provided by: 
Originally published at Internet.com NET TOOB was once the Real Deal for viewing digital videos over the 'net. Although NET TOOB specialized in MPEG and MPEG-1 files, QuickTime for Windows (MOV), Video for Windows (AVI), and FLC/FLI videos could also be viewed as long as you first grabbed the necessary (and free) drivers off the NET TOOB Info Page. NET TOOB also supported playback of WAV, MIDI, and SND sound bytes as well as QuickTime VR models.
NET TOOB was perhaps the first digital audio/video viewer of its kind — at the time of its initial release, no other app on the 'net allowed for playback of so many file types without the need for additional hardware. NET TOOB has since been discontinued, though, and is no longer supported. The developers recommend the use of RealPlayer or Windows Media Player in its place.
An Abundance of Features
Features in NET TOOB are pleasingly abundant: adjustable video window sizes (1/8, 1/4 or even full screen playback), small files (thanks to MPEG-1 compression), video compression ratio averages of 200 to 1 and audio compression ratio averages of 15 to 1, MPEG-1 playback at 15 frames per second, and playback of synchronized and interleaved audio/video.
There is even a video screen saver that you can use to play your favorite videos. NET TOOB automatically sets itself up as a Web browser helper application or as a plug-in module (with NET TOOB v3.x) in order to enable automatic video playback from Netscape, Internet Explorer, Spry AirMosaic, and a few additional browsers.
NET TOOB Stream 3
The quality of both audio and video delayed playback (non-streaming) is amazing. Even more impressive, the folks at Duplexx Software (creators of NET TOOB) have now completed an update to v3.0, called NET TOOB Stream, that supports real time audio and video playback...over the Internet. Unfortunately, you can only play one video at a time - i.e. currently, there is no video slideshow capability with NET TOOB.
The latest releases of NET TOOB take the app in a new direction (and with the new name - NET TOOB Stream). With the new version you can play all current digital standards on your PC including MPEG-1, Video for Windows (AVI), and QuickTime for Windows (MOV) as downloaded media, and varied frame-rate MPEG-1 on-demand media without server software. NET TOOB Stream even gives you the option of full screen video playback for MOV and AVI video files, but don't expect quality or speed to be anywhere near adequate with a slower Internet connection.
Overall
While these new features do bring NET TOOB Stream several steps closer towards becoming a super deluxe real-time audio/video player, there are still noticeable delays when playing files while they are being downloaded. However, the 3.x release and its impressive collection of new features are quite a dramatic improvement over the 2.x and earlier releases.
The 3.x releases still have a few kinks to be worked out, but at only $19.95, NET TOOB Stream is already an easy recommendation, and if/when its real-time audio and video streaming capabilities are perfected, there's no doubt that NET TOOB will be a five-star app.
Author: Forrest Stroud
Read article at Internet.com site