Synchronized continuous media playback through the World Wide Web

We have developed and demonstrated a remote continuous media playback application called cmplayer, using the Berkeley Continuous Media Toolkit (CMT). Cmp layer can be used in conjunction with aWorld W]de Web browserto access remotely stored continuous media data (i.e., video and audio) and provide synchronized playback of multiple media streams. The cmplayer communicates witha server process also written with CMT to stream media data across the network using adaptive control to compensate forlimitednetwork bandwidth, server utilization, and client CPU resources. Asimple script format isusedto indicate thelocation of each piece of media data (i.e., hostname, port number and the filename) and specify source synchronization between media streams. Multiple video and audio streams can be specified. In addition, scrolling text streams and streams of Tcl commands can be integrated as stream types. A stream can be stored in multiple media data files distributed on different servers. Cmplayer script files are ASCII text and are typically less than 10 lines long. Cmplayer provides full VCR-like controls and random access into any point of the video.