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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.
We better stop them fast before they steal any more of our freedom.
--sdem
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
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
If Ogg was the defacto standard, more people than Real would be supporting it. Real's a good step towards further usage of Ogg.
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.
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.
"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.
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
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:
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.
my question is:
.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.. :-/
Will this allow me to transform the
i had a sig, once..