so on) into Real's native RealMedia (RM) format. You can download Helix Producer Basic for free or get the full-featured Helix Producer Plus for about $200 at http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer. Helix Server and Helix Proxy: Whether you are getting started or have been streaming for some time, the Helix Server and Helix Proxy product lines from Real have been designed to help you deliver the highest quality digital media experience to the largest audience at the lowest cost. The Helix product line is the most powerful server software available for streaming media files across an intranet, the Internet, or over a mobile network. More information can be found at http://www.realnetworks.com/products/media_delivery.html. Real is undoubtedly the pioneer in streaming video and by far offers the most versatile media player in that its RealPlayer product is supported by more platforms than any other media player on the market today. The RealPlayer is available for Windows, Macintosh, Unix, Linux, and OS/2. Beyond compatibility, the RealPlayer offers subscription-based plans to view certain content from CNN, ABCNEWS, E!, and FoxSports, to name a few. QuickTime Apple was ahead of its time back in the early 1990s when it introduced an application called QuickTime. QuickTime was the first application that enabled you to play digital video on a computer. Today, QuickTime sets the standard in multimedia playback, offering a clean, brushed-aluminum interface for viewing video on the web. Often, people confuse QuickTime with the QuickTime Video format. The QuickTime Player is a separate application dedicated to viewing different content including QuickTime Video, Flash movies, Windows Media, 3D objects (QuickTime Virtual RealityQTVR), MP3, MPEG, and much more. Like Real, QuickTime has three main software components: QuickTime Player: Like the RealPlayer which plays native RM files, the QuickTime Player plays native MOV files and can play many more formats. You can download the QuickTime player for free at http://www.apple.com/quicktime. QuickTime Player Pro: For $29.99, you can purchase a key code that unlocks all the content-creation features built into QuickTime. Using the key code turns the QuickTime Player into QuickTime Player Pro, which essentially allows you to convert media files into QuickTime MOV files, enables video compositing capabilities, and so on. For more information on upgrading to QuickTime Player Pro, visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/buy. QuickTime Streaming Server: Like Real's Helix Server, the QuickTime Streaming Server allows video to be streamed over the web. Unlike Real's Helix Server however, the QuickTime Streaming Server can be downloaded for free at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qtss. QuickTime enjoys roughly 62% of the market (http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer) for rich media and is the top choice for graphics professionals. QuickTime offers the highest-quality video playback, and because of its support for MPEG-4, QuickTime is quickly becoming a standard for quality-conscious developers. Currently, QuickTime Player is available for Mac OS and Windows. For more information on MPEG-4 and Apple's contributions to the standard, visit Apple's Web site at http://www.apple.com/mpeg4. Windows Media Enjoying a large share of the market and installed on all Windows operating systems, Windows Media Player has become an extremely viable platform for viewing video both on your desktop and directly through the web browser. Like Real's RealPlayer, the Windows Media Player has the capability to play numerous video formats such as ASF, ASX, AVI, MPG, MOV, and WMV; it can also play audio formats such as MP3, AIF, and AU. Software involved with Windows Media includes the following: