Technology Requirements
	Here, you will find information on the technology requirements for accessing eLearn resources.

Class lecture archives are available in Microsoft Windows Media 9 (WMV) format, either as a real-time stream or as a download. In addition to having a computer system powerful enough to play these video files, you will also need high-speed Internet access and a compatible media player installed on your computer.

Most computer systems produced within the last four years are powerful enough to playback lecture videos streamed or downloaded from this site. In general, we recommend a computer system with at least a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 5 GB of free hard disk drive space. Obviously, performance will be greater with better specifications.

Network, audio-video streaming requires audio and video content to be split into small packets and delivered to waiting media players, where they are played while being reassembled. Traffic problems in the network (or in the Internet) can delay the arrival of some packets or even prevent them from arriving at all (requiring them to be resent). Stream media players must be smart enough to assemble the packets in the correct order and buffer packets to accommodate delays.

Our recordings are encoded at about 540 kbps (kilobits per second). This is somewhere around the Internet bandwidth available to DSL-lite subscribers, and should be considered a minimum bandwidth requirement for live streaming of course lectures. Those with slower Internet connections (and more patience) may still use the download option (if available for the given lecture). Those who subscribe to the Internet at higher bandwidths will experience smoother playback.

Although we currently use the Microsoft Windows Media 9 (WMV) format for our lecture recordings, this does not limit our users to the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Students have used various flavors of Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Apple MacOSX to access and watch our lectures. The only real software requirement is a compatible media player.

On Microsoft Windows systems, this is typically Microsoft Windows Media Player (any version 9 and higher). Linux and Apple Mac systems are also capable of playing these videos (some available players include Totem, Kaffeine, MPlayer, and QuickTimePlayer). A very good, cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.) player is the VLC media player.

Class resources are available to registered students only. Thus, you may be prompted to login with your osprey username (n-number) and password. Enter your username in the form, "unfcsd\username" (without quotes). If prompted, you must accept the self-signed security certificate before entering your osprey credentials. Note: If preceding your username with "unfcsd\" does not work, try just using your username.

These recordings are protected by copyright. You are granted the right to download and view these recordings yourself as many times as you like, but you may NOT distribute, share, or sell them. By downloading a recording, you agree to abide by this limited use license.

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