(This article was originally written in October, 1998.)
There's good news and there's bad news about streaming video.
The good news is that there is streaming video (or "streaming media") available on the Web. The bad news is that most of it's still not even close to the quality of TV, or CD-ROMs, or even your grandfather's old home movies projected on the wall, and viewing it using the average modem connection is a lot more trouble than any of those other methods. A cable modem or T1 line will give better results, of course.
There are some places where you can find classic movies -- B&W silent films in particular, which don't suffer as much from the process, considering that they weren't filmed in Cinemascope or Panavision or even color in the first place -- but most of it is pretty much unwatchable, herky-jerky, grainy, and pixilated. It's been compared to using a "flip-book." That's assuming the clips load fully, or you're not told you need new software -- which often fails to load or install correctly -- or your computer doesn't crash or freeze when you try to view something. And don't try to multi-task while a streaming video clip is running. On the bright side, the audio is usually fine.
In order to view any kind of streaming video, or even audio, you'll need one of several different types of players, which consist of (mostly free) downloadable software.
You'll find a complete list Web sites where you can find videos to view on our Streaming Video Net Links list. If you know of others, please let me know by email and I'll add them.
