Windows Computing In The Late 90's (Multimedia)
Multimedia
While the late 90's is seen as a largely dead zone when it came to general PC use, there was one area where Windows was really taking off (along with gaming): Multimedia. While multimedia on the PC has been ever evolving since the early 90's, it seems that by the end of the decade, that is where things really took off.
They were various video and audio formats that evolved over the decade from Cinepack Radius, Intel Indeo, Microsoft Video 1 (VFW), MPG1, and Sorenson. Yet two standards were about to take the PC realm by storm: MPEG2 Video in the form of the DVD format, and MPEG-2 Layer III format, which is commonly known by its street name: MP3.
The Rise Of The MP3
The MP3 codec is able to produce CD-quality audio on the file that is roughly 3-5MB's (or 5-10MB's for something encoded in 256K or 320k bitrate). The MP3 codec, developed by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, had been around since 1993; hadn't seen widespread use before 1998/1999. The reason for this is that in order to play the MP3, one needed a computer with a somewhat beefy processor (for its day) or a device with a processor completely dedicated just to MP3 decoding.
While the Motorola 68040, Intel 486 and Pentium 1 processors could technically decode a MP3 on the fly, it could only handle a very low bitrate (64K) in real-time. That is about the audio quality heard on FM radio. However, with the arrival of the Pentium II processors, decent quality (128K bitrate, CD-Quality) MP3's could be decoded in real-time now. This was also around the time that the Internet started to take off with one file-sharing client gaining prominence.
One has to understand the context of why Napster took off in the first place. The early to middle 90's was a gold-mine of awesome music with the likes of alternative and grunge. Bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Peral Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM, and Oasis gave you your money's worth in music. One wouldn't have been disappointed putting down $20 for a CD full of awesome music.
Yet, by the late 90's, and especially with the resurgence of Pop music, the one hits wonders started to dominate the radio again. However, the days of the 45 RPM records were dead, and the music labels now wanted that whole CD filled. Fillers became the norm.
People spending $20 for a CD at Walmart, Target, or Best Buy expecting a whole disc of awesome music from there favorite hit-maker only to discover that the disc in question was mostly populated by filler content would have been quickly caused scorn among customers consumed by buyers remorse. This was the environment that Napster came into.
Consumers burned by the record companies showed there contempt by starting to download music using the Napster client. It took a long while to download the music. On a 56K modem, it took about 25-30 minutes to download one song. On a slower 28.8K modem, download a typical song took 45 minutes/1 hour. PC users tolerated the slow speeds knowing that they just wanted that hit song and not a lot of worthless filler content. For the first time, lengthy music playlist started to populate PC's the world over. MP3 collections would quickly become the norm. Even now with the proliferation of streaming, MP3 collections are still a common part of many PC and smartphone users (especially those who don't have a regular data plan!)
With the rise of Naptser and the mass adoption of MP3, Windows Media Player was updated to support it. However, during this time, WinAMP, with its skinnable stereo deck interface; became king of the MP3 players. I don't ever remember a computer that didn't have WinAMP installed on it! The installer was on AOL CD's that were constantly filled mailboxes and became coasters for soft drinks across this land! WinAMP could also be downloaded quickly from the Internet. Since it was a relatively small download (1-3MB's), it often took less than 30 minutes to get it, even from a dial-up modem.
The RIAA demonized people who downloaded music through obnoxious PSA's that quickly become a joke. The RIAA couldn't demonize music downloaders without presenting themselves as massive hypocrites themselves.
Many could successfully argue that it was the RIAA and the labels who were the true villains as they regularly exploited the artist for there own benefit and provided little compensation for there work. This is reflective in the recent Spotify controversy and how artist are compensated on that platform. Looking back, this was one of those situations where it easy to admit that what the PC user did was technically wrong. At the same time though, its impossible to demonize them as they themselves have been burned by the RIAA and there tomfoolery.
These users were tired of spending their hard-earned money buying CD's loaded with mostly filler content. Many others, especially middle and high-school students who didn't have money in the first place, downloaded music only to buy the CD or vinyl (yes, vinyl records would make a awesome and glorious comeback!) later when they did get money. In many cases, downloading music actually facilitated music sales later down the road!
Efforts to demonize such users have backfired, like in the case of Metallica. Metallica's attempt to demonize PC users who downloaded there music was met with flak because they became tools for the self-righteous record companies that they are slaves too. The consumers are always willing to pay for digital music as long as there was a convenient way to do so legally. This was where Apple would become king of content providers by offering their own music in the form of iTunes. iTunes treated downloaders as consumers rather than criminals, like what Steam later did with video games later on.
DVD And Video Playback On The PC
DVD Video was released to the US market in March 1997. DVD is a specification of the MPEG2 Video format. While the intention of MPEG1 was to provide NTSC TV quality video for consumer devices, MPEG2 was intended on providing movie-quality video for such devices that supported it. For OEM's that started to preload DVD drives into there PC's, such computers often had programs like Cyberlink PowerDVD or DVDExpress installed so that users could play movies on their systems.
However, video on the PC wasn't just restricted to DVD video, interactive CD-ROM, or systems equipped with TV tuners. Streaming video wanted in on the action. At this point, your probably asking the question: HOW!?
While the Internet was proliferating, online video still wasn't quite mainstream yet. Not only that, those who did have Internet typically had dial-up with 28.8K modems. 56K modems were a luxury item in the late 90's. High-speed Internet didn't start to proliferate until the mid/late 2000's.
How could video cope on dial-up? To answer that; it couldn't, even though it tried very hard. The most well known of these attempts was the Real Media (RM) format created by RealNetworks, the company that created the very popular Real Player back during the late 90's. It's solution was a format that could either be streamed or downloaded depending on the one hosting the file. The RM files typically used a low bitrate along with a low resolution to make it stream reasonably well, even on dial-up (even though downloading a video still took several minutes if one wanted it saved to there computer).
Streaming a video at a resolution of 120 by 60 pixels that looked like moving blocks wasn't a fun proposition. Yet, in that environment, Microsoft decided to create there own video format to rival Real's RM. Called, ASF, or Advanced Streaming Format; it was specifically designed for streaming (as the name implies). Quality-wise, it was largely the same as RM. It was very low-res and it also looked blocky. Streaming video on the PC wouldn't become the norm the proliferation of high-speed Internet and YouTube, and both was still years away at this point. However, streaming video had to start somewhere, right!
DVD-Video (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video
MP3 (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
RealPlayer (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealPlayer
Advanced Systems Format (Wikipedia) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Systems_Format
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