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RealNetworks Releases Helix Source
teeheehee writes "According to this DigitalMass article, RealNetworks yesterday released source code for their audio and video players, with server-side and encoding software coming maybe in December. The code isn't complete, it's missing things like burning-to-cd routines; and they're getting flak from Microsoft calling it a ploy. Regardless, anytime a big company releases their source only good can come of it (for the public.)" Our story a few days ago had more information on the licensing, and gathered a couple of interesting posts from one user.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Can rejoice -- looks like this is what you were waiting for (assuming that this is what it looks like -- an open sourcing of the client codecs).
It was sort of a no-brainer. The video/audio codec is one area where the OSS community has kicked the crap out of the closed source community with free, technically excellent stuff like divx and vorbis. You want to compete with WMV, you need every edge you can get.
This is quite impressive. Apple's gone to a BSD core, Real open sourcing their software...
It's pretty much come down to the rest of the world using UNIX-like stuff/open source versus Microsoft. If this can't take down MS, then there's not a lot of hope for anything ever doing it.
May we never see th
posted this earlier today, with some more details. Personally, from what I understand about it, this is a Good Thing (TM), because RealNetworks Realplayer offerings on Linux have always been a bit...crap? (Yes I know, the codec itself is still closed source, but still)
I'm going over here and I don't know why!
RTSP and RTP are open protocols; did you try reading this and this?
First off, the CD burning routines aren't that important. There is plenty of Open Source code out there that can burn a decent CD. The media playing bits are the important and interesting part.
n se
Real appears to have two licenses available for use. One caters to the Open Source community and one seems to cater to businesses that aren't as keen on OSS.
Under the RPSL (the license intended for the OSS community) code based on the Helix source needs to itself be released under the RPSL, but it can also be dual licensed with a great deal of Open Source licenses including, among others, the BSD license, the (L)GPL, and Apple's source license. The full list can be found here:
https://www.helixcommunity.org/content/complice
It looks like they've got a really good start here for being a good citizen in the OSS community while not alienating potential customers who aren't comfortable with the concept yet. I still need to read the RPSL thoroughly, but it'll be interesting to see what happens with this.
Game... blouses.
So RealNetworks has released a portion of their code. The problem is that it's only a portion. That's not going to do much in the way of improving adoption of their audio format, especially considering the existance of MP3 and OGG formats, both of which offer much better quality.
I understand that the real issue is in the streaming media format, and sure, a few modifications to the code they have released will allow RealMedia streams on portable devices (can you imagine watching a news broadcast on your digital, internet-enabled, camera equiped cell phone?). However, if people don't like the license, or have difficulty understanding the code... or for that matter, have difficulty getting support in understanding the code, then all of this will turn out to be an excercise in futility for RealNetworks.
For years I avoided Real Player like the plague because of its highjacking of other formats, and then endless updates & "features" that are configured by default to connect back to Real.
I just re-installed it and learned it can play dvd's, it is easier than ever to unsubscribe from all the Real updates, and they are releasing most of their code which should add some helpful updates in the future.
I will give the functionality and the design of the new player a thumbs up, although it can't play all the formats yet.
Add the trial version of intervideo windvd 2000, then uninstall it keeping all the shared files and your real player will play more dvd's with less hassle.
According to the Salon article someone already linked, the Helix license doesn't fulfill the Free Software or Open Source definitions. Royalty-free redistribution is only permitted noncommercially. Also, according to another post, most of the Realplayer codecs--the only parts of Realplayer that are interesting at all--are still closed.
If you google for it, you'll find that WiMP has had a bit of good spyware in it. Quicktime keeps pestering me to register. I use winamp...when i'm in win32. Real at least has a linux player...not that i'd ever use it. *shrug*
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
Well, actually, I know exactly what you are talking about. I implemented an RTSP streaming server for my former employers. It supported, among others, the Real Player too.
I even figured out a work-around, and I vaguely remember what it is. It's been 3 years, so you'll have to excuse me if I get some minor details wrong.
IIRC, there was an undocumented MD5 sum which came along with the SETUP request, which needed another MD5 sum in the response to the SETUP request. Not responding with a sum, or with a faulty sum caused the player to puke out then and there.
Now, I figured out that this MD5 sum was based on the "Date" field in the request, and on nothing else. So what I did was take a trace of a session between a real server and a real player, and pulled the date and the sum out of that.
Using the same combination of date and sum, and all other fields with whatever values they are supposed to have got the player to acknowledge the server.
I am sorry I do not remember more of this. I might have some further info on this on my comp at home. Since it's been 3 years now, I think my NDA with my former employers should have expired too.
Try this out and see if it's helpful.
All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.
I'll skip past most of your whining, and focus on something you're just straight-up technically wrong about.
The RealVideo 9 codec has the best compression effciency (bang for the bit) of any publically available codec in a GM version (I'm discounting Windows Media Video 9, since it is still in beta, but that would be somewhat better in some cases).
Sure, it rarely looks perfect, but it does better than other codecs.
Bear in mind that going from uncompressed video to modem data rates is about a 12000:1 compression! Folks used to watching DivX don't often realize that those files use data rates several times that of typical real-time streaming even over broadband. Also, a file download can have huge data rate spikes that aren't as possible under real-time streaming.
My video compression blog
I realize you're not asking if it's been done before, but rather if it's included in the release. I'd almost put money on it not being included in the release, and here's why. A couple years ago Real shut down a little company for producing two products: StreamboxVCR and StreamboxRipper (could be one in the same, it's been a while). IIRC, the major reasons for doing this were twofold: they reverse-engineered the secret handshake, and you could save streamed media. Real realized that if people could easily save media streamed over their protocols, the big media companies would flock to a competitor (i.e., microsoft) and therefore shut the company down. I'm not sure if the fact that they reverse engineered the handshake actually had anything to do with the shutdown, but it was the previously missing key to saving streamed media. I highly doubt they'll just give it away now.
RealAudio (audio only) plugin is already available for XMMS.
See Input Plugins at http://www.xmms.org/plugins_input.html
rmxmms 0.5.1 / 4Front Technologies ( rmxmms at xmms.org)
Jun 23, 2001
RealAudio Input plugin for XMMS. With this plugin you are able to stream music on the Internet as well as play local files created for the RealMedia Player.
If you want to compile the source you'll need Real Systems SDK. To install the binary just copy libreal.so to ~/.xmms/Plugins/
Of course, stuff like RTSP: doesn't work (yet)...
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.