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TiVo To Support RealNetwork Formats
rtphokie writes: "The flurry of announcements coming form the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas has started with
RealNetworks ' anouncement that it had struck deals to include its technology in an array of microchips and devices, including TiVo PVRs. This is the latest move in an effort to expand from the desktop to consumer devices."
I dunno, but even on broadband connections I have never viewed an acceptable video stream based on a RealNetworks codec. I keep giving them a chance, downloading the new required viewer every other month, click 'No, cancel, no, exit' every time their viewer loads and prompts me to register. But their codecs suck.
On the exact same connection I can get near VHS quality streams (BBC online is a great example with their 300 Kbps feed) using windows media. I've tried many different Real feeds that claim the same bandwidth targets, and I've yet to see one that is watchable. I wish Real were better, but it not even in the same ballpark.
I think Real has done more to give streaming video a band name, than any other company out there.
Perhaps TiVO can figure out what's wrong.
-josh
or does it seem like Apple is severely slacking i this dept.?
QuickTime is great, in that it's a media layer, not just a format, so in theory Apple could be working alongside MS and Real while at the same time competing with them (from a technology standpoint, I am sure the marketing depts. of said companies would never let that happen).
RealPlayer is one of the lamest products I've ever seen. The image quality is bad, not counting the sound. Also, there's this version nightmare where a stream will NEVER play, no matter what version you have.
On top of that their windoze product annoys you enough to classify it as nagware, specially with the impertinent 'agent' or whatever that will not leave your system tray alone.
RealNetworks should just plain die and disappear. They'd be doing a public service.
What kind if system are you running? I assume a PC with Windows. If it's the 9x line, get rid of that and install 2000 or XP. Much better experience.
And if you're looking at 30-second QuickTime init times, it sounds like you need more RAM or a faster processor, or both.
It looks like your PC is the source of your performance gripe, not QuickTime itself.
But I have to agree about the upgrade reminder window. It's annoying as Hell. $30 took care of it sooner than later because of that. It was well worth the money in either case.
Yeah, I'll yell. RealNetworks is just plain evil. They make it almost impossible for the average user to find their free player. The last time I looked for someone, it was hidden on 1 line between two great big advertisements for 2 of their non-free players. They make it almost impossible for an average user to stop that *%^# Real Start Center from loading on boot. The warning messages make it sound like the computer won't work if you don't load start center. Plus that start center is the worst piece of software I've ever seen. If I have a user call in whose computer suddenly won't boot, odds are they just upgraded real player.
;)
Now I'm not against proprietary software and companies making money. But jeez, these people are as bad as the X10 ads.
Their software is slow, resource intensive, buggy and ad ware.
But let me tell you how I really feel. . .
What version of QuickTime is it? Get rid of QuickTime16 and QuickTime32 and grab QuickTime 5.0.2.
Upgrading DirectX helps too; QuickTime interfaces with DirectX for sound and graphics.