Chapter 2-5 Media on the Web
David Tatchin and Riley Zettlemoyer
Multimedia
The first thing you need to know about online media is multi media. Multi media simply refers to any application that combines text with media. Media includes graphics, animation, audio, video, and/or virtual reality.
Graphics
A graphic is a visual representation of non textual information, such as a drawing, chart, or photo. Many graphics are in color. Because graphics can take a long time to display, some websites use a thumbnail. A thumbnail is simply a smaller picture that you can enlarge. An info graphic is designed to communicate quickly. Graphics can have different formats, such as JPEG and PNG. Other websites use animations, which is appearance of motion displayed by moving still images.
Audio
Audio is simply music, speech or any other job. Most audio are files that you can download and listen to. Audio files are compressed to reduce their size. For example, MP3's reduce the audio to one tenth of it's size. To listen to an audio file on your computer, you need special software called a media player. You can download them for free.
Video
Video consists of images displayed in motion. Most videos also include audio with them. They can be short or long, depending on the purpose. Virtual Reality is the use of computers to simulate a real or imagined environment that appears as a three-dimensional (3-D) space. Using that software, you can make the VR World.
Plug Ins
Plug Ins extend the capability of a browser. They run on most platforms. For example you can use Abode Reader to view and print PDF files. Sun Java is also a plugin.
MediaPortal Tutorial - Plugins Dedicated Computer Media Center Player