Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Helix DNA Client Source On Oct 29

Posted by timothy on from the early-hallowe'en-treat-perhaps dept.

nexex writes "Real's Helix DNA Client's source will be released on October 29. The Helix DNA client is available through both the RCSL and the RPSL licenses. More information on these licenses at their licensing page. Intial platform support is planned for Win32, OSX, and Linux. More technical details available here."

5 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Grounbreaking by ekrout · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Finally, a multi-platform media player backed by a large (think $$$) corporation with quite a big market share.

    Of course, it's not entirely "free", but it's still quite a nice step forward for the OSS/FS crowd.

    --

    If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
  2. But what is it? (Other than vaporware!) by shoppa · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The slashdot head article gave me no idea what "Helix DNA" could possibly be, so I go the Helix Home page and find out that it claims to do everything for everybody on every platform.

    But there's nothing to download right now.

    What does it actually do right now? Sounds like vaporware to me! To treat it as anything but pie-in-the-sky fantasy is a great disservice to all the things that actually exist right now...

  3. Banner Ad by stevejsmith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Pt...the banner ad on Slashdot told me that days before this story broke on Slashdot. ;-)

  4. Don't really know what to think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It looks like another of those "code our product for nothing, and then we'll make money out of it" licenses. I don't like that... not one bit.

    I wish they would get it, you show all the cards and play it right, or you don't play.

  5. Re:This is Real by benwaggoner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, RealNetworks has always had involvement in the standards process, and adopting standards-based technologies. Among high points:

    Major force behind creation of RTSP, and adopted it, replacing their former propritary streaming codec. This includes things like SDP (Session Description Protocol). A LOT of what QuickTime Streaming does is based on the standards RealNetworks pushed, and even Windows Media 9 is emphasizing RTSP over MMS.

    Early adopter and force behind SMIL, and first adopter of SMIL 2.0 in a streaming product (QuickTime Player is still using 1.0).

    First player bundled with MPEG-4 playback (via Envivio plugin).

    In talking with lots of RealNetworks employees, I think they understand that they can't monitize file formats anymore, and instead are focusing on building competitive products that can play outside their walled garden. I'm sure they hope that lots of commercial products will be based on Helix, ala MP3 encoders and players.

    --

    My video compression blog