As files stream across a network, it is possible for packets of information to be lost, particularly on the Internet. When packets are lost, the viewer can experience choppy play, loss or gaps in the audio, and even loss of entire images. If packets stop being delivered, NetShow Player stops rendering until it can rebuild its buffer.
To improve performance when packets of information are lost during transmission, NetShow Server uses error correction and concealment. The ASF Editor and the ASF Real-Time Encoder can optionally include this redundant error-correction data in the stream, which enables NetShow Player to correct for certain levels of packet loss. If there is extreme packet loss (to the point where error correction is not possible), NetShow Player masks the errors. For audio masking, NetShow Player uses neighboring audio information to conceal the loss of data. If you convert images into loss-tolerant .jpg images, NetShow Player uses a smoothing algorithm to conceal any lost image data. See each tool's documentation for instructions on using error correction when building an .asf file. Most tools will have error correction turned on as the default.
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