Slashdot Mirror


RealNetworks Releases Helix DNA Producer Source

Rob Lanphier writes "We just released the Helix DNA Producer, a multi-format media-encoding engine for creating streaming broadcasts, on-demand streaming content, and downloadable audio video files. It supports RealAudio, RealVideo and Ogg Vorbis, and includes many input and output filters, variable bitrate encoding support, option for two-pass encoding, audio gain control, Firewire support. Press release is here and a couple of stories are here(1) and here(2)." Here's a page that details the licenses under which the code can be obtained.

203 comments

  1. GPL violations? by I+Am+The+Owl · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Are they releasing their encoder as Open Source? I'd like to see the source, because otherwise, with including Ogg support and everything, they look like they're violating the GPL.

    We better stop them fast before they steal any more of our freedom.

    --

    --sdem
    1. Re:GPL violations? by Enry · · Score: 5, Informative

      OGG isn't GPL'd. It has a BSD license.

    2. Re:GPL violations? by c0dedude · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but even so,if we dont allow (big evil) corperations to use the .ogg it'll never catch on more than it already has, the fact that it's being included more in things like this could be a good thing. And besides, the Xiph.org foundation still controls the open standard.

      --
      Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
    3. Re:GPL violations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      OGG is not GPL for this very reason.

    4. Re:GPL violations? by dozer · · Score: 2
      If you bothered to click on the "Here's a page that details the licenses" link at the top of the page...

      RealNetworks Public Source License (RPSL) - the no-cost open source license that requires the developer to make his/her entire work available under the RPSL or a combination of the RPSL and a compatible open source license.

      It's viral, like the GPL. Other than that, at first glance, it seems OK.

    5. Re:GPL violations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Unless they've recently changed things they are open sourcing everything aside from the realplayer 7/8/9 codecs themselves (which means they open source the player, the encoding software, the helix framework). These codecs will be available as binaries, and released under a licence that permits free use. The licence cannot be revoked, unlike mp3.

    6. Re:GPL violations? by robla · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, what he said. Trust me, our lawyers are *way* too paranoid to let us screw up like that. ;)

    7. Re:GPL violations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a massive difference between that and the GPL. Under the GPL, you don't have to license source you write as modifications to GPL software under the GPL unless you're going to distribute it with the GPL software in the same package. In other words, you can write all the closed-source patches to Emacs that you want.

      Under this license, you have no choice, you must license and distribute your code under the RPSL. It doesn't say that if you release your code, you must allow use under the RPSL (a la GPL).. you must release your code under the RPSL.

    8. Re:GPL violations? by aelfgar · · Score: 1

      If you notice, there aren't too many companies who use KDE. Atleast, to my knowledge most use GNOME simply because its GPL and Qt has its own weird liscence. Companies have to be able to use GPLed stuff because GPL means its open to everyone!

  2. yay for Real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is great! Maybe now we can see better support for FreeBSD.

  3. RPSL takes away freedom by I+Am+The+Owl · · Score: 2, Funny
    I am stunned that Real Networks would want to take such a viral model as the GPL and incorporate it into their own source licensing schemes. What could motivate a company to do such a thing?

    They have a moral obligation to release their code under the BSD license, so that it is free for all to use and we don't get the jackbooted source code police busting down your door after trying to make an honest buck selling your own improvements to their source code. What a bunch of anti-innovation socialists.

    --

    --sdem
    1. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      >> I am stunned that Real Networks would want to take such a viral model as the GPL and incorporate it into their own source licensing schemes. What could motivate a company to do such a thing?

      Because the only thing worse than not being able to profit from a work, is seeing someone else profit from it.

      They'd go absolutely bonkers if someone else wrapped it up in a nice, pretty, seamless UI and made a buck.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by kubrick · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They have a moral obligation to release their code under the BSD license . . . What a bunch of anti-innovation socialists.

      Nice troll. They wrote the code, they can do what they want with it.

      --
      deus does not exist but if he does
    3. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I am stunned that Real Networks would want to take such a viral model as the GPL and incorporate it into their own source licensing schemes. What could motivate a company to do such a thing?
      Real are getting eaten alive by Microsoft in the same way Netscape was (ie, microsoft ships competing software with the system). Real will lose unless they get their framework popular, and as there aren't any good quality free streaming video codecs (theora isn't ready, h.323 isn't low bandwidth) Real actually has a chance to survive. The best way analogy is the Mozilla Organisation.

      BSD would not protect them from Microsoft.

      See my AC comment (#4850475) for how much Real is actually giving away though.

    4. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Nice troll"... nice troll? Well don't you have low standards. For starters, be more subtle than by saying that there's a moral obligation to release software under the BSD licence.

    5. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Quarters · · Score: 2

      we don't get the jackbooted source code police busting down your door after trying to make an honest buck selling your own improvements to their source code.

      Gee, thanks, you little theiving bastard. How do you consider selling someone else's code as your own to be "making an honest buck?"

    6. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Real actually has a chance to survive. The best way analogy is the Mozilla Organisation.

      You mean the strategy that took a 40% marketshare and reduced it to less than 1%?

    7. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Did you not read the sentence you just quoted? He said "improvements", you fucking moron. There'd be no point in selling the original product, because it'd be available for free. People would be selling their own work built on top of the software. One can hardly be a thief if they are selling their own work. In fact, I'd go as far as to assert that the true thieves are the ones who expect companies to improve open source software at cost and then give it away for free, ala Richard Stallman and his FSF kooks.

      This is supposed to prevent people from having to reinvent the wheel and all, but I guess the GPL is all about making people reimplement things (usually poorly) to comply with some stupid license.

    8. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True dat, but what's the alternative? I think they would have lost that anyway.

    9. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe. Netscape 5 + Gecko was in Alpha when the whole Mozilla thing started 3 years ago. Going open source required them to chuck much of that code.

      Getting a major release out the door within 6 months instead of 3 years would have stemmed much of the bleding.

    10. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Well, that was because Netscape 4 had turned into such an awful piece of code.

      Not that I think Realplayer is any different.

      Good point.

    11. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by seanadams.com · · Score: 2

      They have a moral obligation to release their code under the BSD license

      Dude, this is Slashdot. You have to lay the sarcasm on just a little less thick.

    12. Re:RPSL takes away freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Viral" as in "not allowing Microsoft to steal the code". Why would Real want to allow Microsoft to steal their code? Real has enough problems with Microsoft already, they sure wouldn't want the next version of Windows Media Player to be able to play realaudio and realvideo files.

  4. With the amount of spyware that Real is spreading by saskboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Real already knows my genenetic code they have so much junk watching me when I install Real software with default options. They've probably figured out a way to have my monitor probe my brain.

    Paranoia? I don't think so...

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  5. i wonder... by Scaebor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One of my main problems with realplayer (and other real products) is the fact that it dumps all manner of ad- and spy-ware on my computer whenever i install it. Therefore, i wonder if the lisence includes stipulations about including advertising software despite the rest of the project being open source. Other than a scheme such as this one, I can't see how a company with a financial scheme like Real could get much benefit out of this arrangement. After all, I find it hard to imagine a large company such as this one just trying to do the Right Thing by the open source people.

    --
    "Hey brother Christian with your high and mighty errand / your actions speak so loud I can't hear a word you're saying"
    1. Re:i wonder... by tempest303 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think part of the whole point of releasing the source is to allow people to build their own tools, sans spyware, et al.

      I'm what some might call a GPL "bigot", but I still think what Real is doing is definitely a Good Thing. Who would you rather have at the forefront of the streaming media industry? Would we really prefer the other major player in this battle instead?

      I'm no fan of adware or lame popups, but if forced to choose, I'll take Real over Redmond any day, thanks.

    2. Re:i wonder... by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 1

      That's one of the best parts of it. As far as I could tell, there's nothing intrusive in the client at least, or at least that I could see with a quick glance. Annoyingly I couldn't get it to compile anyway, but I think it has great potential to be the best media player available for windows. Mplayer pretty much has it beat on the linux front since the recent QT S3 and WM9 support means it can play every format and codec I've ever heard of. But a player that can handle even almost all formats, propritary or otherwise stands a very good chance of gaining ground with windows users.Sure winamp with the apropriate plugins can act as a cover over realplayers dlls, but it's enough of a trouble to get everything set up that I believe a lot of people would rather just have one player able to handle everything from the moment of instalation. I mentioned to a friend just how barebones the current client gui build is, and I was surprised to get an instant request to burn it for her next time she was over.

      And I think that's the reason they're willing to go this route. Windows users have pretty much let out a collective shout that they're not going to put up with realplayer anymore, and this gives them a chance to regain users enough that they can sell support and server software. Though the latter is just speculation on my part.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    3. Re:i wonder... by Soko · · Score: 5, Interesting

      OK.

      I did a quick read of the RPSL and there's nothing at all in there about advertising, or the requirement thereof. What that means (at first blush anyway) is if there's code in Helix that you don't like, you are free (even encouraged) to rip it out and then give the changes back to Real. Problem?

      I thought it hard to imagine that Netscape would open thier code up too - but here I am typing away on Moz. No ads, no crap - just a browser, and a fantastic one at that. Tried Netscape 7 recently? It's almost as bad as Real 8.0 was for marketing and ads.

      I would imagine that Real is trying to shift thier business model - capitalise on the smarts of the developer community, and cash in on support and consulting. Y'know - the code lives, we know it best and Microsoft can't kill us anymore. Better chance at survival that way than trying to pry WMP 9.0 out of Longhorn.

      Real has been in Microsoft's sights for a while - and since OSS seems to be armour plating against Bill & Co. in the minds of the IT business community, this makes buisness sense. (OK, sort of.) Who said "The enemy of my enemy is my friend.", anyway?

      Soko

      --
      "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
    4. Re:i wonder... by parliboy · · Score: 2
      Who said "The enemy of my enemy is my friend.", anyway?

      The small webcasters, right before the larger ones screwed them over.

      --
      "You're never ready, just less unprepared."
    5. Re:i wonder... by cristofer8 · · Score: 1

      And yet, amazingly, I still see tons of people using Netscape 7, having never heard of Mozilla. I even told one person about mozilla and phoenix, and after trying them, they decided to stick with netscape. Guess brand name does mean something after all.

    6. Re:i wonder... by CounterZer0 · · Score: 2

      Sun Tzu - The Art Of War.

    7. Re:i wonder... by TonyMillion · · Score: 1

      I think you'll find its because Real are being beaten into submission by microsoft. And quite frankly there is no market for them, between Apples QuickTime and microsofts DirectShow architectures there is no need for an additional '3rd party to the operating system' media layer, that suffers from terrible bugs, and general slowness.

      For windows, microsoft makes a lot of the DirectShow code available to developers, as does Apple, Real have been forced into this position by the fact they have an inferior product.

    8. Re:i wonder... by thumperward · · Score: 1

      It has the same potential as any other open source media player. Except that my understanding was that, in a similar vein to Mozilla, Real were actually opening the source of their proprietary product in order to improve it. The current Windows binary release won't even play stock Real video clips for me, and I'm assuming it's been written from scratch.

      So essentially, what you get is an open source media player which isn't very great just now, under a special Real license, which can maybe play proprietary RealMedia files when it gets better. And you have an encoder, which is under a special Real license, which can use a proprietary Real codec to create proprietary Real files.

      so to recap:

      a) it's under a lovely license which makes you tick a lot of boxes to get anywhere.

      b) it doesn't let you do anything with Real content that you can't do with their current proprietary player / encoder.

      c) it doesn't appear to be built from the current apps either, so you haven't just got an extensible adware-free version of RealOne.

      Oooh oooh, and

      d) to cap it off, the intent is to make people use the proprietary Real codecs (which aren't, I believe, freely licensed for large-scale streaming etc.) to encode their media with.

      What's the point in building yet another open-source media app, just to make proprietary files?

      - Chris

    9. Re:i wonder... by WWWWolf · · Score: 1
      I think part of the whole point of releasing the source is to allow people to build their own tools, sans spyware, et al.

      Who cares about spyware? What about general user experience? =)

      My own experience is that RealPlayer in Linux is far from good. But with Helix DNA Player out there, why isn't anyone bolting that to Xine?

      This way, I'd go on any web site that's offering Realvideo content, say open it, Xine would open it - and

      1. have a real full screen mode with Xv hardware scaling (RP8 only supports maximized window, leaving stuff on the edges, and when it decides to resize the window, you're out of luck),
      2. Have working playlist support - that is, one with auto-advance (so that the clueless sites like xenu.net that chop a two-hour program into 10 segments are actually viewable without getting up to start the next segment),
      3. have a LIRC support (no need to get up at all), and
      4. Just have a better UI, dammit!

      I'd so much like to watch RealVideo with the same video player that I use for everything else...

      ...or someone to give a gigantic donation to xenutv.com so that they get fat net connection and ability to publish their stuff as MPEG =)

    10. Re:i wonder... by prgammans · · Score: 1

      First like most /.ers INAL.

      so do correct me if i'm wrong but what i don't like about this license and the difference i see between it and the MPL is..

      3(b) You grant to Licensor and its subsidiaries a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable license, under Your Applicable Patent Rights and other intellectual property rights owned or controlled by You, tomake, use, sell, offer for sale, import, reproduce, display, perform, distribute, modify or have modified (for Licensor and/or its subsidiaries), sublicense and distribute Your Modifications, in any form and for any purpose, through multiple tiers of distribution.

      Ok they can sell the code you/we write that extends there code, This i don't have any problem with as long as we get equal rights. But you can't sell any dirived works.

      4.1 You must cause any Derivative Work that you distribute, publish or Externally Deploy, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Covered Code or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License and no other license except as provided in Section 4.2. You also must make Source Code available for the Derivative Work under the same terms as Modifications, described in Sections 2 and 3, above.

      I can see that they don't want you just adding one line of code the selling there product. The problem comes that they then could take 1000's of lines of code you/we have written do extend there code and sell them.

      I have no solution, how does the mozilla group counter this problem.

    11. Re:i wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speaking as a member of the Helix Community, I'd just like to say that if you're not happy with the state of RealONE and its "spyware" (all of which is opt-in, btw) - if you take the time to join the community you can download the Helix DNA binaries which essentially is a player you can download (2Mb) which has nothing but player functionality.

      It is heavily in beta, but if you sign in, and help it to be refined you can make the player of your dreams if you wish. Its that easy.

  6. Yeah, Peter....What's Happening... by mdechene · · Score: 4, Funny

    Didn't you get the memo?

    That was the entire point of their Helix Project.......

    So if you could just put the new cover sheet on, that'd be great........And I'll see you get another copy of the memo.

    --

    Karma: Not Particularly Funny.
  7. Re:11th comment HA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CHA CHING!

    Send payment to 135 Luther College
    Regina, SK

    But if you work for Real, you'd know that already, wouldn't you? ^_^

  8. How about the server? by quinto2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is there any Free streaming media server that is robust and supports open codecs? I'd even be willing to make some compromises. Of the proprietary codecs, Real is the best. Is there any free way to stream it? Darwin Streaming Media is no good because it only supports proprietary codecs and the inferior ones (in installed base at least) at that.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post
    1. Re:How about the server? by fib3r · · Score: 1

      Real codecs are not that good. You can use Windows Media Encoder to do live streaming. It's free, but proprietary. Free (non proprietary) video codecs are kind of rare, but for audio, MP3 and OGG streaming is the best.

    2. Re:How about the server? by robla · · Score: 5, Informative

      Our server will be released early next year. It's in the FAQ.

    3. Re:How about the server? by damiam · · Score: 5, Informative

      Icecast and Quicktime Streaming Server are both Free. Icecast does Ogg, and QT does MPEG4.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    4. Re:How about the server? by quinto2000 · · Score: 2

      I think I'll stay away from WMV, since I'm targetting installation on a Sparc server. I forgot to mention that part, but it explains why Free is crucial.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un post
    5. Re:How about the server? by quinto2000 · · Score: 2

      Clearly you didn't read my post. I said that I wanted something with an installed base, and the key was streaming media -- not just audio. Icecast is only for audio, and the Apple product I think you're calling QT (really Darwin Streaming Media Server) I had already ruled out due to the a) lack of installed base for QT and b) patent on MPEG4.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un post
    6. Re:How about the server? by robla · · Score: 5, Informative

      One thing I should clarify now....we are planning to release our server software under the terms of the RCSL only (our community source license) rather than RPSL (our open source license). The client and producer have both been released under RPSL/RCSL dual license.

      This may impact your definition of a "free" server. However, the source code will be available to the community in the same way that our client and producer software are.

    7. Re:How about the server? by G-funk · · Score: 2

      So you're after a free server, for some maaaagical format that's both widely popular and free of patents?

      Real is the crappest video I've seen, and they're not anwywhere near as popular as they like to say they are, because even the proverbial joe sixpacs and mothers I know loath their software and ask me to help them kill it.

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    8. Re:How about the server? by quinto2000 · · Score: 2

      I like the fact that I can play back Real media files on Irix and Solaris. It's an important feature for me. Real is definitely the media software with the widest availability/installed base ratio.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas un post
    9. Re:How about the server? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, than you prefer windows media? quicktime/sorenson or Quicktime mpeg4?

      As uneducated you are, I have to add those are streaming formats. Don't be more funny saying DivX/mpeg-1/2 etc.

      Same time, check download.com numbers...

    10. Re:How about the server? by Ilgaz · · Score: 2

      Well, hard to explain that probably WinXP dual booter loving windows media.

      No need to reply though, those "anti real" karma whores are everywhere. When you call Real spyware, you are 133t :)

      I am waiting for the day MS directly links windows media to winxp etc kernel, UNDOCUMENTED and those WineX ones left in cold.

      Its real funny that Real is called spyware at once, while its more funny that those people seems never installed *nix realplayer, which is completely standalone product...

      OMG, my browser sends my screen resolution, it must be spyware! endings this comment.. ;-)

    11. Re:How about the server? by Ilgaz · · Score: 2

      Thats a joke right? Or you are a troll? Or you need eyeglasses?

      http://www.realnetworks.com/company/press/releas es /2002/keylab_rv9.html --> That is a press release

      Or go ask anyone (dozens of millions of them) why they chose to download Realplayer while "free" wmedia exists on their system.

      Oh also, I want to view video on my Nokia 7650, only Realplayer supports it, soon.

      Where is multi platform support for Windows Media? Lets say, they did it... Where is multi platform support for the intended audience?

      Slashdot, please stop posting Real headlines to frontpage. Guy speaks about a major breakthrough on media serving, for us, media workers, damn article is filled with spyware shouters etc.

    12. Re:How about the server? by G-funk · · Score: 2

      pppht... karma whore... my karma goes up and down like a whore's draws, but it always settles on 50, i don't think i really need to whore all that much.

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    13. Re:How about the server? by Skjellifetti · · Score: 2

      Slashdot, please stop posting Real headlines to frontpage. Guy speaks about a major breakthrough on media serving, for us, media workers, damn article is filled with spyware shouters etc.

      Releasing the source is a wonderful step on the part of Real. But hassling them over spyware is fair, too. Few companies or people do everything perfectly and both praise and complaint are useful for moving them in a better direction.

    14. Re:How about the server? by Ilgaz · · Score: 2

      problems is , guys have never been spyware. They have never sent your private info to servers etc.

      Steve Gibson (the nanoprobe guy) tells its spyware, because it sends your system info to real when you are a _registered customer_ (not user) and click "help"

      Well, hard to mention on slashdot, being anti-real is a tradition here while "others" (wmedia, apple etc) didn't even care to code a native app for *nix.. Anyways

    15. Re:How about the server? by Ilgaz · · Score: 2

      well same here, that +2 shows you have good karma already...

      So how much did you get paid by microsoft to bitch about Real format?

    16. Re:How about the server? by Bert64 · · Score: 2

      It`s not free atall, you need a non-free os to run the encoder and server, and you need a non-free os to act as a client. This is like the free mudflaps and carpets you get with a ford car, theyre not free atall because theyre useless without a ford to put them in.
      What`s more, your actively shutting out the increasing number of users who are not using windows clients.
      Real may not be perfect, but atleast they provide a player for a wide range of systems.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    17. Re:How about the server? by G-funk · · Score: 2

      Who needs to be paid? I can't believe I'm having this conversation with a fellow /.er... the video quality is terrible compared to quicktime or mediaplayer, the software is horrendous, and sticks icons and system tray crap all over the place. Personally I don't like any of the competing video playback software packages, but as crap as it is, media player wins by a mile, simply because like quicktime the quality is good, and unlike quicktime you can view movies full-screen.

      --
      Send lawyers, guns, and money!
  9. RealNetworks can kiss my ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here's a company that could have OWNED streaming media, but couldn't see past their own noses to do what was best for their customers. They are hanging on by a thread by making deals with MLB, but as for the consumer market, they are all but dead.

    No self-respecting geek would install RealNetworks products on anything.

    1. Re:RealNetworks can kiss my ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Real might be spamming purveyors of bloatware pop-up software, but for low-bandwidth streaming audio like talk radio or NPR, they can't be beat.

      I sorta see this open source thing as a cry for help: Please Open Sores Dudes! Please remove all the pop-ups and advertisements from our player. We've tried and we just end up adding more. We just can't resist. Help! We've fallen and we can't get up!

  10. Just for the record by djupedal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...I grew tired of the constant barrage of Real Player updates long ago. It seems they only provide and use thier products as customer info gathering/profiling tools.

    I avoid the use of any 'Real' audio components, both client and server related. There are always other choices.

    1. Re:Just for the record by djupedal · · Score: 2

      Troll? Must be a Real fan that can't handle the truth...tight ass :)

  11. everytime a new player is announced.. by ejaw5 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Does it support Ogg Vorbis?....oh wait it does!!

    --

    $cat /dev/random > Sig
    1. Re:everytime a new player is announced.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Noo! Another thing we /.'ers can't whine about!

  12. Great by ArchieBunker · · Score: 0, Troll

    Just what I want, a shitty encoder for the worlds shittiest piece of software on windows. Tons of spyware and hidden services that ask you if you want to disable it 2 times. Its damn near impossible to find the freeware player link on their site. It took a google search to locate it. I avoid their horrible software and choose windows media or even quicktime (nagware) whenever possible.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0



      1. The lates helix codecs kick ass.

      2. Only 80 year old grandmothers can't find the free real player.

  13. Re:11th comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Alan Ralsky, 6747 Minnow Pond Dr., West Bloomfield, MI 48322, Thank You.

  14. Re:11th comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems a lot of folks have that address memorized now. Funny.

  15. Beautiful... WIPO would be proud by fib3r · · Score: 0, Troll

    May Goatse rest his soul

  16. Sad but true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember back in like 96 when RealPlayer 2.0 came out... it was incredible. But now, I dread having to play anything that's in any sort of "RealMedia" format.

  17. Where I meant to link by robla · · Score: 4, Informative

    I meant to link to this Infoworld story. Oh well, one day I'll learn how cut 'n paste works under X. ;)

  18. Beats booting into Windows... by handsomepete · · Score: 1

    I always keep a copy of RealPlayer 8.0 for Linux on hand for the good sites [obFlash warning] that offer "both" kinds of streaming - Real (Country) *and* Windows Media Player (Western).

    I have no self-respect.

  19. Re:11th comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ka-CHING!

    Can you paypal?

  20. And that means.... by Goonie · · Score: 2

    The BSD license basically says that "Provided you acknowledge you've used our code, you can do *anything* you like with it". That includes including it in closed source apps.

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
  21. real by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, but does anyone use real format anymore? I thought most indie music streamers used MP3.

    Glad to see this software supports Ogg Vorbis though. I have half my music in Mp3 and the other half in Ogg.

    They didn't mention BSD or GPL license though... hopefully it isn't some BS source license like the microsoft "shared source", that is useless to the OSS community..

    So long as it doesn't have any spyware or adware in it, the source license is reasonable, and the quality is OK, this is probably a Good Thing(tm).

    --
    I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    1. Re:real by rock_climbing_guy · · Score: 1

      The Rush Limbaugh Radio Show is streamed in Real as well as Windows Media, so someone doesuse Real for something.

      --
      Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
    2. Re:real by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 1

      Yes, but does anyone use real format anymore?

      Quite a few radio stations seem to. This american life and the next big thing in particular I listen to on a regular basis, and I'm happy to say both use only real.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    3. Re:real by adamfranco · · Score: 0

      Yes, some do. I work for a university language technology lab and we are constantly digitizing language instructional videos and streaming them with Real.

      Up untill today we have been searching for a non-proprietary/future-proof format, but this release of code might just make Real worth keeping, if only because of the future-proofing aspect of the encoder now being open-sourced.

      --
      "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
    4. Re:real by everyplace · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but I mean, come on. Who really listens to the Rush Limbaugh show?

      Doesn't that effectively cancel this out, meaning that no-one actually uses Real for anything?

    5. Re:real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I could spare the bandwidth, my /dev/null would listen to him all day (now if only I could make that pipe connect closer to his mouth)

    6. Re:real by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 1

      If only I had more hours in the day to listen to Rush.

      1. People who have a brain in their head

      2. People who don't appreciate politics which are polluted with silly liberal FUD.

      That's who listens.

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    7. Re:real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I shouldn't even have to say this but: pr0n? I mean duh, sometimes you can only get that freaky stuff in Real format. When you're getting your freak on, the ugliness of Real Player isn't going to stop you from downloading those Real Media pr0n files.

      BT

    8. Re:real by thumperward · · Score: 1
      hopefully it isn't some BS source license like the microsoft "shared source", that is useless to the OSS community..


      The encoder's license isn't. You get to wait until the server until you see the - what's it called - RSCL, which is the key to making sure they make money out of this endeavour.

      - Chris
    9. Re:real by WWWWolf · · Score: 1
      Yes, but does anyone use real format anymore?

      In music downloads, everyone wants MP3. In video downloads, everyone wants MPEG or DivX. In net radio, Real is alive (unfortunately), but Shoutcast and its derivatives, based on MP3 or Ogg, are rising, of course. In streaming video, Real is still doing well. (And are there actually working streaming cross-platform video? And by cross-platform I mean "Has a native Linux client", too - so Quicktime doesn't count =)

  22. Re:11th comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    W00T Send it to the Canadian government to give away to hippies and commies. BOOO CHRETIEN!!!!!

  23. No. by DAldredge · · Score: 1

    The whole point of releasing the source if so Real can get some good/free PR. Otherwise why are the important parts provided in object code form only?

    1. Re:No. by 31+Flavas · · Score: 1

      Uhm.. because they are not their own to begin with? The video and audio are licensed from others.

  24. Real is eeeevil! by GimmeFuel · · Score: 1

    Anyone else think it's an insult to an good open codec like Ogg for an evil company like Real to be using it? More and more support for Ogg is great, but why do they do it when they already have their own proprietary codec? This seems similiar to Microsoft announcing that its workers can use Linux if they want to. There are other problems, too. Suppose Ogg becomes the new audio standard like at least some of us are hoping it will. If Ogg is supported by Real apps, then newbies might start using those Real apps to play their Oggs. This has the potential of associating Ogg with some bad stuff, like Real's spyware.

    1. Re:Real is eeeevil! by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      Your right.

      OGG should be kept in the dark recesses of obscurity, and never used in any commercial projects.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:Real is eeeevil! by GimmeFuel · · Score: 1

      I'm not against allowing Ogg to be commercialized. What I *am* against is having companies like Real do it. They have proven time and again that they can't be trusted. Ask yourself what Real has to gain from this. I can't imgaine them wanting to help the OSS movement, so therefore they must stand to profit from it. How will they profit? Only time will tell. Will the way they profit give Ogg a bad name? I think so.

    3. Re:Real is eeeevil! by GarfBond · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Umm, your logic doesn't work. MP3 is the current de facto standard for compressed audio. RealJukebox and RealOne both play MP3. Does *anybody* associate MP3 with Real? No!

      If Ogg was the defacto standard, more people than Real would be supporting it. Real's a good step towards further usage of Ogg.

    4. Re:Real is eeeevil! by fenix+down · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but mp3 was arround for years before Real began supporting it. And it was taking popularity from mp3's user base, not the other way around.

      There's a big group out there for which Windows Media Player, Quicktime, and Real are all they know. Between those three, you can play any media file you find, so there's no reason for most people to care about anything else.

      That means having Real support Ogg will make it a format that you can reasonably expect most people to be able to play, but it also has the danger of making it into "that Real format" in a lot of people's eyes. And a lot of people (even drone-like users) hate Real's guts. Probably the userbase makes up for the hate, but it's something to think about.

    5. Re:Real is eeeevil! by juhaz · · Score: 1

      OF COURSE they want to profit from it.

      If you are against someone profiting from ogg, then you are strictly against its use in commercial setting, no matter what you claim.

      Care to give an example of company you WOULD LIKE to see use ogg? And someone with enough userbase to make any difference. Microsoft?

    6. Re:Real is eeeevil! by dknj · · Score: 2

      Shout MP3 around people and they will most probably think Winamp

      -dk

  25. Story doesn't belong on front page by phr2 · · Score: 2

    There is no source code released for the only interesting part of the system, which is the Real codecs. And the source that was released is under a crappy non-libre license. I guess it's an ok story for the developer section but putting it on the front page lens RealMedia Corp undeserved legitimacy.

    1. Re:Story doesn't belong on front page by robla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are a *lot* of "interesting" parts to a streaming media system, of which the codecs comprise a small portion. On the client side, there's file format readers, the protocol engine, the audio device management, video alphablending, and an object model to tie it all together. On the producer side, there's input and output filters, variable bitrate encoding support, option for two-pass encoding, audio gain control, Firewire support.

      As for the license, what's wrong with it?

    2. Re:Story doesn't belong on front page by 31+Flavas · · Score: 1
      As for the license, what's wrong with it?

      I don't think I can get myself into any by saying the majority of Slashdot readers are very quick to judge....

  26. Re:A Song for the Failure Guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    begin 644 ice_ice_baby.ogg
    M3V=G4P`"``````````#S\>1F`````+9 QLF`!'@%V;W)B:7,``````D2L````

    Enjoy. The first few bytes.

  27. Distribution and Support by wray · · Score: 1

    From reading this FAQ, it appears that there is no problem with packaging this in a distribution (RH 8.1 w/ Helix?). However, I was unable to find a detailed list of supported codecs. I saw that it supported Real, and Ogg, but what I mean is, How does it compare to Real One Player (Currently not available for linux). Version 8 is the latest I think.

    --
    Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!
    1. Re:Distribution and Support by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 1

      Realone is available for linux, but only as an alpha release hidden somewhere in the download section for real8. It still drags a bit behind in some ways compared to 8 though, which makes me very happy to see a mostly open source release of a player from real.What I think it needs most are things I think even I'd be able to handle if I got the time. A new qt or gtk gui (wxwindows would be perfect I think), playlist support, and a few other little matters. Actually being able to cut and paste into real player would be a very nice change!

      As far as codec support, I'm not positive on this count but I believe it has support for real audio/video 9.

      --
      Everything will be taken away from you.
    2. Re:Distribution and Support by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Let's try again, don't we?

      Or wait, why don't you just go to www.real.com and look for yourself.

      RealOne for linux is _RIGHT THERE_ on the main page. Not only that, but it also links straight to the (admittedly, installer, don't like those when package management has been invented) binary file on http. No link trackers and no registration pages. Real 9 codec updates are on another straight link. In a tarball, this time.

      It's not only helluwa lot easier to find than any of the previous releases, it's also easier to find than the current windows version!

      Also the player itself looks MUCH better than previous Real crap (bit too XP/QT'ish look if you ask me, but anything is better than those old ones...).

    3. Re:Distribution and Support by wray · · Score: 1

      Actually, I have this version, and it is not the latest thing that windows has... It cannot do all of the same things. Check the version (8.0.3.421)

      --
      Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!
    4. Re:Distribution and Support by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Well, no, you don't have that version then.

      It claims to be version 9.0.7.151 (after quite a clickfest, sucker is almost always segfaulting when I try to get the about dialog)

  28. Re:A Song for the Failure Guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I seem to have your version! Next few bytes:

    M`````_0!``````"X`4]G9U,`````````````\_' D9@$````)Z.:I$6______
    M________________`W9O<F)I<Q T```!8:7!H+D]R9R!L:6)6;W)B:7,@22`R
    M,#`R,#<Q-P,`` ``2````=')A;G-C;V1E9#UM<#,[,3$R$@```'1I=&QE/4EC
    M 92U)8V4@0F%B>1(```!A<G1I<W0]5F%N:6QL82!)8V4!!79O<F )I<RE"0U8!
    M``@``(`B3"##@-"050``$```@*@V%&NIL=8:8 Z$H1M1B:C'&&&/C+$:08HLQ

    :)

  29. A step in the right direction by karmawarrior · · Score: 0, Troll
    It's good to see Real opening up some of their previously entirely proprietry platform. Of course, it's still the case that a significant amount remains locked as closed source, specifically the codecs. Real's problem is that it cannot completely unlock what it has because there is no level playing field - Microsoft is under no such similar obligation to unlock their codecs, and nor is Apple/Soroscen. This leaves those who have copyrighted materials - both those who create and those who use - in a dillemma because they are effectively prevented from using the material they have without the permission of the codec producer - note, not the artist, producer, or copyright owner, but the owner of a tool involved in redistributing the content in an efficient form.

    There are ways of fighting this kind of lock in. One is to produce open codecs that, byte for byte, deliver equivalent or better quality to those in the "private domain". This is what the Ogg project is trying to do. Indeed, it's what the MPEG project is doing - the specs are open in the sense that anyone can look at them and create readers and writers, although as detractors are quick to point out, those who do implement the MPEG codecs and share their work, commercially or non-commercially, with third parties, are usually obligated to agree to pay royalties. Still, this is a situation infinitely better than the Apple/MS/Real situation.

    Defeating this quagmire of content locked by the tools that distribute it will not happen by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

    You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that open, non-proprietry, codecs are important to you - that you should have the right to control that that you store on your own disks. Tell them that you appreciate Real Network's efforts in this area, but that in the absense of full disclosure, you will have to find less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how arbitrary file format locking destroys all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on his or her policy on open codecs.

    You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

    --
    KMSMA (WWBD?)
    1. Re:A step in the right direction by alienw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      WTF does your senator have to do with open codecs? That's like writing to your senator asking him/her to make everyone use Linux. Besides, the people who make the codecs are entitled to their work, and shouldn't have to release it if they don't want to. Patents are another issue, and possibly the most important one, but your post didn't mention that.

    2. Re:A step in the right direction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      WTF does your senator have to do with open codecs?
      Should any government favour one company's product? No. They favour open standards.

      This is one of them.

  30. CHOO CHOO TRAIN! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Follow the train, dude! :P

    MQAACC#'&&&.,,<888R`T9!4```0`0#'J%9.>0LPYY]P 8IHU1VBG'.>?<&,6)
    M,%@AI;FEFE+,H9.<2LHYYQP(#5D%`` `"`$!((8444D@AA1122"&%%%)**:64
    M8HHIIIABBBFFF'+,, <<<@PPRZ*233CKI)*200@FEI))22JW%&FOOO?>>>^^]
    M]]Y[ [[WWWGOOO??>>\\Y!T)#5@$`(```!$(&(8000@@AA!122"&FF& +**:>`
    MT)!5```@`(``````2[$43=$<S_$<SQ$=4Q(E4S(E4 W(MUS(M4S,]TS-%5715
    M4U5EUW5E4S9E4S9E539E4S9E4S9E U95E699E699E699E699E699E(#1D%0`@

  31. I'm confused. by Erpo · · Score: 3, Funny

    What is Helix DNA? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

    On one hand, it's from Real -- the first major media company to release a player that (depending on a few bits in a file) won't let you save an internet multimedia stream, the precursor to modern DRM. Real also brought us RealONE, the most junk-infested media player ever, famous for spraying garbage all over your system without your consent.

    Now they're releasing a player and its source with ogg support built in? If there's one thing we need in the media arena, it's an open file format and codecs to combat proprietary windows media, real, and quicktime. This sounds like it could be really cool.

    But is it for Real?

  32. Ogg Vorbis reference software licensing by yerricde · · Score: 5, Informative

    OGG isn't GPL'd. It has a BSD license.

    You're both right. Parts of Xiph.org's Ogg Vorbis reference software are under a BSD style license; parts are under the GPL. The libvorbis* packages and the Tremor decoder are BSD licensed, but libao and the vorbis-tools (executables such as oggenc, ogg123, etc) are under the GNU General Public License (or is it Lesser GPL now?).

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  33. Re:With the amount of spyware that Real is spreadi by donutello · · Score: 2

    Real already knows my genenetic code/i

    So that's what they're using in the Helix DNA Producer!

    --
    Mmmm.. Donuts
  34. bad design by g4dget · · Score: 2
    I think the design of software like Helix DNA is just driven by bad habits originating on the Windows platform.

    If you look at the capabilities of Helix DNA, they would be much better provided by a set of small, specific command line programs, filters, network tools, and CGI programs. It would be much easier to reuse those tools for other purposes, to create new plug-ins, etc.

    Instead, what we seem to be getting (but it's hard to tell because there is almost no documentation on the site), is some big, monolithic program with "plug-ins", which probably ends up being hard to extend, hard to modify, and hard to reuse.

    People should really kick the cross-platform habit. The UNIX/Linux approach to building large software systems and servers out of small command line programs is better than the Windows approach. Having junk designed for Windows ported to Linux is not the right approach and fails to take advantage of the strenghts of the Linux platform.

  35. RealNetworks' track record of attacking customers by $beirdo · · Score: 1
    With RealNetworks' track record of attacking their customers (remember Windows MIME-type battles, anyone?), I can't help but continue to mistrust them, especially when considering what software to make use of during development.

    I think a company that has in the past deliberately and repeatedly used its customers' systems to:
    • Force use of its product over a competitor's even when the user has explicitly chosen to use the competing software
    • Disallow users from configuring their software to not run in the background, pop up randomly (remember "Message Center"?), or download and execute software without asking
    • Force advertisements on the user in extreme excess
    ...has proven that they are willing to go to any ends to make a buck, and they don't care too much about the well-being of their customers.

    I think what they've done in the past is downright immoral. Why would we as a community want to support, embrace, or do anything but boycott and condemn these scoundrels?
  36. You know, I really feel sorry for real by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They've been pretty heavy handed both trying to get people to use the pay version of realplayer, and trying to get it as prevalent on installed systems as possible. While personally I'm not thrilled at either, it's pretty easy to have some sympathy for their reasoning. I don't know if anyone here has tried to get people to give mozilla a shot, but one of the first complaints I always got was that it started up slower than IE. The quickstart was always one of the first things they wound up doing once they decided to switch. It often takes a lot of explaining before people grasped exactly why IE started so quickly. It's just not easy to compete with components built into the operating system. Don't use a quickstart and a significant amount of the potential audience will complain because it's slower to start than programs integrated into the operating system. Do use a quickstart, and another large user base will complain. The latter at least though for the most part would be able to figure out how to turn that behavior off, so I can sympathise with their decision. Seriously now, they're trying to compete with microsoft. That's not exactly an easy endevor!

    What I find very odd is all the complaints about statistic reporting.
    Real: We've listened to your complaints and removed the spyware for you, given you a lean player that additionally supports ogg and which allows you to create your own gui.
    User: I'm not listening to you because you have spyware in your product, you don't support ogg and I hate your gui!

    --
    Everything will be taken away from you.
    1. Re:You know, I really feel sorry for real by Bayoubourne · · Score: 1

      It's simple karma. Real in the past (along with their close friends at TRUSTE) rode pretty much roughshod over the user community. They may make it back into the collective's good graces, but it will take a long while. In the mean time, Real just has to endure the jibes and snipes about spyware, ad popups, etc - they've earned it.

  37. Documentation on the site by robla · · Score: 2
    There's plenty of documentation on the site, you just have to know where to look (and we're working on making it easier to get to). I really don't think it would be possible to put together a compelling end-user multimedia application with what you dub the "UNIX/Linux" approach (literally using small command line programs). Could you point to a successful end-user multimedia application that does?
    1. Re:Documentation on the site by g4dget · · Score: 2
      I really don't think it would be possible to put together a compelling end-user multimedia application with what you dub the "UNIX/Linux" approach (literally using small command line programs). Could you point to a successful end-user multimedia application that does?

      We are talking about servers here, not end-user applications. On the server side, the UNIX approach has been highly successful: CGI scripts are very widely used.

      The approach would work fine for desktop and viewer software as well; the reason it isn't used as much there is simply that that market is dominated by Microsoft software, Microsoft programmers, and Microsoft development tools. And on Microsoft platforms, huge, monolithic, single-program approaches are just a historical bad habit: the platform really didn't use to support anything else. The sooner people get over it even on Windows, the better for everybody.

      What technical reason do you believe exists that you couldn't take a UNIX approach (small command line tools) to building these kinds of applications?

    2. Re:Documentation on the site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just wanted to say, you da man. Thats for actually responding to these people who don't have a clue, and setting them straight. Nice Job.

    3. Re:Documentation on the site by digitalbeing · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just about every interesting CGI script on the web these days talks to "huge, monolothic" database server - think PHP. So much for the "UNIX small command-line tool" approach.

      Small command-line tools are appropriate for hacking together text processing filters, but I can't see them being useful for building a multimedia pipeline. If you care about synchronization, then you need in-process and/or shared memory communication, not a unix pipe.

    4. Re:Documentation on the site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Nice handwaving. Most Unix servers do not run as "CGI Scripts". CGI scripts aren't even a scalable way to do web programming under Unix, much less media streaming.

      Also, I'm sure the folks at MPlayer and other Unix-native desktop video software were unaware that they had been corrupted by Windows methodologies.

    5. Re:Documentation on the site by g4dget · · Score: 2
      Just about every interesting CGI script on the web these days talks to "huge, monolothic" database server - think PHP.

      Some do, some don't. And database servers are also way overused anyway, for pretty much the same reasons that people build monolithic programs: they have grown up on cumbersome platforms like Windows or mainframes, where they don't have a choice.

      Small command-line tools are appropriate for hacking together text processing filters, but I can't see them being useful for building a multimedia pipeline.

      Well, from personal experience, I can tell you: they work very well.

      If you care about synchronization, then you need in-process and/or shared memory communication, not a unix pipe.

      No, you don't. Even if you demultiplex and multiplex streams as part of the processing pipeline, pipes take care of the synchronization automatically. That's part of their power.

      Of course, nobody is stopping you to use shared memory for communications among command line tools. But it's a lot harder to get the synchronization right with shared memory, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you really need to eliminate the (comparatively small) overhead of the read/write operations.

      Your comment is pretty typical and it illustrates again how muddled the thinking of many multimedia developers actually is.

    6. Re:Documentation on the site by g4dget · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Most Unix servers do not run as "CGI Scripts".

      "Servers" don't run as CGI scripts, dynamic web applications do.

      In any case, do you have data to back up your claim that "most" do not use CGI? I would actually bet that CGI is still by far the most widely used server side scripting approach when you look at number of distinct installations. Of course, high-volume sites like AOL or Yahoo!, etc., have some incentive to use non-CGI interfaces, but they are the exception.

      CGI scripts aren't even a scalable way to do web programming under Unix,

      My Linux machine easily manages 200 CGI script invocations per second without even breaking into a sweat; what fraction of installed web servers do you think needs to handle 200 hits per second to dynamically generated web pages? Tiny, I would guess. Furthermore, the overhead of starting a CGI script is actually negligible compared to the operations that most CGI scripts actually do.

      much less media streaming

      The primary overhead of command line programs vs. plug-ins is that the command line programs involve forks to start up. That's a complete non-issue for streaming. Therefore, if anything, multimedia processing is better, not worse, for a UNIX approach.

      Also, I'm sure the folks at MPlayer and other Unix-native desktop video software were unaware that they had been corrupted by Windows methodologies.

      They have been: most of the UNIX/Linux players use skinning, which means they don't behave properly as desktop applications, they are flaky, they are hard to install, and the video code they contain is almost completely non-reusable for other purposes. In short, they are designed and work just like their Windows counterparts.

      What we really need is the equivalent of NetPBM for video. Transcode tries, but it's still ways off from being as clean and simple.

    7. Re:Documentation on the site by platypus · · Score: 2

      Servers" don't run as CGI scripts, dynamic web applications do.

      Really, I don't want to offend you, but I'm really not sure if you know what cgi is.

      Fact is, almost nothing on apache runs as cgi nowadays. mod_perl, mod_python, mod_whatever are *not* cgi applications. I'm also quite sure that your 200 hits per second scripts are *not* cgi applications.
      It is also wrong that the overhead of "starting a cgi-script" is negligible, because it involves starting the whole friggin interpreter if you use perl or other scripting languages.

    8. Re:Documentation on the site by FauxPasIII · · Score: 2

      >> Small command-line tools are appropriate for hacking together text processing filters,
      >> but I can't see them being useful for building a multimedia pipeline.

      Uhhhh... transcode much? Use it, and I imagine you'll find as I have that it absolutely shames every other program that has the same feature set for -any- platform.

      --
      25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
    9. Re:Documentation on the site by sql*kitten · · Score: 2

      We are talking about servers here, not end-user applications. On the server side, the UNIX approach has been highly successful: CGI scripts are very widely used.

      In this case, the server owner is the end user. Who is what depends on your own viewpoint. For example, from Oracle's perspective I am the end user and they are the supplier, but from my perspective, I have end users to look after and I am the supplier.

      And on Microsoft platforms, huge, monolithic, single-program approaches are just a historical bad habit: the platform really didn't use to support anything else.

      That's either ignorance or FUD. The majority of modern Win32 programs are assembled from COM(+) type objects, each of which is self-contained and reusable. For example, MSIE has an HTML-rendering object. You can reuse it in your own software if you need HTML rendering (for example, in your online help system). Word and Excel are all COM objects, for example there is a charting object that Excel uses, it does one thing - drawing charts - and requires objects either side of it in the processing pipeline, to supply it with data and to receive its output respectively. This idea of connecting self-contained modules into complete programs didn't originate with Unix, you know.

      The sooner people get over it even on Windows, the better for everybody.

      The sooner One True OS zealots get off their high horses, the better for everybody.

  38. How many licenses does the world need? by bfields · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh, great. So now we get the RPSL, the RCSL (the latter available in three tasty flavors!), and more.... Couldn't we please just stick to GPL, LGPL, or BSD? Those three licenses cover most of the free software territory, and while I admit that reading them gives me just as much a headache as reading many other licenses, at least I only have to go through it once....

    --Bruce Fields

  39. ... DEAD HORSE BEATS YOU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not funny anymore.

    1. Re:... DEAD HORSE BEATS YOU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IN SOVIET RUSSIA, -1 threshold reads at YOU

    2. Re:... DEAD HORSE BEATS YOU by thumperward · · Score: 1

      Shit, I thought these had stopped being funny until just there.

      - Chris

  40. Don't cry for me, Argentina by robla · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't know why I chose that subject line, but whatever. :)

    I appreciate that you recognize we're rolling up our sleeve pretty far to show there's nothing up it. The "spyware" complaints have persisted for years after someone found one rogue chunk of code that sent us a lot of useless information that was going in the bit bucket (if you look at what was being collected, it really wasn't interesting).

    Nevertheless, you're absolutely right: if you don't trust us, build your own player.

    1. Re:Don't cry for me, Argentina by 31+Flavas · · Score: 1
      The "spyware" complaints have persisted for years after someone found one rogue chunk of code that sent us a lot of useless information that was going in the bit bucket (if you look at what was being collected, it really wasn't interesting).

      Conspiricy theories are a dime a dozen. What can you do except laugh at them?

      Did you know that some people say the moon landings were faked! *shocked expression*

    2. Re:Don't cry for me, Argentina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, Steve Gibson of GRC found some personal info being sent out? Now, yeah, a name and email aren't really that useful, but it did indicate a breach of trust. Oh well, as long as Real isn't doing that anymore, or at least lets us mess with the Helix code, the pseudo-trust level is ok for now.

    3. Re:Don't cry for me, Argentina by thumperward · · Score: 1
      The "spyware" complaints have persisted for years after someone found one rogue chunk of code that sent us a lot of useless information that was going in the bit bucket (if you look at what was being collected, it really wasn't interesting).


      Really! RealDownload is one rogue chunk of code?

      - Chris
    4. Re:Don't cry for me, Argentina by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RealDownload? LOL.. That was a pretty poor choice of applications to throw out considering that it is no longer available.

      Seriously.. if you think that real has spyware in their products, download the source and check yourself.

    5. Re:Don't cry for me, Argentina by $beirdo · · Score: 1

      What's happening on this post is that employees of RealNetworks are adamantly spitting the company's in-house propaganda back at us and insisting it's true ("one chunk of rogue code!") when it's obviously not.

      If a person lies and cheats, he or she shouldn't be trusted. If a company lies and cheats, it should be boycotted. Don't install RN products. Don't use RN products. And don't believe RN's blatant lie PR tactics.

    6. Re:Don't cry for me, Argentina by robla · · Score: 2
      > What's happening on this post is that employees of RealNetworks are adamantly spitting the company's in-house propaganda back at us and insisting it's true ("one chunk of rogue code!") when it's obviously not.

      Maybe you know something that I don't, then. What is the "obviously not" true about what I said? I could be wrong...I've not done the audit myself, and I personally haven't been privvy to any "spyware" in the system. But, what I'm saying is true to the best of my knowledge.

  41. Re:RealNetworks' track record of attacking custome by VegetariMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you will recall, Microsoft lobbed the first volley in the "MIME war." Their media player took over some RealNetworks mime types. RealNetworks' response was to spearhead an initiative to encourage software makers to be more forthcoming to end users about which mime types they claim. In fact, these days just about every media player allows the user to configure this via the installer. This seems to be a benefit of their fight against Microsoft.

    Furthermore, I think you're mistaken on your bullet points. But then, I would have a hard time convincing someone that has already made up his mind and has no facts to defend his standpoint.

    In the meantime, please feel free to enjoy Microsoft's illegal monopoly and encourage them to trample any and all of their competitors. Real is by no means perfect, but regardless of how you perceive their past conduct they are obviously trying to be better community members. And at least they aren't Microsoft.

    --
    --Nick
  42. Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by tabdelgawad · · Score: 5, Informative

    I really don't understand why a large number of the comments here are negative. Simply stated, Real has released a significant piece of software under what appears to be a free/open source license (The RPSL has been submitted to the OSI for certification). The open source community is certainly no worse off and probably significantly better off because of this.

    So the Real codecs aren't open sourced. Well, neither is DivX nor Quicktime, but that doesn't stop DivXNetworks or Apple from being darlings of the geek community. It's true that Real clients have been extremely intrusive, but their current actions should be judged independently.

    In fact, the open source community has a vested interest in the success of Real's Helix since that would demonstrate that open sourcing can be a successful *business* strategy. Open source commercial successes are few and far between, so it doesn't make sense to beat up on Real just as they are starting to do something right!

    --
    Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
    1. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by absurdhero · · Score: 1, Troll

      while I agree that people should see for themselves what Real has to offer with Helix, I think past actions should be taken into account; Not ignored. If a rapist was giving candy out to children you wouldn't go, "oh how cheritable. he is being nice now!" You would be very critical and wonder what he may be up to. It's only natural to be suspicious about a previously unfavorable companies current offerings.

    2. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nice quote: "If a rapist was giving candy out to children you wouldn't go"

      I consider the spyware raped millions of systems... usually older generation moms and dads who has no idea that they installed spyware. Then one day kid comes home from college... "wtf? I'll have to format your HD to get rid of this crap"

      Rant: Helix DNA producer just sounds confusing? What does it do? Make DNAs? It already contaminated the word "Real", now it's onto DNA? Some people work on DNAs in the Real world for a living ya know?

    3. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by tabdelgawad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem with your analogy is that the situation between a rapist and a child is almost certainly a zero-sum game. The child's gain (in terms of safety) is the rapists loss, and vice versa. In that scenario, any self-interest motivated action by the rapist is automatically suspect as it will hurt the child.

      Zero-sum games are not useful for describing the relationship between commercial software developers and users. The primary goal of commercial developers is to make money, not to screw consumers (sometimes they *do* screw consumers in their attempt to make money, but that is mostly incidental and tends to be punished by the market, as the near-demise of Real itself demonstrates). The actions of Real here are most certainly motivated by commercial self-interest, but that in no way implies that they will harm users (or the OS community). As a matter of fact, it is plain that Real's actions here are beneficial to users and the OS community (how beneficial remains to be seen) as I tried to point out in the parent post.

      --
      Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
    4. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by Bostik · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I really don't understand why a large number of the comments here are negative. Simply stated, Real has released a significant piece of software under what appears to be a free/open source license (The RPSL has been submitted to the OSI for certification).

      I have to agree with you. I'm just reading RPSL and it's not a bad license. Okay, it's not a license to grant complete freedom, but it is certainly a good way there. Basically, Real wants to make sure they have control over the Helix engine, and in response grant any and all OSS developers access to the source. To retain control, they require changes incorporated to the engine made public under the same license.

      The best catch, I think, is the requirement to release the software that uses Helix engine under a compatible license. In effect, the RPSL license says two things:

      1. If you change the engine, you must submit the changes back BOTH to the community and Real.
      2. If you use Helix in a product, you must release that product under a compatible open-source license. That license does not need to be RPSL. (I suspect they are mostly thinking about GPL and other licenses that are close to its nature.)

      And for commercial developers there is the RPCL that requires only the modifications to the engine released. If the Helix engine is good enough, it will be used. Real will stay in the game, with their streams usable by OSS folks and, hopefully, in return getting both increased use and improvement modifications to Helix.

      Better coverage => more users => more sales of Real's streaming technology to companies providing streamed content => more incentive for end-users to use this technology. I may have missed something, but what is it that makes all of this so wrong? Heck, with this license there is nothing that prevents the OSS developers from making a capable player that has *no* spyware or other annoyances usually associated with Real's end-user products.

      --
      There is no such thing as good luck. There is only misfortune and its occasional absence.
    5. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by absurdhero · · Score: 1

      Yes, Real is doing this for money and not to hurt people. I agree. I guess I just wanted to take into account their lack of interest in their customers' satisfaction before forgiving any past mistakes. Point taken.

    6. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by robla · · Score: 5, Informative
      Ugh...comparing us to a rapist child predator, and you get modded up to a 2?

      Regardless of where you wanted to go with this analogy, what you are doing is driving a wedge between RealNetworks and the open source community. You. It's your post that many RealNetworks employees are going to read, and they are going to say "why are we even bothering?" The longtime open source fans here get demoralized, and the others just flip the idiot bit on the "Slashdot crowd".

      The software you are complain about has always been free of charge, and for the past few years, supported in part by an advertising business. As I've addressed in another post, our reputation on the "spyware" front is based on one errant feature which collected useless data and which we eliminated long ago. It may have been obnoxious, but it's not even remotely worthy of a child rape comparison.

      Personally, I'm doing everything I can to ensure we improve our reputation, both by getting the word out that we're working to improve our relationship with our customers (huge priority for all of us), and making sure we live up to a better reputation.

      If you'd truly like to influence us on these types of issues, do two things:

      • Go through official channels. You've got people who are gathering statistics and studying the data and working to improve our relations with the community, rather than preaching to what is obviously the choir here.
      • Help make the Helix Community a success. If the community is successful, you'll have an alternate engine that can have whatever you want in it (and not have what you don't want).
    7. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by thumperward · · Score: 1
      Well, neither is DivX nor Quicktime, but that doesn't stop DivXNetworks or Apple from being darlings of the geek community.


      Ignore Apple. Ever heard of Project Mayo?

      - Chris
    8. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by DataSquid · · Score: 1
      I really don't understand why a large number of the comments here are negative.

      Have you ever even used Realplayer? Or have any media encoded with it? I was unable to "complete registration" with the Real One player at work (firewall) and then could never use the software again.

      The source licensing of codecs is only a small slice of the Pie Of Hate for Real. Their software and spyware is an annoying, inferior quality pain in the ass, and should be shunned as such.

      If you want to support open source get yourself a copy of the Darwin Streaming Server and pick a codec to use that sits well with your licensing morals.

      --

      DataSquid.net, a little about me.
    9. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by thumperward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Your reputation as an organisation of spyware peddlers persists because you insist on using the World's Most Sinister Installer (TM). People judge on looks, and when it looks like

      - the default video display is 60% adverts
      - it's impossible to get it to stop asking you to upgrade every eight minutes
      - you can't figure out how to give your mp3s back to Winamp
      - after uninstalling it YOU CAN'T PLAY YOUR DAMN CLIPS IN REALPLAYER 8 BECAUSE REALONE LEAVES A FUCKING REGISTRY ENTRY SPECIFICALLY DENYING YOU THE RIGHT TO PLAY VIDEO ON OLDER VERSIONS OF REALPLAYER ANY MORE
      - you find that your media player wants to also be your download manager, web browser and mother-in-law

      you are going to get a reputation for putting things on their computer that they don't want. Untrained users have learned to call this 'spyware'.

      - Chris

    10. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by platypus · · Score: 2

      Hey,

      I'm quite sure that even (just joking ;) ) Real has nice employees, and you are a very good example for that.
      I just want to thank you for you patience answering sometimes overly critical, sometimes clueless questions here, and assure you that the bold move Real is doing with this is well appreciated by many - I know a lot of people looking forward for the releases.

      On flipping the idiot bit on slashdot, take into account that - because of the size of the community here - it may just be a better sample of the general population than smaller ones.

      Unfortunately.

    11. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by 31+Flavas · · Score: 1
      It's your post that many RealNetworks employees are going to read, and they are going to say "why are we even bothering?" The longtime open source fans here get demoralized, and the others just flip the idiot bit on the "Slashdot crowd".

      Understand, opinions can't be changed overnight nor is Slashdot really the best place to try to convert people. Opinions are concrete and single sided here. Posting to the contrary on slashdot is like covering yourself in honey and giving a momma Grizzly bear (with baby cubs) a good kick in the ass.

      Developer and fansites would be much friendly and welcoming. A couple would be Doom9's forums (http://forum.doom9.org/) and the forums on Animemusicvideos.org

    12. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm. First, RP8 should not be on your system after upgrading to realone player. When doing an upgrade, the previous version is "upgraded" to the latest.

      second, I know for a fact that after uninstalling realone player, re-installing rp8 does work. I've done it myself.

    13. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by tabdelgawad · · Score: 1

      Sure. IIRC, Project Mayo was the open source start to the legitimate version of DivX. It was abandoned about a year ago, and the people behind it started DivXNetworks in order to commercialize the codec. All the improvements to DivX in the past year (which have been substantial) have *not* been released as open source.

      The only open source MPEG4 codec around is Xvid. They may have used the Project Mayo code base to start, but they really don't have anything to do with DivX anymore.

      --
      Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
    14. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Opinions are concrete and single sided here.

      Yes... yes, they are, aren't they? You don't see the hypocrisy in your statement, do you?

    15. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by 31+Flavas · · Score: 1

      And I also said in another post Slashdot readers are quick to judge. Do I like RealPlayer and RV9? Sure, I do. That doesn't precude me though from lso liking Divx and Xvid too. Which are wonderful as well. Your post only proves how onesided discussion are on Slashdot. Thank you for proving my point.

    16. Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, thank you for proving mine. Wow, your style of argument is really easy to master -- isn't it? Before long I'll be a 10th level dan in making-up-shit-as-i-go-along and no-you-are styles.

  43. Re:RealNetworks' track record of attacking custome by $beirdo · · Score: 1

    I don't think I'm mistaken on my bullet points. And I think that Microsoft was acting just as immorally as Real by fighting the "MIME war". I was referring to Real's default option of "restoring MIME types" even when they have been changed by the user explicitly or by another installation. Sure, Real was battling Microsoft. But they were both battling against the consumer, using tactics that were definitely immoral and sneaky.

    Man, even before I hit your homepage I knew you worked for Real. It's none of my business, but it looks like you've bought a little too much of their in-house propaganda. Sure, RN is trying to put on the "nice guy" face, and releasing a lot of press to support that appearance, but history has proven what kind of company you are.

  44. Re:RealNetworks' track record of attacking custome by 31+Flavas · · Score: 1

    Hey, did I already mention that slashdot readers are quick to judge? *confused expression*

  45. dumping garbage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is like netscape winning the browser war by open sourcing its main product. Yeah they won alright 5 years later you have something that finally resembles IE in speed that 0.02% of the internet uses.

    Chances are they opened this because they don't need it anymore, i.e. throwing it away.

  46. [OT] cut and paste under X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    just hilite text with your mouse, then click the middle mouse button where you want it pasted.

    that's kick ass usability.

  47. Hi - please pay attention by abulafia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Helix is mostly open source. That's a good thing.

    Some of it is not. That's unfortunate.

    Real has been an annoying company, what with spyware and such. That's unfortunate.

    Real is realeasing code you can either play with, or ignore. That's a good thing.

    If Real gets a benefit from giving away code in terms of PR, browney points or Slashdot Karma, what's the problem, again? That would be the case because some people, somewhere, appreciated what Real did.

    Of course there's a strategy behind doing so, and I suspect it isn't quick what RMS would prefer. If that weren't the case, we'd be chatting about this on Fucked Company instead of here.(Which is not to assert GPLed software can't support a company - if that were the case, I'd have a little problem.)

    -j

    --
    I forget what 8 was for.
    1. Re:Hi - please pay attention by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      I did not say there was a problem, did I? I simply said they they did it for PR. I passed no judgement either pro or con.

    2. Re:Hi - please pay attention by fenix+down · · Score: 1

      ...if that were the case, I'd have a little problem.)

      "..."

      "That's bad."

      "Can I go now?"

    3. Re:Hi - please pay attention by bluegreenone · · Score: 1

      You beat me to it! Must be too much potasium benzoate in my diet.

  48. good news. what about dss? by mattr · · Score: 2

    Are developers expected to preserve some kind of rivalry between open code from real and open code from apple?

    What would happen if they got mixed together and were "given back" to real/helix? this is confusing, at least the last time I tried to get through the maze of documents on the helix page.

  49. Spam Company by imbezol · · Score: 1

    Let's hope they don't release their spam developement software on the world.. A show of hands, is RealPlayer not the biggest piece of spam trash software ever developed?

  50. Darwin Streaming Server supports many open formats by benwaggoner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sorry, try again.

    Darwin Streaming Server can serve many file types, and many non-propritary formats. These include

    MPEG-1
    MPEG-4
    MP3
    QuickTime movies with non-propritary codecs like H.261 and H.263

    QuickTIme has a packet structure for streaming, fully documented, and anyone and their dog can build a codec that can hint to a QuickTime streaming package. Heck, Darwin Streaming Server can even stream formats QuickTime can't play back, like MPEG-4 Advanced Simple.

  51. Re:Darwin Streaming Server supports many open form by quinto2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    MPEG4 is a proprietary format with patent and royalty encumbrance that make it in no way superior to Real for freedom. Real offers a good balance between availability on esoteric hardware and operating systems (like Irix) and quality that none of the proprietary codecs you listed offer. Streaming MPEG1 would be ridiculous, come on. And H.261/.263 are not high enough quality. Ideally, I would use a completely open codec if source were available, and then deal with the inconvenience of requiring users to install it, but if I'm choosing between non-ideal solutions, Real is simply the best choice I can see.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post
  52. Re:RealNetworks' track record of attacking custome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    quick to judge? Now what's the time span from the original realease of *spyware* RealAudio 3 to *spyware* RealOne?

    *spyware*RealAudio 3
    *spyware*RealPlayer 4
    *spyware*RealPlayer 5
    *spyware*RealPlayer G2
    *spyware*RealPlayer 7
    *spyware*RealPlayer 8

    quick, I think not.

  53. Reasonable an Non-Discriminatory by benwaggoner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Patent fees don't mean propritary. MPEG-4, as an ISO standard, is licensed under RAND - Reasonable and Non-Discriminiatory terms. This means no-one gets a sweetheart deal on using it. And it is fully published, with reference software to boot.

    So, while it isn't free as in beer, it is for the most part free as in speech.

    I'm hoping one of the first Helix Producer projects is to hook the Producer preprocessing engine into the MPEG4IP encoding tools (Xvid, plus AAC-LC, plus a muxer) into a good, open source MPEG-4 authoring tool.

  54. Great news! by Per+Wigren · · Score: 0, Troll

    Now if they could just release the specs of their annoying proprietary rtsp handshaking and I'd be really happy!

    --
    My other account has a 3-digit UID.
  55. Good thing, but beware. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here's An interesting piece about Real's kind ways of spying on its users. It's somewhat old, yet very interesting. Dunno about what their software do now, as I've replaced with Linux my last Windows machine more than 1 year ago and currently use only 100% trusted (that is, 100% free and open source) software.

  56. About RealNetworks history by Ektanoor · · Score: 2

    RealNetworks may be one of the most controversial companies in the Internet. Since its advent, this company made lots of right and wrong moves. So it is quite possible that it has as many fans as flaming opponents. However, they were pioneers in their field, and had had an enemy in the face of Microsoft, which played the same dirty game with them as with Netscape. These conditions were enough to have them sweet to survive. So their story is not so simple to judge.

    Frankly, we should take into attention that this company appeared very, very early. By the time they came up, they produced players for Solaris and Windows was still a conundrom among Internet nodes. and their distribution policies were in fact progressive. While many commercial *NIX producers sold their products, they were giving players for free, the same way as Netscape was distributing its navigators. However, when the market changed, they made two huge errors. First a large part of their policies was kept, no matter the new market conditions. This deeply reflected in the dynamics of development of their products, as, lots of their characteristics became simply archaic. Second they choose the worst way of marketing. As pioneers, they choosed some of the early and unproved advertisment technologies for Internet. And this brought them the fame of an isolated company that loves to spam and spy over everyone.

    No matter these problems, the ideology of their products is still something that is badly explored. The architecture of these systems is not strictly centralised and it has "loose" infrastructure that allows them to be used under several conditions. Still there is a huge potential in this field.

  57. Cool! by shepd · · Score: 1

    If I deny the license twice does it give me a secret option to choose another license the third time?

    --
    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  58. And another press release states... by Bemmu · · Score: 1

    RealNetworks releases Realstream Producer, a tool for creating DNA sequences with support for multiple formats. Later on the same day, RealNetworks also stated it would lay off their current head of marketing.

  59. Question to Rob Lanphier/ Real by Ilgaz · · Score: 2

    Are you sure this is a great idea to post such news to Slashdot which is the lovely platform of 1000s of clueless calling your product "spyware"?

    As a end user using Realplayer on all platforms I use, I already got fed up, I really wonder how people actually coding software, providing free of charge to *nix community feels?

    ps: to read this comment you should browse at -1, just a feeling ;-)

    1. Re:Question to Rob Lanphier/ Real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel the same way. I just wish that the people that were claiming "spyware" had actually used the player. All of them seem to have never used it and just jumping on a bandwagon.

      My challenge to anyone who thinks its spyware is to show some proof that the current player has any type of spyware running. Prove it and THEN I'll believe it.

      I can't imagine a company who releases the source to their player would still have spyware running in it.

  60. ra - ?? ? by ViVeLaMe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    my question is:

    Will this allow me to transform the .ra & .ram lying around on my HD into, say, .ogg, or .mp3? :-).. I Tried with ffmpeg without any success so far.. Seems there are a few Whine-dose solutions, but i'm looking for a scriptable Unix one.. :-/

    --
    i had a sig, once..
  61. Re:Darwin Streaming Server supports many open form by thumperward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    MPEG4 is a proprietary format with patent and royalty encumbrance that make it in no way superior to Real for freedom.


    Unadulterated bollocks. I can edit, convert, re-encode and generally mess about with my MPEG4 clips all I want. I have to pull teeth to extract content from proprietary Real files, which use patented technology to boot.

    There are open-source implementations of MPEG4 such as Xvid. With an open-source codec which can create standards-compliant streams, you have the portability required or at least the potential to be covered against the death of the company holding the keys to your media, and more importantly you have immediate control of said media - the ability to convert it to other formats, for instance.

    - Chris
  62. Irix? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Real haven't had proper support on IRIX in years... Can I have a go on your crack pipe now?

  63. The TINRA source is GPL by thumperward · · Score: 1

    Go do it yourself. With any luck the separation of the codecs from the actual player should make it possible to create a solution that doesn't require the installation of RealPlayer (8) itself.

    - Chris

    1. Re:The TINRA source is GPL by ViVeLaMe · · Score: 1

      oh, well.. i had a quick look at TINRA, and it seems to be aimed at videos(especially .rm to .avi), and i'm not an AV codecs hacker, oh, well.. I'll have a look, through, maybe i can pull this off in a few years, so don't wait for me ;-P

      --
      i had a sig, once..
  64. Re:With the amount of spyware that Real is spreadi by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 2

    Real already knows my genenetic code they have so much junk watching me when I install Real software with default options. They've probably figured out a way to have my monitor probe my brain.

    Paranoia? I don't think so...


    I know that was supposed to come across as funny, but it also - I think intentionally - misses the point. This is a source distribution, it will not have spyware. If it did, you'd just remove it, wouldn't you? Or move on to another project, so it's a safe bet Realnetworks won't do that.

    --
    Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
  65. How it works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This comes up over and over, so I wrote an explanation on the web where Google can find it.

    It's called How does the clipboard work?.

  66. Interesting, but what about the client for Linux by wowbagger · · Score: 2

    I'm glad that Real is releasing server tools, but what about spending some time getting the Unix client tools working worth a damn.

    Specifically, getting the RealOne player for Linux to not say "You don't have permission to update" whenever you try to play a file with a new codec, getting a Mozilla plug-in for RealOne so that you can use its Flash player (having a Flash player is useless without having a plugin), and making the RealOne main page have a link for the *nix community, rather than being Windows only.

    In order to contact Real about these matters, first you have to find the discussion forums for the "Community Supported Player for *nix" - these seems to be hidden in a disused lavatory in the basement behind a sign saying "Beware of the Leopard" - I defy you to give me a series of links from www.real.com that gets to the forum (that does not involve a search engine).

    Then, you have to post a message - one forum is down, and the others don't seem to be visited by anybody from Real.

    Then, on those blessed times when a Real employee deigns to visit the forum, the ususal posting is something like "download foo at this URL". However, no mention is made of when foo was updated - usually about a year ago.

    Then, should you download the player, and install it, and get the new codec packages they say will fix the problem, you find out the problem still persists.

    Add to this the fact that the client gets screwed up if you are not running a 75dpi display (with a larger DPI setting the fonts are WAY too big for the space allocated for the text), and the fact that it doesn't play any new files, and the fact that the Flash player only plays local files, and the fact that the Flash player doesn't play the sound....

    It seems to me that Real is simply trying to keep the server market from abandoning them for Microsoft or Icecast - hence the support for *nix in the server arena. For the clients - "If you ain't Windows, you ain't shit!" (corollary left as an exercise to the reader).

  67. Spyware is by Ilgaz · · Score: 2

    a program stealing info from another program (like IE's current_url=) and send to servers without your grant.

    Does real fit it? Your browser sends info too, it also sends http_referer (if not blocked on ns or opera) too.

    Or screen resolution, with a single jscript query you can read guys resolution.

    IMHO that Real spyware issues are coming from paid guys AND the innocent ones tricked by them.

  68. targeting the san francisco nightclub market? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Multi-format, live and on-demand, real and ogg, gain control, open-source, and on top of that it's called the "DNA Producer"?

    I think somebody has been listening to jwz bitch about the problems he's had streaming from his nightclub!

  69. Re:With the amount of spyware that Real is spreadi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think RealPlayer has spyware watching you, then why not download the Helix Player and check the source yourself.

    Some people have such an old image of Real still floating in their brains they can't see past the new innovations.. people that post old crap like this are the ones responsible for others thinking the same thing when they have no experience.

    Open your eyes. In any case, if Real did have crap watching you, dont you think they would have some screen right when you installed that told you it did w/ an option to turn it off? They have enough worries (like MS) then to worry about fooling you.

    I would much rather support Real then to post dribble like this and help MS.

  70. Re: WMP - I wonder . . . by GnuPengwyn · · Score: 1

    I can hardly believe that WMP is going anywhere fast, it is a format which I believe will die just like .mod (not to say there isn't any .mod's out there still, amazing what all got packed into a .mod) No, WMP is an annoying format for the most part, and not of the highest quality, although there is probably some fool out there that will argue it's better bla bla bla. Regardless, it is a format that is like the little spring in the mattress that pokes you now and then. Until everyone can agree that ogg is de Facto, these annoying commercial interruptions will continue to poke the ball when you wake in the morning.

    --
    Love Music? Got a Band? Are you a Label? http://garageradio.com
  71. Re:RealNetworks' track record of attacking custome by zachdms · · Score: 1

    You're referring to a change RealNetwork's made in their MIME association in a G2 beta which was released after a WMP release. The WMP release had been programmed to Play Nicely with the old RN behavior, but the new RN behavior didn't make sense (and in fact was in practice, as noted, buggy). RN released a .1 update to their beta which fixed the issue. It was technically amazing that they couldn't figure this out on their own originally, but hey- now they can have help. ;)

    And, yes, hopefully they have changed now. If hypothetically there was a situation in which the President of the company had been alerted to the technical specifics of a particular bug by a friendly dev from another Hideously Evil Company, and then that hypothetical company instead decided to continue spewing PR lies for another week and pretending that other companies were complaining too, man, that'd be pretty scummy.

    But that's all just hypothetical. And if the president of a different hypothetical company called up to apologize and explain that another company ghost-wrote them into the press release, man, that'd leave you perpetually amused with the ethics of a company.

    It's all just hypothetical.

    Microsoft bad, RealNetworks good (or getting better).

    The associations stuff had to happen, really. Microsoft's documentation on this stuff sucks, and companies like RealNetworks were totally evil in permanently taking file associations. End users just can't cope with that concept. The new generation of association advertisement is a start, but it needs to and it will get better over time. :\

  72. Not quite true (as far as I can tell) by 3.1415926535 · · Score: 1
    I think the relevant sections are 2.1.d:


    (d) You must make Source Code of all Your Externally Deployed Modifications
    publicly available under the terms of this License, including the license grants
    set forth in Section 3 below, for as long as you Deploy the Covered Code or
    twelve (12) months from the date of initial Deployment, whichever is longer.


    and the definition of "Deploy" (1.5):


    1.5 "Deploy" means to use, sublicense or distribute Covered Code other than for
    Your internal research and development (R&D) and/or Personal Use


    So it sounds like R&D and personal use are okay, but using it internally in a company means you have to give a link to the source in the about box.
  73. So (enough whining) what can you DO with this code by Christopher+Biggs · · Score: 1

    I signed up, promised my firstborn son, downloaded the code, read a buttload of docs on the builder and compiled up the producer apps. Shockingly, it built with no errors.

    But there's no doco (or I didn't find it yet), and no hint of what the hell all these binaries are supposed to do.

    I just want to convert all these useless .rm files on my drive to MPEG (VCD specifically) so I never have to deal with rm again. I've had zero luck getting this done using transcode, mencoder or mjpegtools; the output always has flicker, or bad audio sync.

    Has anybody figured out what this helix release actually does?

    --
    -- veni vidi nuclei deceri --- I came, I saw, I dumped core.
  74. Thanks, Will this continue? by Felinoid · · Score: 1

    My mother is planning to do talk radio over the internet soon.
    I was recomending she do it in mp3 and ogg.
    Now however I'll change that to RealMedia and ogg.
    But I'll recomend she be ready to drop RealMedia.. I already suggested this of mp3 and ogg.
    Why? Real has no small history of stranding users. While Internet media started on Unix (With internet radio projects) and MacOs (With CuSeeme net confrencing) Real has chousen to make clients for Windows only.
    This sense of fickleness dose not go unnoticed.
    The last time I looked the current Linux client was one version behind the 'current' and still in beta.
    This sort of thing is why I was refusing to recomend Real Media.
    I'm sure I'm not alone in seeing this. With the spyware mistake many are probably going to see RealMedia as "Yet annother Windows format" As there is no assurence that anyone not using Windows could use it.

    --
    I don't actually exist.