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.

Comments

It is a ploy, sort of, but we stand to benefit

[GreatDave]

Real has realized that if they do not embrace OSS, they will be swept under the rug by the combined might of M$ (Windows Media) and AOL (Nullsoft Winamp).

If we see a real open-source Real-compatible player out there soon, it will fill a huge void in the rich media world. Combined with the existence of WMA codecs, we will at last have a simple, spam-free player that just works. No one uses RealOne or WMP or even QuickTime because they want to. These players are slow, intrusive, proprietary, and often loaded with spyware. Bring on the OSS alternative!

The Real Player Secret Handshake

[pete-classic]

I was trying to add RTSP/RTP support to wget, but it turns out that Real uses a "secret handshake" to validate clients before xmiting data.

I am simply not smart enough (or at least not knowledgeable enough about debuggers and asm) to reverse engineer the protocol. I tried to check the Helix source a few weeks ago . . . but obviously it wasn't there.

Does anyone know if the handshake code is included in this source release?

-Peter

I smell a rat

[Dynedain]

Sounds to me like a last ditch effort to keep out of Chapter 11.

Real is known for proprietary products that take over a user's system.

Their most recent free player installs a system tray icon that can't be removed. Includes an auto-update feature that can't be disabled. And periodically uses that auto-update feature to spam the user.

Finding the free version of their player on their website is next to impossible.

The compression techniques are bulky and result in a lot of artifacting (both audio and video).

Its a bad product by a bad company and I refuse to install it on my systems. If there is something I want to see/hear and its only available as a RealMedia stream/file, then I don't download it.

Granted, in the long run, this may be a good thing because it is already a commonly used, established format, which is the kind of thing open-source software thrives on.

But like I said, I'm more inclined to believe that this is a last-ditch effort by RealNetworks to get their install base back up to the kinds of numbers they used to have.

Article at Salon

[No_Weak_Heart]

Here's some more coverage at Salon. Dig M$'s reaction:

"Real is using open source theatrics to try to change the perception among the developer community that they are hard to work with and too restrictive in their licensing terms," said Michael Aldridge, lead product manager of Microsoft's Windows Digital Media

This could be significant

[mao che minh]

All this bickering over the particulars of what was released and how useful it is (on the very day of the code's release, no less)....

We should stop and think about the fact that a major competitor in the multimedia playback and streaming market has embarked on it's promised initiative of open source development. This is significant. The opening of the code will allow highly adept open source hackers to "learn a few new tricks". If this "ploy", as some call it, is successful, then we can expect an increased amount of participation with the FOSS crowd from RealMedia. Such a thing could persuaude other companies to join the fun....

This is totally worthless

[Ogerman]

At least by my definitions, Real is neither "going the Open Source way" nor becoming a true community player. The code they have released does nothing that MPlayer and others can't already. We already have (usually superior) Open Source implementations of MP3, H.263, RTSP, RTP, RTCP, etc. and we don't need their cheezy bloated client frontend. Real makes money on their proprietary codec licensing and associated marketing / branding / etc. Although I believe this is a flawed business model, it's unlikely they will change anytime soon, though we can hope for the best. I think most of their protocols and codecs have been reverse enginneered and re-implemented by now anyways. If not, it's only a matter of time. Unless they get big into the whole DRM nonsense game..