[ The PC Guide | Systems and Components Reference Guide | Video Cards | Full-Motion Video ]

Applications for Full-Motion Video

Full motion video is being seen increasingly on PCs as they expand their horizons to fill roles they never have before. Some of the areas where full-motion video is increasingly being seen:

• Games: Many games today use video to add realism to the gaming experience. In particular, many games use video to make them more "cinematic"; these games are often a cross between a movie and a classical computer game. They are sometimes called "interactive movies" in fact.
• Video Playback: Some movie companies are now making versions of movies and putting them on CDs for playback on the computer desktop. This trend is new but is expected to continue.
• Documentation and Training: Many software (and even hardware) packages now ship with one or more instructional video segments that show in much clearer detail how the software works, or how to perform certain operations.
• TV on the PC: An interesting trend is hardware that allows you to watch TV in a window on the desktop. In fact, the television and the PC are becoming more and more intermixed, with TV showing up on the PC and PCs that use the TV for monitors also becoming popular, plus "PC appliances" like WebTV gained ground in the marketplace.

Next: Video Performance Issues and the MPEG Format

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