Capability
|
Rating
|
Browser compatibility and percent of
browsers with Plug-in
|
Excellent.
|
Interactive sound design capabilities
|
Limited/None. Technology is a compression format, not a multimedia
authoring environment.
|
Software cost for encoding and streaming
|
Free to inexpensive.
Small licensing fee may apply for professional applications. No
dedicated server required for posting downloadable files.
|
Level of documentation and support
|
Limited.
|
Audio encoding and content generation
|
Easy.
|
Audio authoring and delivery
|
Difficult to Easy.
Installation of SHOUTcast server for MP3 streaming requires Unix
programming expertise. Posting MP3 files on a standard web server for
downloading is easy.
|
Audio fidelity and compression
|
Outstanding.
Depends on the rate.
|
Low-bandwidth performance
|
Excellent.
MP3 shines in low-bandwidth environments. To the discerning listener,
the MP3 encoding algorithm produces the most ear-pleasing and natural
form of audio degradation after compression for 28.8 bandwidth
environments.
|
Server performance and quality of software tools for large-scale
streaming
|
Good -- SHOUTcast Server.
But primarily a downloadable format. Streaming options such as
SHOUTcast are becoming more widespread. Currently very few tools
available for large-scale broadcasting.
|