The war of words between Microsoft Corp and Real Networks Inc, in which Microsoft has a 10% stake, continues with the launch of new streaming media technologies out of Redmond. Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, Windows NT Server NetShow Services and NetShow Theatre Server are designed to let users view and serve multimedia content such as audio and video. Between them, the three products, pre-announced a month ago (CI No 3,404), can handle data streams at rates from 2.4kbps to 8Mbps. Lead product manager for Windows Media Technologies Gary Schare says that Microsoft has been building streaming media into its products for many years, and that it only took its minority stake in Real last year to address incompatibility problems. Our users were complaining to us that there were two technologies and two standards, Schare says. We took the investment and license in Real to try to make our technology more compatible with theirs. That hasn’t worked out as well as we would have liked. Schare says Real has announced two releases this year with changed formats and compression which make them no longer compatible with Windows. That’s fine, we welcome the competition, Schare says. He also welcomes Real’s January announcement of a filter which will let Media Player users view Real content, but claims the Microsoft product has natural advantages. We’re building the technology into Windows itself, he says. Better not tell Janet Reno. Real was unavailable for comment. á
