Last semester the Center for Academic Technology and Support staff members met to discuss the idea of converting REAL media files to Windows Media or Quicktime files.

The staff decided the conversion would start in December 2005, and after January 2006 REAL media files would not be created, said Pete Grant, multi-media specialist at CATS.

The target date for project completion was April 2006 but the project was completed in February.

“Right now, we’re in the testing phase,” Grant said. “On campus the files stream very well.”

CATS staff members are trying to create a hole in the university Web site firewall so that the files can stream off campus, Grant said.

“We chose to go with Windowsmedia and QuickTime because we knew that nearly 100 percent of our audience have those players installed, ” said Ryan Gibson, university Web master.

“Windows and Quicktime are both available on PC and Mac,” Grant said.

In addition to audience availability, cost was another factor in the decision.

“Both Microsoft and Apple have free tools that allow us to stream Windows Media and Quicktime,” Gibson said.

During the process of converting the files, Grant said he ran into some problems.

“Converting REAL media to Windows Media was probably the most difficult part of the process,” Grant said.

Grant used 20 different software programs in the process of converting the files.

“They would all covert, no problem, but 99 percent of them did a horrible job on the conversion,” Grant said.

Grant said he finally solved the conversion problem by using the software program EO Video.

“It converted high-quality videos, equal to or 90 percent as good as the REAL media file,” Grant said.

Grant used the software to covert the REAL files to Audio Video Interleaved files, then to their final Windows Media format.

REAL files will be stored on the university server until December 2006.