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Interesting that more companies are moving away form Google. A couple months ago, RealNetworks (ya, reliable I know) changed it's default 2nd party offer from Google / Chrome to Ask. (Fun for the day: use Ask search and search for Ask toolbar ... examine the results).

For me, it is getting harder to use Google search, especially if I want to search for more than two words. For simple searches ... Google works fine. However ... frequently Google will substitute terms (that don't belong), add obvious sales links (that don't apply), or have a referral to a second level search (which has always useless: best example is returning searches for an items from eBay -- if I wanted eBay I would search eBay). Google's image search(method) is much better than Bing's ... but is there a viable option "B" general text / info search?

They're not dead yet. Now with Cloud! Sharing! Mobile!

Now, this dates back /years/ ago but at some point I was really happy with the RealPlayer that I decided to license it. It was simply awesome; I started it up and could view just about anything. From US news broadcasts to Japanese TV series right down to stuff from India and Germany. (this was "pre-Youtube" time so to speak).

Then other solutions emerged (and my interest slowly waned) but guess what? Next time I started the app. (a few years later) I was greeted with "you should upgrade!", which I didn't do. Why? I was happy with the way it was.

Add another few months and this time I wasn't able to run the program anymore period. "You need to upgrade" was all which was said, of course without any options for a real upgrade. I could pick another "free" player and that was basically it. My paid for enhancements were gone. Heck; my whole player was gone.

DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT... Just set your disdain aside for a moment and look at the realplayer product page. Question: do you see anything there which hints at upgrade options for existing users ? Well, there aren't any.

Realplayer was the best learning experience for me (and all in all not /that/ expensive fortunately) to never buy anything from Real networks again.

I switched to GNU/Linux in 1998 because lights on my external modem flickered each time I used RealPlayer to play files that were on my own computer.

Did the lights on your modem flicker when using RealPlayer for Linux?

RealPlayer for Linux. You want the .deb one at the bottom. Hold down the Alt key and move the desktop properties window. Enable the Ubuntu partners repo and sudo apt-get install opera. CTRL+Shift+Esc will let you see your memory. And now I'm bored.

It is rather telling that the same type of buffer trouble is showing up in other peoples software. I am just wondering if the flood "Gates" are about to open and we will wind up seeing multiple trouble with things like WMP, Silverlight ...there was already the same update happening for RealPlayer

Just maybe there is a system xml call that is easily exploited in all versions of Windows....I can just see it now some lazy MS exec using old legacy system xml that is written using the gets and puts function. I would not put it past Microsoft to use old garbage code without even checking the old source then including the pre-compiled executable

To solve your problems http://mediakey.dk/~cc/itunes-on-linux-ubuntu/ and http://www.real.com/rhapsody/linux, there you go, iTunes and Rhapsody on Linux.

As for secure computers until the OS is hard wired it will always be a problem. With computers being consumer level appliances, it is now getting to the stage, where an open source OS can be built right into the CPU, for near instant on, assured reboot and really fast OS execution. The hardware over the last few years could be very effectively functional for decades (usefulness rather than survivability).

Certainly a really stable secure Linux kernel could achieve the next logical step and be built right into the CPU as one of it's cores, whether to build the Gnome GUI in there as well is the next question.

Will you also be enjoying your media in REAL PLAYER?

Rex Ping

Real released a security patch:

http://service.real.com/realplayer/security/191007_player/en/

"So they should say Windows, Mac and Linux? Or should that be Windows, Mac, Linux and FreeBSD? Or Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD and my toy OS that I wrote in CS class?"

http://www.helixcommunity.org/
http://www.real.com/linux (FreeBSD runs it too)
http://www.realnetworks.com/industries/mobile/prod ucts/player/index.html
http://www.real.com/mac/

Solaris/AIX and other variants exist but huge URLs. I am not even talking about Videolan and how easy to make a custom Videolan player with DRM of my choice.

Point is: If you are actually a media player/server making company, you try to reach ALL available environments. If you are a division of a giant OS monopoly company, you try to alienate all competing OSes and platforms and may even get support from unsuspecting users.

"So they should say Windows, Mac and Linux? Or should that be Windows, Mac, Linux and FreeBSD? Or Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD and my toy OS that I wrote in CS class?"

http://www.helixcommunity.org/
http://www.real.com/linux (FreeBSD runs it too)
http://www.realnetworks.com/industries/mobile/prod ucts/player/index.html
http://www.real.com/mac/

Solaris/AIX and other variants exist but huge URLs. I am not even talking about Videolan and how easy to make a custom Videolan player with DRM of my choice.

Point is: If you are actually a media player/server making company, you try to reach ALL available environments. If you are a division of a giant OS monopoly company, you try to alienate all competing OSes and platforms and may even get support from unsuspecting users.

Real? Meets your requirements...

Real player has worked with the iPod for a while now http://www.real.com/beta/harmony.html http://service.real.com/realplayer/support.html?se ction=iPodRPinstall/ It made a lot of news when it was released, but it looks like everyone's more or less forgotten about it. Of course, I've never used it and I'm not aware of anyone who has, so maybe the geek cred of DVD Jon will make this effort more successful.

Real player has worked with the iPod for a while now http://www.real.com/beta/harmony.html http://service.real.com/realplayer/support.html?se ction=iPodRPinstall/ It made a lot of news when it was released, but it looks like everyone's more or less forgotten about it. Of course, I've never used it and I'm not aware of anyone who has, so maybe the geek cred of DVD Jon will make this effort more successful.

Real player has worked with the iPod for a while now http://www.real.com/beta/harmony.html http://service.real.com/realplayer/support.html?se ction=iPodRPinstall It made a lot of news when it was released, but it looks like everyone's more or less forgotten about it. Of course, I've never used it and I'm not aware of anyone who has, so maybe the geek cred of DVD Jon will make this effort more successful.

Remember Harmony?

I'd be happy if Real would fix RealPlayer 10 for Linux to work with NFL Field Pass. http://www.real.com/partners/nfl/fieldpass.html?br and=nfl&pcode=nfl&rsrc=nfl

They need to start offering the same services for Linux as they do for Windows. Can't login my ass.
(And, no. I don't feel that its fair to run RealPlayer for Windows under Wine). I paid for the service, give me the damn service whether I choose to run a Mac/Windows/Linux OS on my computer.

Enjoy.

1) Try to instruct a novice user to find and download the free version on their website. Not an easy task but doable.

This certainly used to be a massive problem (the easiest way was in fact to use the link provided by the BBC which went directly too it) but these days their download page (the one you get to by clicking real player on the front page) outlines your options pretty clearly.

2) Try to install it without it inserting stuff into Windows startup - I use Startup Control Panel but not everyone is so lucky.

Not really a problem when installing on Linux, so I can't help you there. Windows users should be used to it by now from WMParasite anyway. Maybe someone who has installed a more recent version than you have can provide some insight.

3) Try to remove the messages/popups etc. from a standard installation - again, not for the novice.

Last time I ran Real Player on Windows that just involved changing the settings in the options tab. Now, i'll not overestimate the technical ability of most users, but unless things have changed it wasn't a lot harder than grasping the principle of how to turn your computer on.

Addtionally, I love the fact that it respects your themes:


New UI adopts your theme
The elegant UI design is based on GTK technology.
That means the player adopts the theme you've chosen,
and blends itself accordingly into your desktop environment.


All taken from:

http://www.real.com/linux/

"Streaming is a synonym for downloading if it's multimedia and you're tech-challenged."

Could you provide some reference materials? I've never heard of streaming media being referred to as a synonym for downloadable media and I'd be interested to know if I've really had my head in the sand or if you are just being a troll. Here are a few references pulled from a quick Google search.

http://www.clickandgovideo.ac.uk/Glossary.htm#S
streaming: Process of sending media over the Internet or other network, allowing playback on the desktop as the video is received, rather than requiring that the entire file be downloaded prior to playback.

http://www.walthowe.com/glossary/s.html
streaming audio, streaming video: Technologies which permit listening and watching continuously as the signal is transferred to your system from a remote web site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media
Streaming media is media that is consumed (read, heard, viewed) while it is being delivered.

http://home.real.com/product/help/rp10v8_ts/en/Str eaming_Media.htm
Streaming Media is media (audio, video, or graphics) that is delivered as a stream of data, and played as it is received.

People are stupid, but given the choice between owning DRMed music that you can burn or renting it and watching it all vanish when you stop paying...well, I'd hope that people aren't that stupid.

I subscribe to Rhapsody, so I guess I am that stupid.

I know some people feel very... passionately... about "renting" music rather than "owning" it. But I like having access to thousands upon thousands of tracks that I can listen to at any time. Rhapsody has two million tracks.

Am I going to listen to all two million? Of course not. But I have extremely varied tastes and like exploring new music. Last week I was listening to my favorite indie tracks, then I got bored. So I started checking out world music - African, Caribbean, Brazilian. Then I got bored and listened to some hip-hop. Then I got bored and listened to some music from Rent.

In a given week, I'll listen to hundreds of different tracks - most of them brand new to me. How much do I pay? About $12.

But that's ok, call me stupid. ;)

The Microsoft/Urge subscription model contains a new twist as well: 'Urge also lets you rent songs: $9.95 a month (or $99 a year) lets you download all the tracks you want to a computer, while $14.95 ($149 a year) lets you transfer those downloads to most newer Windows Media-compatible players. These rented songs can't be burned to CD and go silent if you stop paying the fees.'

How is this a "new twist"? Listen Rhapsody has been using this model for years.

Here is the link for the video for the senate hearing on this: http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6 .0.12&&title=Sen.%20Judicaiary%20Cmte.%20Hearing%2 0on%20the%20Music%20Industry%20%26%20Digital%20Rad io&link=rtsp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.c-span.org%2F15days%2Fe 042606_music.rm

They had the following music artists on the panel: Anita Baker; Todd Rundgren, Victoria Shaw.

Sure, Real is at number 9, but most of their traffic is to one specific page: http://www.real.com/support/faqs/how_the_hell_do_i _uninstall_this_damn_thing.html "Sorry, we can't find the page you were looking for." S.O.L.

Sure, Real is at number 9, but most of their traffic is to one specific page:

http://www.real.com/support/faqs/how_the_hell_do_i _uninstall_this_damn_thing.html

https://helixcommunity.org/ (They provide a free,opensource, full feature player/server)

and

http://www.realnetworks.com/company/press/index.ht ml (see how they do lately)

and

http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=rnwk (see platforms)

But you will get +5 for posting "anti real player bs" and my post will fade -1 eventually. Not that I care.

That's not the story with Real's "Harmony".

What happened was that Real reverse engineered the FairPlay copy protection, which basically uses a iPod-specific key to decrypt a song specific key that was encrypted with the iPod specific key (all encrypted songs from ITMS are the same).

So this lets them translate copy protected content from their format to the FairPlay (still copy protected) format.

Here's their press release from 2004: http://www.realnetworks.com/company/press/releases /2004/harmony.html

And here's proof that they're still doing it today: http://music.guide.real.com/musicstoredevices

-- Terry

Sorry; forgot to mention in previous post that there is a version of Realplayer for Linux, so Linux users http://www.real.com/linux?pcode=rn&src=freeplayer_ partner&opage=freeplayer_partner can apply.

http://www.real.com/rhapsody/

-everphilski-

1. Download the plugin here, and SAVE TO YOUR HARD DRIVE: http://forms.real.com/real/player/download.html?f= unix/rhapx/RhapsodyPlayerEngine_Inst_Linux.xpi

2. Open it with Ark or something and copy nprhapengine.so to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/

3. Restart Firefox.

4. Spoof Firefox 1.5's UA with User Agent Switcher extension to be Firefox 1.0.7 instead:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.0.7

5. Use Rhapsody.

I have used this method to make it work in Mozilla 1.7.2, I don't see why it wouldn't work in Firefox.

Will Linux users use Real's product?

If you use Xandros the RealPlayer comes as the default media player. This is not a bad deal either, because the Linux player is not crammed full of ads- it does what a media player should: play media. I give the Xandros guys a lot of credit, too, because ever since they started bundling the RealPlayer with their distro, they've been the ones to actually make the install work. Prior to that, Real had (still does I think) it listed as an alpha.

I would think more Linux folks would be attracted to Real, actually, because they have the open source version of the player and server, Helix and last I checked neither Apple nor MS have made their player OSS.

As typical by this poorly organized and completely out-to-lunch company a great idea put together with horrible execution. Obviously companies try to launch products on their first day with a big media blitz. So far so good, they get the front page of Slashdot, many newspapers (http://seattle-pi.com/ articles and widespread coverage on mac news sites (http://www.macnn.com./

So, how about trying it? Well, you can go to the Rhapsody site, http://rhapsody.com/ and try to get to it. Well, NOTHING on the rhapsody.com site says anything about the web features. Nothing in the FAQ and the system requirements say Windows only. If you're going to launch a major new feature don't you think you would update your home page?

If you click to "TRY RHAPSODY" you come to a jump page and if you select either option, one says "Windows required" and the other says "Rhapsody is currently offered only on Windows..." Oh nice.

So, if you're super persistent, then you can go to http://real.com/ . You will notice the web page doesn't even load, and stalls somewhere around 50% loading of the 31 items on the page. Ooops, looks like their servers can't handle the load. Oh , some poor Sys Admin's pager is blowing off the hook right about now I'm sure. Real's CTO Mesrobian is probably trolling down the hallways with a bat clubbing engineers like baby seals and screaming like a banshee.

If you manage to find the small text link at the bottom of the real.com page "Rhapsody Unlimited for Mac" that page also barely loads. And then, there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to the 25 free trial without giving them your credit card number.

Horrible launch, a disgusting display of web marketing. My 15 year old sister could do 50 times better than this and she could create a website that looks more visually appealing than this blue and white patchwork.

Good luck Real, hope your servers recover and hope people come back to try it some other day when they can actually find the software.

The free version of the Real player is now prominently displayed on the Real home page. The free link used to be hard to find, kind of hidden on an inner page as you were downloading the player. Yep, Real is definitely really hurting.

bleh. Makes no sense to me that music stores don't think that people who spend more on their computers won't make good customers.

movielink allows you to 'rent' movies for anywhere from .$99 to $5. quality is decent though certainly not DVD. speed is good. selection is sparse.
http://www.movielink.com/

you can also get "starz on demand" through realplayer for approx $13 a month. you're limited to the current line up of STARZ movies--and they often suck. but it's better than paying $70 for premium cable. quality is ok, but still not DVD.
http://starz.real.com/

but i dont know if those are the kind of things the poster wants. his question was amorphous at best.

They have a free realplayer: http://www.real.com/realplayer.html?country=US&lan guage=EN&opage=rpchoice&type=dlrhap_bb&pp=player&s rc=realplayer,090105rpchoice_1_2_2_1_1_1

1. Download Realplayer for Linux (noting that the Linux version is a lot nicer than the Windows version, completely lacking ads, annoying "REGISTER NOW" screens, etc.)
2. Install.
3. Run Realplayer
4. Open the video.

Since it's a ram file, there's Real Player for Linux or even community based Helix

The video is viewable in Linux if that's what you're after. There's even a port of the official player to Linux! Sheesh, it's called Google

Use this. No malware and crap like it used to be with windows.

The technology is available right now for your own enjoyment! Why wait tomorrow?

http://www.real.com/ apparently has MP3 license for their Linux player. I remember reading a notice from them about that when RealPlayer 10 was first released.

If you purchase Suse, it's the default mp3 player. There are other players included in the distro (such as xmms), but realplayer is the default.

http://www.real.com/ apparently has MP3 license for their Linux player. I remember reading a notice from them about that when RealPlayer 10 was first released.

I download movies from Starz Ticket on RealOne all the time. They don't have the latest or the greatest, but at any given time there are over 300 movies (plus all the extras you get on DVDs), and that's more than enough to choose from. A typical (500-600MB) movie takes about 25 minutes to download on my 10Mbps OptimumOnline connection. I play them on my PC, turn off the monitor and switch to the TV out display. Plus I can watch a live Stream of Starz (the channel) with more latest movies that aren't available on demand. I pay only $13 bucks a month for that.

So now, if Blockbuster can make it this simple for me without asking me to shell out more bucks for Tivo service, I'd jump ship... otherwise I'm happy with next day home delivery of DVDs with all those deleted scenes.

Actually, right now, the largest online music distribution system is not run by a record company or a holding company.

It's run by a computer company, which to my knowledge doesn't own recording copyrights at ths time.

So is Napster, which used to be Roxio before they sold all their non-Napster products to Sonic. Real, Wal-Mart and Microsoft aren't exactly big record labels either -- more like software and retail.

Therefore, I don't get the argument that the present Internet music services aren't distributing independent music because they themselves own large quantities of content -- with the exception of Sony Connect, it's just not true, unless Wal-Mart has went out and bought some labels and I don't know about it.

I'm trademarking "irrational" and "imaginary" because...well, you know..."real" is already taken.

Microsoft put Real out of business! Wow! There really is justice in the world. No. Wait. Real look like they're still there to me. Damn! You had me all excited for a few moments.

http://forms.real.com/real/player/blackjack.html

Scroll to "Unix" and just see the platforms they support.

For a commercial quality media player, just go http://www.real.com/linux , to support their development if you can code real stuff will make into even 2mb Nokia 7650 running on Symbian 60, go https://www.helixcommunity.org/ , OPEN SOURCE except codecs (they don't want them end in Redmond)

I supported Real just because whatever OS I run, their player actually worked. Others like MS said simply "fsck off" (mplayer is not relevant)

Even Apple being asshole to their own mac customers, forget quicktime 7 if you don't have their latest OS (or 1 less) while they accept that awful anti multimedia OS, windows 2000!

Win2k wasn't intended for home you know :)