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.

Comments

With the amount of spyware that Real is spreading

[saskboy]

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...

Re:GPL violations?

[Enry]

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

How about the server?

[quinto2000]

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.

Re:How about the server?

[robla]

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

Re:How about the server?

[damiam]

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

Re:How about the server?

[robla]

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.

Re:i wonder...

[tempest303]

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.

Re:GPL violations?

[robla]

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

Ogg Vorbis reference software licensing

[yerricde]

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?).

Re:i wonder...

[Soko]

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

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

[tabdelgawad]

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!

Re:Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

[robla]

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).