Pro packs a powerful set of graphics
tools. Its extensive menu system enables you to cut, copy, and paste selections; play with the dimensions; resize, rotate, and flip images; adjust the color balance and contrast; transform a collection of images into a slide show; and much more. LView
Pro's Help system can bring you quickly up to speed.
After you've installed LView and configured Internet Explorer 3.0 to use it as a helper app (see Chapter 15, "Using Helper Applications"), all you have to do to view images is to click on a link. Internet Explorer 3.0 downloads the graphic,
runs LView, and displays the image. (See Figure 16.3.) You can then use LView's menu commands to play with the image, save your changes, and print the result.
Price: Shareware ($69 registration)
File size: 1888KB
Supported file types: DXF, CGM, CDR, DRW, WMF, WPG, BMP, CLP, DIB, GIF, IFF, IMG, JPG/JIF, LBM, MSP, PBM, PCD, PCX, PGM, PIC, PPM, PSD, RAS, RAW, RLE, TGA, TIF
Download site: ftp://ftp.jasc.com/pub/psp32bit.zip
Information: http://www.jasc.com/psp.html
Weighing in at a hefty 1888KB, PaintShop Pro is no lightweight helper app. This product is more like a full-featured photo enhancement program than a simple graphic viewer. Just look at the number of graphic file types that PaintShop Pro can handle.
Not
only can it display the standard GIF, JPG, and PCX files, but it also has the power to open WordPerfect Graphics (WPG), CorelDRAW (CDR), Kodak Photo CD (PCD), and Sun Microsystems (RAS) files.
PaintShop Pro also supports TWAIN-compatible scanners and offers a screen capture program and graphic file format converter.
And PaintShop Pro doesn't stop with merely displaying these files. It also offers a host of tools that enable you to touch-up and manipulate the images. These include drawing tools, such as paintbrush, pencil, charcoal; image selection and editing
tools, such as rotate, flip, and mirror; masking; and color enhancement. Figure 16.4 shows a screen shot of PaintShop Pro in action.
Figure 16.4. PaintShop Pro is the best buy, at under $75.
If you need a full-featured graphics program that doubles as a helper app, you can't do much better than PaintShop Pro. However, if you're looking for a small, quick program for just viewing images, you might want to stick with LView Pro or Figleaf.
Price: Shareware ($65 registration)
File size: 2315KB
Supported file types: BMP, ICO, JPEG (JPG), MND, PCD, PSD, TGA, TIF, GIF, CDP, CMX, PNG, AVI, MOV, WAV, UUE
Download site: ftp://ftp.cerious.com/pub/cerious/thmpls32.exe
Information: http://www.cerious.com/manual/contents.htm
One of the best newcomers, ThumbsPlus's support for graphics formats rivals that of PaintShop Pro. In addition, ThumbsPlus supports multimedia file types, including Microsoft Video for Windows (AVI), QuickTime (MOV), and Audio (WAV).
ThumbsPlus excels in respect to image management. When you change to the directory in which you've stored your graphics files, ThumbsPlus displays the contents of the directory, showing a thumbnail version of each image. You can then quickly rearrange
the images to create a slide show, convert the images to a different format, or quickly view the full-size image by clicking on its thumbnail. See Figure 16.5.
Figure 16.5. ThumbsPlus offers solid graphic file management tools.
ThumbsPlus also offers powerful image enhancement and editing tools, making it a good all-around choice for your graphic helper app.
Price: Shareware ($18 registration)
File size: 747KB
Supported file types: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, Photo-CD, PNG, TGA, TIFF
Download site: ftp://ftp.pinc.com/pub/acd/acdsee95/acdcn10b.zip
Information: http://vvv.com/acd/acd/acdsee95.htm
If you want a light-weight bare-bones graphics viewer, ACDSee is for you. Although it doesn't offer the graphics editing and enhancement tools of the other helper apps in this list, it does offer speed. ACDSee works a little differently than other
viewers, in that it starts displaying an image as it decodes it. In addition to providing the quickest decoding of any of the viewers mentioned here, this method of displaying while decoding makes it appear even faster. Figure 16.6 shows ACDSee's clean
interface.
Figure 16.6. ACDSee doesn't offer great image enhancement tools, but it's fast and clean.
Although not as full-featured as other image viewers, ACDSee does offer some useful tools, including scroll and zoom, a graphic file management system, drag and drop viewing, slide show mode, and the ability to convert images to desktop wallpaper.
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The graphics viewers listed here are only four of many high-quality graphics viewers. For a list of other viewers, visit Stroud's list at
http://www.cwsapps.com/image.html
Sound files first became popular when Windows enabled you to attach sounds to events. You could set up your computer to play a Homer Simpson burp whenever you started Windows. Although a nice novelty, sound wasn't very useful.
As CD-ROMs became more popular, sounds became more sophisticated. You could listen to snippets of Mozart's compositions or Martin Luther King's famous speeches. Because the sounds were stored locally, and because sound cards had become much better,
these sounds were quality recordings and they played fairly quickly.
Sound had to follow similar development patterns on the Internet. When people were connecting with 2400bps modems, it was a chore to download a hefty audio file to play only a few seconds of low-quality sound. Needless to say, there weren't many audio
files to be found on the Net.
But audio technology and file compression has come a long way. Now, with a 14.4Kbps or 28.8Kbps modem, you can download an audio file fairly quickly. And with the new real-time audio technology, you can listen to broadcasts with only a few seconds
delay
(at least theoretically). Now, audio files are one of the most popular features of the Internet.
To take advantage of these files for yourself, it helps to have a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer 3.0, which can play the most common audio file formats. However, Internet Explorer 3.0 needs help for playing the latest formats. The following
sections show you where to get this help.
NOTE
To play sounds, your computer should have a 16-bit stereo sound card or better. If your computer is equipped with only a PC speaker driver, you may not be able to play some sounds, and the sounds you do play won't sound like much. A 14.4Kbps modem (or faster) is also required for downloading large audio files.
Price: Free
File size: 397KB
Supported file types: RA
Download site:http://www.realaudio.com/products/player.html
Information:http://www.realaudio.com/
The phrase real audio or real-time audio conjures up images of radio broadcasts and live bands that you can listen to on the Internet. Actually, what real audio does is play a sound file as the file is being downloaded. This is a vast
improvement over the way audio helper apps worked in the past. These older players had to completely download a file before they would start playing it.
With real-time audio, you can conceivably listen to audio broadcasts with a delay of only a few seconds (the amount of time it would take to convert the recording into a file format). But, if you're serious about real-time audio, you'll still get
better
performance from your AM/FM radio.
Internet Explorer 3.0 can't play real-time recordings itself. You need to set up a real-time audio helper app. One of the best real-time audio players on the Internet is Real Audio.
Real Audio starts playing a sound file as the file is being downloaded, so you don't have to wait for the entire file to download before you can listen to it. Figure 16.7 shows the Real Audio control panel, which makes it easy to play, pause, and stop
audio transmissions.
At the time this book was being written, you still had to download the Real Audio player. However, by the time you visit the Real Audio home page, there might be a link for downloading an ActiveX control for playing real-time audio files, or the
capability might be built into Internet Explorer 3.0.
Figure 16.7. Real Audio gives you an on-screen "tape player."
Tip
After downloading the Real Audio player, you might need to fill out the form for requesting a password at http://www1.realaudio.com/get_password.html. This gives you access to a page that contains links to sites where you can listen to Real Audio files, such as National Public Radio broadcasts. Once you receive your password, via e-mail, you can access these links from the Real Audio Home Page at http://www.realaudio.com.
Price: Free
File size: 814KB
Supported file types: TrueSpeech WAV
Download site:
http://www.dspg.com/samples/tsply311.exe
Information:
http://www.dspg.com/
TrueSpeech is a relatively new rival to Real Audio. Like Real Audio, TrueSpeech enables you to listen to a recording as it is being downloaded.
The only real difference between these two capable helper apps is in the file formats they handle. TrueSpeech supports a special TrueSpeech WAV format, whereas Real Audio supports RA files. This doesn't mean much, except that RA files are more common
than TrueSpeech WAV files.
Until the battle over real-time audio file formats is decided, you may need to use both helper apps to handle all the audio files you might encounter. Figure 16.8 shows the TrueSpeech control panel, so you can compare it to Real Audio.
Figure 16.8. TrueSpeech provides an alternative to Real Audio.
Price: Free (so far)
File size: 1145KB
Supported file types: VMF
Download site:
ftp://ftp.vocaltec.com/pub/iwave10.com
Information: http://www.vocaltec.com/iwave.htm
Internet Wave is the latest entry in the real-time audio market. Created by VocalTec (the same company that developed Internet Phone), Internet Wave claims the highest quality real-time audio around.
Although this early version of the program didn't quite live up to its claims, it does show promise. After downloading and installing this player, open http://www.vocaltec.com/sites.htm to view links to
Internet Wave sites (where you can play sound files). See Figure 16.9.
Figure 16.9. Visit this page for links to other pages that have Internet Wave sounds.
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Possibly the best feature of Internet Wave is that it comes with a working version of Internet Phone. If you were thinking about buying an Internet Phone package to help cut down on your long-distance bills, here's your change to try one for free.
Price: Shareware ($9.95 registration); Crescendo Plus ($19.95)
File size: 10KB
Supported file types: MID (MIDI)
Download site:
http://www.liveupdate.com/dl.html
Information:
http://www.liveupdate.com/
Unlike most audio helper apps, which play digitized sound recordings, Crescendo plays MIDI files. MIDI (which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technology that treats sound recordings as sheet music. A MIDI file includes
instructions
that tell the sound card which instruments should play which notes when. The sound card interprets these instructions to play the musical composition.
Because MIDI does not digitize an actual recording, you can't have MIDI files of voices. However, because MIDI files assign much of the work of producing the sounds to your sound card, the files are much smaller than normal sound files (such as WAV,
AU,
and SND files).
Do you need Crescendo? Well, that depends on whether you encounter MIDI files that you want to play. If you like listening to elevator-music versions of your favorite tunes, Crescendo might be for you. Figure 16.10 shows Crescendo playing a MIDI file
from the MIDI Jukebox at
http://www.pensacola.com/~sunstar/jukebox.html
Figure 16.10. Once you have Crescendo, test it out at the MIDI Jukebox.
Price: Donation-ware ($20-$30, if you feel like paying)
File size: 135KB
Supported file types: AU, AIFF, IFF, VOC, WAV
Download site:
ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/micro/msdos/win3/sounds/wham133.zip
Information:
N/A
WHAM (short for Waveform Hold And Modify) was one of the first shareware audio players for the Internet and has outlived its usefulness. Internet Explorer 3.0 can handle most of the file formats that WHAM can manage.
Price: Free
File size: 35KB
Supported file types: AU, IFF, SND, VOC, WAV
Download site:
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Windows/viewers/wplny12a.zip
Information:
N/A
In the same league with WHAM, WPlny (short for Windows Play Any file) used to be a useful application. However, now that Web browsers are handling common audio file types internally and more sophisticated sound players (real-time players) are
available,
WPlny has lost its appeal.
Because WHAM and WPlny are so small (and free), they are worth looking at if you're feeling nostalgic.
Sounds are nice, but nothing spices up a Web session like video clips. Thousands of Web sites contain brief video clips that you can play simply by clicking on a link. Do you want to see a trailer for the latest hot, new film? Find the movie's home
page
(or a page set up by a fellow movie lover) and click on the link for the video clip. Internet Explorer 3.0 downloads the clip, runs your helper application, and starts playing it.
If you've encountered silent video clips in the past, you'll be happy to hear that talkies have come to the Web. With the latest batch of video players and file compression improvements, you can now download and play video clips complete with sound.
The following sections provide a shopper's guide to video players and show you where to download the latest versions.
NOTE
Don't expect these video clips to transform your monitor into a TV set. These clips usually appear in a dinky window. The reason for this is that multimedia files are large. To download an image big enough to cover your screen would take forever.
Price: Free
File size: 1034KB
Supported file types: MPEG (Audio and Video), AVI, QuickTime, AU, WAV, MIDI, and AIFF
Download site:
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/
Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload
Microsoft's ActiveX video player, ActiveMovie, is an ActiveX control that enables Internet Explorer 3.0 to play most popular video and audio file formats you'll encounter. It's simple, it's fast, and Microsoft is planning on making ActiveMovie an
integral part of Internet Explorer. If you're looking for a seamless, all-in-one audio/video player, you can't do much better than ActiveMovie.
Price: Shareware ($14.95 registration)
File size: 1027KB
Supported file types: MPEG (MPG), AVI, MOV, FLC/FLI
Download site:
http://www.duplexx.com/download.html
Information:
http://www.duplexx.com/
Currently the highest rated video player on the Internet, NET TOOB enables you to play a wide range of video file formats. It's fast and provides high-quality video playback.
The only drawback of NET TOOB is that the current version (2.5) does not support live video. (With live video, a viewer starts playing the video clip before it has been completely downloaded.) However, the folks at Duplexx (creators of NET TOOB) are
frantically working to develop NET TOOB Live (Version 3.0), which will support live video.
Figure 16.11 shows NET TOOB playing a typical video clip. Note that the window contains controls so you can stop and resume play.
Figure 16.11. NET TOOB is a high-quality video viewer that supports many file formats.
Without additional drivers, NET TOOB is capable of playing only MPEG files. To enable NET TOOB to play additional file types (MOV, AVI, FLC/FLI), download the additional drivers from the download page at http://www.duplexx.com/download.html. Future NET TOOB upgrades may be able to handle these file types without the additional drivers.
Price: Free
File size: 418KB
Supported file types: VDO
Download site:
ftp://ftp.vdolive.com/pub/plgply16.exe
Information:
http://www.vdolive.com
VDOLive is a fairly small, but capable, live video player, capable of playing VDO files (video formatted specially for VDO Live). Although the selection of VDO files you'll currently encounter on the Web is small, as VDO gains a following, the
selection
is sure to grow.
You can play a video file in VDOLive in one of two ways. The first way is to set up a file association between VDOLive and VDO files, as explained in Chapter 15. The other way is to run VDOLive, and click on the Play button. A dialog box appears, as
shown in Figure 16.12, asking you to type the URL for the file. Type the URL, and then click on the OK button. This is useful for playing VDO files that you have saved to disk.
Although it's not the most robust video player of the lot, VDOLive is relatively fast and provides high-quality playback.
Figure 16.12. VDOLive is a simple, live video player.
When you install VDOLive, it will install the plug-in for Netscape Navigator and a helper app version. After installing the helper app version, simply go to the VDOLive Home Page (http://www.vdolive.com) and click
on
links to the VDOLive Gallery, where you'll find sample video clips you can play. Click on a link for the video clip, and then follow the trail of dialog boxes to set up the file association.
NOTE
Over a modem connection (even at 28.8Kbps), live video clips are jerky. The reason for this is that the live video player can play the video clip faster than your modem can download it. However, once the clip is downloaded and stored locally on your hard drive, the video player can play it much more smoothly.
Price: Free
File size: 531KB
Supported file types: StreamWorks Servers
Download site:
http://204.62.160.251/sw-winclient/software/streamwk.exe
Information:
http://204.62.160.251/sw-winclient/info/dl_winclient.shtml
StreamWorks is an innovative audio/video player that can play audio and video clips from StreamWorks servers. If you have a network or ISDN connection, StreamWorks is one of the best live video/live audio players you can get.
You can run StreamWorks as a helper application or run it as a separate client application. Either way, when you start StreamWorks, it displays a dialog box that displays buttons for connecting to the Xing StreamWorks server. (You can create your own
buttons for connecting to other StreamWorks servers.)
These buttons act like the buttons on a car radio (see Figure 16.13). You click on a button to "tune into" a station (server), where you are presented with a list of video or audio selections. Click on the selection to play it.
To create buttons, change the speed of the connection, and enter other settings, click on the Setup button.
Figure 16.13. StreamWorks acts as an Internet radio, enabling you to tune into StreamWorks servers.
NOTE
If you have a 14.4Kbps or 28.8Kbps connection, you might become slightly frustrated with the speed of StreamWorks (especially with video clips). These large audio and video signals take a long time to meander over your modem connection.
Price: Free
File size: 540KB
Supported file types: MPEG (MPG), WinG
Download site:
ftp://papa.indstate.edu/winsock-l/Windows95/Graphics/vmpeg17.exe
Information:
N/A
The fastest video player of the bunch, VMPEG supports both audio and video clips. VMPEG plays the most common type of multimedia files you will encounter on the Internet, MPEG (MPG), so it should satisfy your multimedia needs. Figure 16.14 shows a
sample video playing in VMPEG Lite. Check out the MPEG Movie Archive at
http://www.eeb.ele.tue.nl/mpeg/
Another, comparable MPEG player is MPEGPlay, which you can download at
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Windows/viewers/mpegw32h.zip
Figure 16.14. VMPEG Lite is small, fast, and capable.
Price: Free
File size: 2020KB
Supported file types: MOV, QT
Download site:
http://b.quicktime.apple.com/toys/WinOS/QT32INST.EXE
Information:
http://www.microsoft.com
Two of the most popular video formats you'll encounter on the Web are MOV and AVI files. Both of these file types store a combination of audio and video, making them perfect for movie clips.
Because of the number of MOV files on the Internet, you'll need a video player that can handle this popular format. QuickTime is one of the few video players that can play MOV files without the help of additional drivers. Figure 16.15 shows QuickTime
displaying a short video clip.
Figure 16.15. QuickTime can handle video clips stored as MOV files.
The trouble is that MOV files are twice as large as their MPEG counterparts, so they take much longer to download and play, and they don't stack up to other formats when it comes to quality. Even so, if you need a viewer to play MOV video clips,
there's
no better choice than QuickTime.
To view some sample QuickTime movies, visit the QuickTime Cool Content Repository at
http://quicktime.apple.com/content.html
or Hollywood Online at
http://www.hollywood.com
Price: Free
File size: 1995KB
Supported file types: AVI
Download site:
http://b.quicktime.apple.com/toys/WinOS/QTINSTAL.EXE
Information:
http://quicktime.apple.com/
If you connected to the Hollywood Online site described in the previous section, you know that this site offers two versions of its movie clips. You can view clips in MOV or AVI format. QuickTime is the viewer to use for MOV files, whereas Video for
Windows is ideal for AVI files.
Although playing files as you download them provides you with immediate sensory stimulation, you might want to save some files to play later. Normally, Internet Explorer 3.0 stores the downloaded file in the cache while you play it. When you're done,
and after the cache limit is reached, the file is automatically deleted.
The following sections show you two ways to save the files you download to your hard drive.
If you've set up a file association for a particular file type, whenever you click on a link for that type of file, Internet Explorer 3.0 downloads the file and uses the associated helper application to play it.
If you want to save the file to disk, instead, right-click on the link for the file. This displays a pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 16.16. Click on the Save Target As option. The Save As dialog box appears, prompting you to select the drive and folder
in which you want the file placed. Make your selections, and then click on the Save or OK button.
Many helper apps have their own menu system, which enables you to save downloaded files after you play them. If the helper app's window has a menu bar, open the File menu and select Save. In the Save As dialog box, select the drive and folder in which
you want the file saved, and click Save or OK.
This chapter explains how to nab the most popular helper apps for playing most of the graphics, sound, and video files you will encounter on the Web. In the next chapter, you will learn how to play Java applets (small applications that offer animation
and interactive interfaces).
