[e2e] Study of Video Performance on the Internet

[Mark Claypool]

We are studying the performance of Internet video played out all over
the world.  We built a customized video player, called RealTracer,
that plays streaming Real.com video clips and measures their
performance.  We need help to run RealTracer from other parts of the
world (getting data from Massachusetts is easy for us :-)).  To help
with this study, you'll need to download RealTracer and run it on your
computer.  It will take about 5 to 15 minutes of your time. (The video
playout will take about longer but you don't need to be present while
it runs.  Your computer does have to be connected to the Internet
during this time.  If you can't stay connected during this whole time,
whatever time you can give will be helpful.)

We will send a summary of our results to this list (or provide a
pointer to a Technical Report) when the study is completed.

So, if you are willing to help: 

- Make sure you have RealPlayer installed on your computer.  If you do
not already have it, download and install RealPlayer 8 Basic (it's
free) from: http://www.real.com/player/index.html

- Download the RealTracer support file. If you are running Windows
95/98, download http://perform.wpi.edu/real-tracer/Aux98.dll. If you
are running Windows NT/2000, download
http://perform.wpi.edu/real-tracer/AuxNT.dll.

- Then download http://perform.wpi.edu/real-tracer/RealTracer.exe. 

- Double-click on RealTracer.exe. You're off! 

*********************************************************************
* RealTracer will in no way cause your computer to crash, install a *
* virus, corrupt your hard-drive or in any other way harm your      *
* computer.  All results obtained are for academic use only.        *
*********************************************************************

  + Enter the information about you and your computer and click on the
    "OK" button. 
  
  + In the main window, click on the "Play" button. 

  + Watch the video clip. 

  + Click "Yes" to rate the clip. 

  + Supply a rating between 0 and 10. The next clip will play
    automatically.
  
  + Repeat for 3-10 video clips (as many as you'd like). 

  + Let the remaining video clips play out. It will take approximately
    2 hours.

That's it! The data you provide will help better understand the
performance of Internet video.

We will be collecting data from June 4th - June 15th, 2001.

For more information, see our Web page at:

   http://perform.wpi.edu/real-tracer/

Or contact Mark Claypool (claypool at cs.wpi.edu), Yubing Wang
(wang_yubing at emc.com), or Zheng Zuo (zuo_zheng at emc.com).

thanks,
Mark

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Mark Claypool        CS Assistant Professor        claypool at cs.wpi.edu
   Worcester Polytechnic Institute   http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool