Technology 1, 2, 3 and 4

By Reece Hancock
  MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a digital multimedia container
format most commonly used to store video and audio, but it
can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still
images.Like most modern container formats, it allows
streaming over the Internet. The only official filename
extension for MPEG-4 Part 14 files is .mp4. MPEG-4 Part 14
(formally ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003) is a standard specified as a
part of MPEG-4.

 Audio Video Interleaved (also Audio Video Interleave), known

Mp4 and avi by its initials AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced
by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for
Windows software. AVI files can contain both audio and video
data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-
video playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support
multiple streaming audio and video, although these features
are seldom used. Most AVI files also use the file format
extensions developed by the Matrox OpenDML group in
February 1996. These files are supported by Microsoft, and are
unofficially called "AVI 2.0".
  Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital
video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet
using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video
content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two
different video file formats known as Flash Video: FLV and F4V.
The audio and video data within FLV files are encoded in the
same manner as they are within SWF files. The F4V file format
is based on the ISO base media file format and is starting with
Flv Flash Player 9 update 3. Both formats are supported in Adobe
Flash Player and developed by Adobe Systems. FLV was
originally developed by Macromedia. In the early 2000s, Flash
Video used to be the de facto standard for web-based
streaming video (over RTMP). Notable users of it include Hulu,
VEVO, Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other
news providers.
  SWF (/ˈswɪf/ SWIF) is an abbreviation for small web format, an
Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics
and ActionScript. Originating with FutureWave Software, then
transferred to Macromedia, and then coming under the control
of Adobe, SWF files can contain animations or applets of
varying degrees of interactivity and function. They may also
occur in programs, commonly browser games, using
ActionScript.

 3GP (3GPP file format) is a multimedia container format

Swf and 3PG defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for
3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones
but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones.
  Downloading generally transfers entire files for local storage
and later use, as contrasted with streaming, where the data is
used nearly immediately, while the transmission is still in
progress, and which may not be stored long-term. Increasingly,
websites that offer streaming media or media displayed in-
browser, such as YouTube, and which place restrictions on the
ability of users to save these materials to their computers after
they have been received.

 Downloading is not the same as data transfer; moving or

copying data between two storage devices would be data

downloading transfer, but receiving data from the Internet is downloading.

  A progressive download is the transfer of digital media files
from a server to a client, typically using the HTTP protocol
when initiated from a computer. The consumer may begin
playback of the media before the download is complete. The
key difference between streaming media and progressive
download is in how the digital media data is received and
stored by the end user device that is accessing the digital
media.

Progressive  A media player that is capable of progressive download

playback relies on meta data located in the header of the file to
downloading be intact and a local buffer of the digital media file as it is
downloaded from a web server. At the point in which a
specified amount of data becomes available to the local
playback device, the media will begin to play. This specified
amount of buffer is embedded into the file by the producer of
the content in the encoder settings and is reinforced by
additional buffer settings imposed by the media player.
  Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and
presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The
verb "to stream" refers to the process of delivering or obtaining
media in this manner; the term refers to the delivery method of the
medium, rather than the medium itself, and is an alternative to file
downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains the entire
file for the content before watching or listening to it.
 A client end-user can use their media player to start playing
the data file (such as a digital file of a movie or song) before
the entire file has been transmitted. Distinguishing delivery
method from the media distributed applies specifically to
Streaming telecommunications networks, as most of the delivery systems
are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television,
streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video
cassettes, audio CDs). For example, in the 1930s, elevator
music was among the earliest popularly available streaming
media; nowadays Internet television is a common form of
streamed media. The term "streaming media" can apply to
media other than video and audio such as live closed
captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all
considered "streaming text".
  Data transfer rate or DTS is the speed at which data can be
transmitted between two devices, the rate of transfer is often
measured in kilobytes or megabytes per second. Because of
rapidly increasing file sizes the size of an internet users data
transfer rate or connection speed is important. The higher the
connection the faster the download will happen. The resolution
of what you are download makes a difference to this as the
higher the resolution the bigger the file size so it will take
longer to download, this will mean the transfer rate will be
higher. Frame rate also makes a difference as the higher the
Data transfer frame rate the bigger the file size, this means the download will

rates take longer on a video with a higher frame rate. Audio settings
play a part in it also as the better the audio quality the bigger
the file size will be, this means the transfer rate will be higher.
  16:9 is the international standard format of HDTV, non-HD
digital television and analog widescreen television PALplus.
Japan's Hi-Vision originally started with a 5:3 (= 15:9) ratio but
converted when the international standards group introduced
a wider ratio of 5⅓ to 3 (= 16:9). Many digital video cameras
have the capability to record in 16:9, and 16:9 is the only
widescreen aspect ratio natively supported by the DVD
standard.

 4:3 (for standard television has been in use since the invention
Aspect ratio of moving picture cameras and many computer monitors used
to employ the same aspect ratio. 4:3 was the aspect ratio used
for 35 mm films in the silent era. It is also very close to the
1.375:1 Academy ratio, defined by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences as a standard after the advent of
optical sound-on-film. By having TV match this aspect ratio,
movies originally photographed on 35 mm film could be
satisfactorily viewed on TV in the early days of the medium
(i.e. the 1940s and the 1950s).
  Adobe Flash Player is freeware software for using content
created on the Adobe Flash platform, including viewing
multimedia, executing rich Internet applications, and
streaming video and audio. Flash Player can run from a web
browser as a browser plug-in or on supported mobile devices.
Flash Player was created by Macromedia and has been
developed and distributed by Adobe Systems since Adobe
acquired Macromedia. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be
created by the Adobe Animate and Adobe Flash Professional
authoring tools, by Adobe Flash Builder or by third party tools
Flash player such as FlashDevelop. Flash Player supports vector and raster
graphics, 3D graphics, an embedded scripting language
called ActionScript, and streaming of video and audio.
ActionScript is based on ECMAScript, and supports object-
oriented code, and is similar to JavaScript. Flash Player has a
wide user base, and is a common format for games, animations,
and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) embedded in web pages.
Adobe stated in 2013 that more than 400 million out of over 1
billion connected desktops update to the new version of Flash
Player within six weeks of release.
  QuickTime is bundled with macOS. QuickTime for Microsoft
Windows is downloadable as a standalone installation, and was
bundled with Apple's iTunes prior to iTunes 10.5, but is no
longer supported and therefore security vulnerabilities will no
longer be patched.

 It is available free of charge for both macOS and Windows

operating systems. There are some other free player
applications that rely on the QuickTime framework, providing
features not available in the basic QuickTime Player. For
example, iTunes can export audio in WAV, AIFF, MP3, AAC, and

Quicktime Apple Lossless. In addition, macOS has a simple AppleScript

that can be used to play a movie in full-screen mode. but since
version 7.2 full-screen viewing is now supported in the non-Pro
version.
  Windows Media Player (WMP) is a media player and
media library application developed by Microsoft that is
used for playing audio, video and viewing images on
personal computers running the Microsoft Windows
operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows
Mobile-based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player
were also released for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X and
Solaris but development of these has since been
discontinued.
Windows media  In addition to being a media player, Windows Media Player
player includes the ability to rip music from and copy music to
compact discs, burn recordable discs in Audio CD format
or as data discs with playlists such as an MP3 CD,
synchronize content with a digital audio player (MP3
player) or other mobile devices, and enable users to
purchase or rent music from a number of online music
stores.
  Digital rights management (DRM) is a set of access control
Digital rights technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware
and copyrighted works. DRM technologies try to control the
managements use, modification, and distribution of copyrighted works (such
as software and multimedia content), as well as systems within
systems devices that enforce these policies.