Is there ever a major trade show where Microsoft isn’t unveiling a new initiative? Streaming Media West is no exception, where keynote speaker Microsoft President and CEO Steve Ballmer Tuesday unveiled Windows Media Audio and Video 8 beta.
Windows Media Audio and Video 8 claim thirty percent compression improvement and purport to enable the delivery of film content at near-DVD quality across Internet connections as low as 500kbps, and near-CD quality audio streams on a 48kbps connection.
Added was a sneak preview of the digital media features of the next version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, code-named “Whistler,” including Windows Media Player 8, a prerelease version of Windows Media Producer, and a new service from NTT DoCoMo that uses Windows Media to deliver streamed audio and video to cell phones.
Further along in the Microsoft new release lineup was Media Player 7 for Pocket PC, which allows consumers to watch home movies and personal video clips on Windows-powered Pocket PC devices. With the new player, Pocket PC owners can download videos such as news clips, music videos and Windows Media and MP3 music from the Web directly onto their Pocket PC or play back their own home movies edited using Windows Movie Maker in Windows Me.
Finishing off their contribution to the show, Microsoft and Kenwood joined forces in the release of the new Kenwood DPC-MP727 portable CD player, which stores more than 22 hours of music on a single CD.
Finishing off their contribution to the show, Microsoft and Kenwood joined forces in the release of the new Kenwood DPC-MP727 portable CD player, which stores more than 22 hours of music on a single CD.
