storing images in the database

i dont know wheteher to post this query here or not.as i dont know about any oracle forum i am posting my query here.
Actually i want to store images/music or video in the oracle database. I hav read that u can acheive this with blobs.
But i hav also read that u require an appropriate convertor before storing it into the databse.
How do i go about it . can somebody please guide.
i also want to know about an oracle forum where i can post my queries. it would be helpful if somebody culd redirect me to any.

Two suggestions:
1) Do a search for "blob" in this forum
2) check http://technet.oracle.com

u can do something like this ..hope u will get it ..
import these ...
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.sql.*;
import oracle.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.driver.*;
then
insert an empty row in the table like this
stmt.executeUpdate("insert into blobdata (blob_nr,data) values ("+ +blobnr + " ,empty_blob())");
now u do just like this ..
ResultSet rs2;
BLOB blob=null ;
Stringcmd = "SELECT inhalt FROM blobdata WHERE blob_nr=" +blobnr + " for update";
rs2 = stmt.executeQuery(cmd);
if(rs2.next())
{
blob= ((OracleResultSet)rs2).getBLOB(1);
}
//filling blob
File binaryFile = new File("fileName);
FileInputStream instream = new FileInputStream(binaryFile);
OutputStream outstream = blob.getBinaryOutputStream();

int size = blob.getBufferSize();
byte[] buffer = new byte[size];
int length = -1;
while ((length = instream.read(buffer)) != -1)
outstream.write(buffer, 0, length);
instream.close();
outstream.close();

hope u can figure it out ..

if not then ask i will be happy to clarify it ..

Hi,
Need help!!!
i have a string, i have to store this in the database as type text....which means i have to save it as a type BLOB
how do i go about cvonverting the string to BLOB???
PLEASE HELP
i am using informix as my database
and java as my application program

Actually i am able to store gif files into the oracle BLOB.
but i dont know how to retrieve the gif file from BLOB and display the gif in the browser