The answer is neither simple nor easy. Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology. Multimedia really just two media sound and pictures, or in today's term, audio and video. Multimedia itself has its binary aspects. As with all modern technologies, it is made from a mix of hardware and software, machine and ideas. More importantly, you can conceptually divide technology and function of multimedia into control systems and information. The enabling force behind multimedia is digital technology. Multimedia represents the convergence of digital control and digital media---the PC as the digital control system and the digital media being today's most advanced form of audio and video storage and transmission. In fact, some people see multimedia simply as the marriage of PCs and video. PC power has reached a level close to that needed for procession television and sound data streams in real time, multimedia was born. Multimedia PC needs to be more powerful than mainstream computer---at least the multimedia PC defines the mainstream. Among contemporary PCs, about the only things that separate an ordinary computer from multimedia are a soundboard and a CD- ROM driver. The CD serves as multimedia 's chief storage and exchange medium. Without the convenient CD, the PC industry would lack a means of distributing the hundreds of megabytes of audio, visual, and textual data that make up today's multimedia titles. Without CD, you couldn't buy multimedia because publishers have no way of getting it to you.
So what is multimedia? By now you should agree that multimedia isn't any one thing but a complex entity that involves the many things: hardware, software, and the interface where they meet. But we've forgotten the most important thing that multimedia involves: you. Yeah, sure. With multimedia, you don' t have to be a passive recipient. You can control. You can interact. You can make it do what you want it to do. It means you can tailor a multimedia presentation to your own needs. You can cut through the chaff and dig directly into the important data in a report, pull together reports and video clips from around the world that interest you. That's the strength of multimedia and what distinguishes it from traditional media like books and television.
What does multimedia do? It presents information, shares ideas and elicits emotions. It enables you to see, hear, and understand the thoughts of others. In other words, it is a form of communication.
要回答這個問題不那么容易。多媒體是計算機和視頻技術的結合，實際上它是兩個媒體；聲音和圖像，或者用現在的術語：音響和電視。多媒體本身有兩個方面，和所有現代技術一樣它是由硬件和軟件，或機器和思想混合組成。可以將多媒體技術和功能在概念上區分為控制系統和信息。 多媒體之所以能夠實現是依靠數字技術。多媒體代表數字控制和數字媒體的匯合，電腦是數字控制系統，而數字媒體是當今音頻和視頻最先進的存儲和傳播形式。事實上有人就簡單地認為多媒體是電腦和電視的結合。電腦的能力達到實時處理電視和聲音數據流的水平，這時多媒體就誕生了。多媒體電腦需要具有比主流電腦更強的能力，多媒體電腦決定了主流電腦的發展。區別普通電腦和多媒體電腦的主要東西是聲卡和只讀光盤驅動器。光盤是多媒體的主要存儲和交換媒體。沒有這種方便的光盤，電腦工業就無法銷售構成多媒體節目的幾百兆字節的音頻、可視的和文字的數據，你也無法買到多媒體。 現在可以回答什么是多媒體。它不只是一件東西，而是包括許多東西的復雜的組合：硬件、軟件和這兩者相遇時的界面。不，我們還忘了一件最重要的事情．多媒體還包括你。咳，就是！對于多媒體，你不再是一個被動的觀眾，你可以控制，可以交互作用，可以讓它按你的需要去做。在一個報告中，你可以不管那些無用的東西而直接進入重要的數據，可以將感興趣的全世界的報告和圖片收集匯編到一起。這就是多媒體的力量和它與傳統媒體（如書本和電視）的區別所在。
多媒體能做什么？它展示信息、交流思想和抒發情感。它讓你看到、聽到和理解其他人的思想。也就是說，它是一種通訊的方式。
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