| Help with Video |
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Film files on the America's Story website are offered in two formats, RealAudio and MPEG. Both formats require special players.
MPEG Format
America's Story's highest-quality film files are presented in the .mpg (Motion
Picture Experts Group) format. Films presented in .mpg format (pronounced "em-peg") are higher
resolution and better quality than the equivalent RealMedia versions. To view
films in the .mpg format, you should have a relatively high-speed computer
(such as a Pentium 90 (or better) with a PCI or AGP graphics card and .mpg
playback software, or a PowerMac with .mpg playback software).
An MPEG-1 video playback board or hardware-assisted playback may increase
the playback performance of MPEG movies, but it is not necessary for modern
computers. The average file size for the .mpg format is about nine megabytes (9MB)
for each minute of film.
MPEG Player Suggestions:
Windows 3.1, 95 - VMPEG 1.7 Lite
Windows NT, Windows 95 and later - Windows Media Player or QuickTime
Macintosh PowerPC - QuickTime or Windows Media Player (beta version)
Additional player information is available from http://www.mpeg.org
Real Media (.rm)
American Memory film collections will add this format, one collection at a time.
Real Media allows viewing of the film as it arrives at the user's computer,
eliminating the need to download the film completely before viewing. Real
Media format is especially useful for computers with slower Internet
connections, such as a 28.8 modem. Video playback is slower (3-6 frames per
second) and may be affected by Internet traffic.
You can download the RealPlayer for Windows or Macintosh at http://www.real.com/player/. This player will also play RealAudio sound files.
