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RealPlayer 7 Beta for Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the necessary-evil dept.

Dobromir Montauk wrote to us to say that Real has released the new RealPlayer 7 beta for glibc 2.0. The installation seems to be nicer than the last one, with support of mime types amongst other improvements. Now, if it doesn't crash my browser, we'll be getting somewhere.

6 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. RealPlayer and UNIX by bjb · · Score: 4
    It's a shame that when we want streaming media on the web, we have a choice of Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. The first choice is obvious to anyone reading this message, but the second choice is the shame; while the players work, they just never seem to be nearly as good as they are on any other platform. I guess to be more descriptive, I've been using RealPlayer on Solaris for about two years now, and I've never been that impressed with the output, and the Linux version is pretty much on par here. The video isn't very good, the controls don't work quite well (try double-sizing the window during playback .. still see video? I don't) and if you really want to nit-pick, try using the menu bar while your NumLock key is on!

    I also have the two media players installed on a WinNT box. I really don't like all the flashy extra garbage that RealPlayer has put in to their application, and honestly I think that is making their player less appealing to me. You can turn it all off, but I still don't like the fact that I've got 5MB (or whatever) of useless binary on my drive for crap I'll never use (yet, I keep getting informed to upgrade to the latest version so I can get my news ticker! ooh!).

    Beta or not, I hope the media software for the UNIX world improves. That's my rant, and I'm sticking to it!

    --

    --
    Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
  2. I'd rather have Linux streaming .ASX files by RayChuang · · Score: 4

    Folks,

    I think streaming .RA or .RAM Real files is not in the good idea department.

    Having played around with RealPlayer 7.0 beta for Windows 98, that program has way too many things running in the background in addition to streaming Real files. No thanks!

    Say what you want about Microsoft, but at least they got it right with Windows Media Player 6.4: it doesn't have things like channel selectors or advertisements running in the background streaming .ASX files. Also, by default .ASX files sound FAR better than .RA files on V.90 analog modem connections.

    In fact, it's actually far easier to get programming information on the .ASX file format than the Real .RA or .RAM format. Because of this, it will end up being quite a bit easier for someone to write a Linux client program that can stream .ASX files, and even possibly create .ASX files in a Linux-based streaming media server.

    If I were Microsoft right now, I'd make the .ASX file format specifications fully available, because this could put a kibosh on Real Networks.

    --
    Raymond in Mountain View, CA
  3. Some first impressions. by handorf · · Score: 4

    it's pretty good! installation was nice (using the non RPM version), and it went just fine, except for the fact that I wasn't installing as root so it couldn't add the helper files in /usr/local/bin that it wanted to. But that's ok, I'll fix it later.

    I Can watch RM files now!!! The earlier versions never worked for me at all. This one is very nice in comparison :-).

    To the guy worried about the file bindings, no, it doesn't screw anything up. I doubt it knows about the few file binding options you have under Linux. It seems to be very well behaved.

    Thanks, Real! It's finally usable and I for one really appreciate it!

    On another note, does anyone know what video codecs are included? Do we get the annoying Microsoft ones, too?

    --
    -- IANAEG - I am not an elder god.
  4. Alpha Beta Gamma Delta? by iCEBaLM · · Score: 4

    In a press conference held today by Real Inc., Vice President of Marketing Seymour Butts stated "Only 10 months after our Real Player G2 Alpha for Linux was released we unveil Real Player 7 Beta for Linux!"

    "We have made great strides to bring our newest stats grab, er, player to Linux, and we hope to be well received in the Linux community."

    When asked why no stable player has been released for Linux since version 5, Mr. Butts resolves "Actually the beta is the final version, we just can't say that or else we'd have to support it."

    "Our next version of the Linux Real Player will be 8 Gamma, followed by 9 Delta, 10 Echo and continuing on like that. It's a pretty ingenious way to get out of supporting a product, don't you think? Our lawyers thought it up."

    -- iCEBaLM

  5. But is the content disappearing? by Ears · · Score: 4

    I downloaded the player this morning, and installed it---it's quite sweet. Works great with ESD, sounds very good. I'm quite pleased with it.

    But there's an odd trend I've noticed... When I went to listen to the live stream of my NPR station with my spiffy new player, it couldn't play it because it was for Windows Media Player only. Doh! I wrote them to tell them that this was pretty frustrating (especially since I'm pretty sure they also used to webcast for Real player).

    But the fact is, this is becoming more and more common, I think. Sites are going to WMP-only based content. Is Microsoft trying to undercut their competition again by bundling software with the OS? (And is the DoJ paying attention?)

    --
    Happy Premise #3: Even though I feel like I might ignite, I probably won't.
  6. Alternative streaming servers by MrPoopyPants · · Score: 4

    There is shoutcast and icecast. (Try www.*.com for each or do a search.)

    We're using icecast on one of our Linux boxes at WMU to serve up the campus radio station (http://www.widr.org). It's streaming mp3 so you can use almost any client (xmms, mpg123, real, winamp, etc) to listen.