Introduction to RealSystem Producer Codecs

Intended for Web professionals, Intranet managers, and streaming media enthusiasts, this document explains RealAudio and RealVideo codecs in depth. It will help you use RealSystem Producer to create RealAudio and RealVideo clips that stream well and encode your source material faithfully.

What this Document Teaches You

You'll learn the following from this document:

What SureStream is, and why it won't work with a Web server.
What a duress stream is.
What a codec is.
The bit rates for RealAudio default codecs.
How and when to change the RealAudio codecs for a target audience.
How and when to change the RealAudio codecs used with RealVideo.
How and when to change the RealVideo codec.
What RealVideo's Scalable Video Technology (SVT) does.
How to modify RealVideo's maximum frame rate and streaming bit rate.
When to use the RealVideo prefilters.
How variable bit rate clips differ from constant bit rate clips.
How to read RealSystem Producer's encoding statistics.

Requirements for Using this Document

Before you use this document, you'll need the following:

Version 8.5 of RealSystem Producer Basic or RealSystem Producer Plus
This document is specific to version 8.5 of RealSystem Producer. If you are using an earlier version of RealSystem Producer, RealNetworks recommends that you upgrade to version 8.5. You can purchase RealSystem Producer Plus or download the RealSystem Producer Basic from http://www.realnetworks.com/products/index.html.
Experience running RealSystem Producer
This document does not provide step-by-step instructions for using RealSystem Producer. It assumes that you are familiar with the RealSystem Producer user interface and the procedures for encoding clips, which are described in the RealSystem Producer online help, as well as RealProducer Plus User's Guide.
Basic Internet multimedia knowledge
You should be familiar with digitized audio and video, as well as the basic production techniques for creating streaming clips. You can find tips for these procedures in the audio and video production chapters of RealSystem Production Guide, which is available at http://service.real.com/help/library/encoders.html.

Note
Although many tips described here apply to Internet broadcasting, this document focuses on creating clips for on-demand delivery.

	Note
Although many tips described here apply to Internet broadcasting, this document focuses on creating clips for on-demand delivery.

Changes in this Document Release

This technical blueprint is an update to Working with RealProducer 8 Codecs. If you are familiar with the earlier document, this document has only a few changes:

This document discusses the new RealAudio 8 codecs in Using the New RealAudio 8 Stereo Codecs.
With the new codecs, the default codecs have changed. See Encoding with the RealAudio Standard Defaults, and Encoding with the RealAudio Multimedia Defaults.