We ran three quality test benchmarks. We encoded video at 1 Mbps, 768 Kbps and 256 Kbps, all at 30 frames per second.
In the first test, we used the Shunra Storm to simulate a 10-Mbps connection with 10-ms roundtrip latency. The second test was on a 3-Mbps link with 200-ms round-trip latency and 10-ms jitter. Our final test was on a 768-Kbps link with 200-ms round-trip latency and 50-ms jitter. We separately modified the third test to have 2 percent packet loss to further test stream stability.
Participants in the quality test were not told which system had which player on it. Systems were referenced as Alpha (Apple), Beta (Adobe), Gamma (Real) and Delta (Microsoft). Content was embedded into a black Web page maximized to fill the screen. The raw scores of all participants were averaged for each of the three tests. The scores for all three tests were then averaged and converted to our 0 to 5 scale.
All Network Computing product reviews are conducted by current or former IT professionals in our own Real-World Labs??, according to our own test criteria. Vendor involvement is limited to assistance in configuration and troubleshooting. Network Computing schedules reviews based solely on our editorial judgment of reader needs, and we conduct tests and publish results without vendor influence.
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