Slashdot Mirror
Real Launches New Player, Music Store
kforeman writes "You may have heard Real's
many announcements today, including the release of RealPlayer 10
with vastly improved codecs, as well as our new Music Store. As a
result of the player engine being developed in the Helix
community, we're able to offer the benefits of the new RealAudio
and RealVideo in
in the Helix Player for Linux. We read Slashdot here at Real, especially when the
subject of our company or technology comes up, so we know some of you
may not have liked recent versions of our player. This release
represents a much friendlier direction for us; more options that were
'opt-out' are now 'opt-in'. In developing RealVideo 10,
our codec team has been working closely with the Doom9 community, and
has been posting
updates to that forum (look for references to RV9-EHQ). The tests
that have been performed by that community show RealVideo doing
quite well against the competition." There's a CNET News article discussing the announcements, including the jukebox's ability to play "secure downloads from the iTunes store", for those looking for another point of view.
But all the page said was "Buffering..."
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
my problem isnt in the "opt-out" issues in your player. I've gotten used to having to opt-out of just about everything. My problem is with its chronic takeover of my media, inherent bloat and general slowness, and its over-affinity for my ram. Though I cant say that many other windows-based media players are better.
.
Put any software that can be labelled as spyware in your product, become an instant pariah. I'm already VERY wary of any Real-player-related product.
Ryan Fenton
Sorry. Quicktime offers better quality. WMP just works better. Real needs to serious innovations to get back in the race. They still completly throw interface standards out the window. Even iTunes, with all its quirks, still sort of maintains standards.
Implicit Evaluation with PHP
I am forced to install Real Player (Free version) on our workstations since some of the resources our lawyers access requires it.
I do *NOT* like this situation. Real has caused us more headaches than any other app we use.
What, besides the "options" being opt-in, would make me *want* to install RealPlayer for our users?
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Real's actions seem to be mirroring Netscape's very closely. FIrst in order to compete with Microsoft, the go open source. Next they sue Microsoft for antitrust violations. Now they are in a fighting for survival in a market dominated by others. Hope fully this will turn out better for them.
Does anyone know if they updated the Mac version, and if so, does it play iTunes Store files there?
Then I hope you read this. RealOne was one of the most offensive pieces of software I've ever installed on my system. I eventually managed to get rid of it and put on an older player, but some Real content just doesn't play without the new player. As a result, I simply avoid content for Real Player. Haven't really missed it. I rather expect that many Slashdot readers feel as I do.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I'll just stick to RealAlternative, thanks.
will they release RealPorn? if they're so interested in giving us what we want, give us the RealPorn!
Try this instead?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Seriously. Make your player not look like a pile of dog shit that was in the microwave for 10 minutes too long. When I install your software, I want to install that: your software. NOT a free trial of AOL, and furthermore, your player should speak only when spoken to (i.e. not get greedy and put itself in the menu bar and load on startup) and really, I only need one shortcut to it on my computer, not one on the desktop, one in the menu bar, one in the start button...etc.
Thanks but no thanks. I'll stick to iTunes. You say you guys at Real read Slashdot? Put your money where your mouth is.
As a proud Treo 600 owner, the press release that got my attention was this one that describes the availability of Real tunes on Treo. This could be really cool if I can actually access the Real store from my Treo 600. Then I could be anywhere in the country, buy a song, download it and listen to it on the spot. Could come in real handy on road trips.
Anyone know if this will be the case, or will it just support playback on the Treo after you buy them on your PC?
We, we, we? Who are you? Who compromises the "we"??
BTW, I was unable to see the helix website because my browser said the security certificate did not match the name of who it was granted to.
So how many more hidden things are "opt-in". If you hear us, then why hide spyware?
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Wo wo wo wait a sec. Real releases a new player and a new codec. That works on linux, developed in the helix community. That might not suck. And it plays iTunes encrypted songs.
Will it do my laundry as well?
I don't think the "sponge" can hold any more water. Real doesn't exactly have a positive consumer outlook with *anyone* and that is what is needed to survive. Perhaps they should concentrate and using their talent to develop a player people want to use (and pay for.. how do you comptete with WinAmp or iTunes which are free....) before worrying about this extra crap.
I am glad to see that the Windows real player is taking a more "player" like stance, not a big billboard that happens to include video. It has been putting off our adoption of realplayer. I'd suggest elimination of the "marketing blitz" on the player, as websites don't want viewers to have to view 50 popups and various registration just to play our content! It's bad enough to ask them to download a player, but to ask them to be subjected to that? People don't want to buy "Pro", they don't want viagra, they don't want more spam, they don't want to be forced to register the player... all they want to do is to be able to view our content! Although we hate windows media, it is installed on much more of our viewers than realplayer and generally just acts as a player... which is leaning us that way.
Hear hear. Real Networks had a shot in 98' to do it right and they opted for the "we will take over your operating system and destroy it" syndrone. The "creative geniuses" in their boardroom should be making lattes at Starbucks. Real Networks = Future playbook on how to make every conceivable wrong move under the sun. I root for almost anyone playing against Microsoft, but it would divine intervention for these guys to get crushed under the boot and extinguished in a puff of smoke.
I see a lot of people posting negative comments about the Real player and policies. I'm not much of a windows user, so I can't really judge. I also haven't thoroughly tried out the new Real release, so I can't tell you if they're doing what they say they're doing. On the other hand, I don't think anyone posting about how awful Real is has done so, either.
As far as I'm concerned, it's your actions now and the trust you can give me for your future actions that affect my opinion of you. If Real is really changing their ways, going for faster and more open codecs, and moving away from forcing me to sign my life away to install a media player, is that something we want to discourage?
The jury is still out on what the new player and registration scheme is like. But as far as I'm concerned, if Real can learn from their mistakes and bad PR to turn around and do the right thing, they should be proud of what they're doing, the editors of Slashdot should be proud of having made a positive difference, and we should be applauding them, not denigrating them.
So let's wait to see their new stripes before we go hunting them.
"We think the legal online distribution of movies is going to be a big business sooner than a lot of people think," said Real's senior vice president of marketing Dan Sheehan. "With today's bandwidth via broadband, that can be a reality."
Other things Real's senior vice president of marketing Dan Sheehan thinks are going to be HUGE in the coming years:
fresh drinking water in every home - "With today's underground pipe system, that can be a reality."
horseless carriage or "automobile" - "With today's improvements in steam or gasoline engines, that can be a reality."
the cross-country telegraph - "With today's amazing conductive wires, that can be a reality."
fire - "With today's spark-creating rocks, that can be a reality."
Mr. Sheehan also mentioned his business is ready for the upcoming advances in vacuum tube technology that will allow computers to fit inside a single room, and have enough magnetic core memory to install all Real Networks adware and .dll files without crashing.
How is this insightful? Is no company able to ever improve? People keep bringing up the fact that IBM used to be the Enemy yet is now one of the biggest friends to the open source community, but Real has no possible way they can improve?
On the other hand, they said they're reading Slashdot. If comments like the parent are what they've been seeing, maybe they just decided to ignore public opinion, since so much of it seems to be pointless criticism.
I was going to take another look at your license agreement to see if it was any less preposterous than the previous one, which basically wanted admin privileges on user's machines so it could shoehorn in all kinds of DRM crap and all the usual garbage. After supplying the usual fake information in order to access the download (following links from the "version 10" announcement on the front page), what came down for OSX was labeled version 9, beta.
You should put the license agreement somewhere obvious on the site so people can inspect it before downloading. And maybe don't have links to version 10 until version 10 is really there?
Glad you're reading slashdot. I'd take careful notes on the comments in here to learn why most slashdotters can't abide Real, and make whatever changes you can make.
-- http://frobnosticate.com
Everybody seems to be whining about what a bloaded piece of crap the current RealPlayer is, how it eats system resources, changes your settings, can't be gotten rid of, and installs a pile of spyware. I don't know how much of that is true of the Windows version, but the Mac version is pretty benign. It doesn't change system settings I don't want it to, it doesn't run automatically in the background, uninstallation is as simple as dragging the single icon from the Applications folder to the Trash, and it uses less RAM than AIM, Safari, Mail, iTunes or even Terminal.
The most annoying thing is that it requires you to sign up for an account on real.com with an e-mail address and password. What's the point of this? It's a hassle, the first time you set it up.
Another minor annoyance is that the application quits when you close the window, and you can't have more than one window open simultaneously, but that's forgivable.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
When it comes to their player...I'll have to agree with you. RealOne has been a major disappointment. I hope they can raise the quality of their player. And this quality can be raised by not adding more and more bloat, but streamlining the interface so it stays out of the way as much as possible. Of course, that's my own opinion. But I think more than a few would agree with me on the bloat issue.
I should note, for reference, that WMA version upgrades, at least until WMA Pro came out, were basically just encoder upgrades, which is why having so many versions of WMA (e.g. 2, 7, 8, 9 non-Pro) doesn't break hardware support.
Their player has not always sucked. There was a time when they were the only option for streaming audio over the internet, and considering the available bandwidth and CPU resources they did a pretty dang good job of it. As with any technology, competitors came along, everything got better with time as technologies advanced, and Real slipped a bit. There is still hope though. Don't knock a product before trying. If they say they fixed many of the annoyances and such, and improved the codecs, they may very well not be lying. And for the record, I don't think I've ever had any problems removing a Real player from a MS Windows box, though it's been quite some time since I used MS Windows on my personal machines.
going against the grain here...I quite like real player for linux...and their media format. Their media format has always been (in my humble view, and I'm just a viewer not a media expert) a good trade off between compactness and quality. I haven't used a windows system for years, so I can't really comment on the spyware stuff...however, for a long time it was almost impossible to play real files on linux...Real publishing a linux player was just one more nicety that made a full transition away from windows possible.
:)
so hazah to the guys at real networks...well done you, I hope you get to read this post
Has always been a MUCH better experience for me than on Windows. Maybe it is because all those things people really hate about realplayer can only occur in a Windows environment or maybe they just figure the community wouldn't stand for it.
Anyway, it doesn't seem to make sense ranting and bashing Realplayer when you have partially already decided to be treated like a mindless consumer by your choice in operating systems.
Before you flame me, tell me that all adware or nasty take-control-ware would disappear from Windows if Realplayer were to suddenly disappear.
Face it, it is like spam. For every one of you who got sick of it and just figured a way to uninstall it, 10 other windows users just gave up and decided to live with it.
Maybe if you want software companies to behave differently, you should come to terms with what REALLY is most important about the software you use.
'cause it seems more and more that Microsoft is the only company these days that can make money off of software the good ol' fasion way.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
iTunes load several dameons that run in the background at all times. I'm not in windows, so I can't check, but I know there is a default 'helper' service as well as an 'ipod' service. On my computer iTunes typically eats up a good 30 megs of ram even when not running.
It's this simple: I don't want to support any player or company that supports only proprietary formats. Supporting Real codecs means limiting my options.
I want to see content produced in standards based "open" codecs like MPEG 4, Motion JPEG,AAC, MP3, etc. When I click on a video file from the web I don't want to have to DL some specialized player, I want the player I want to launch.
When a web site requires a Real player I find another source for the video, or write the operators and ask them for another format.
Also.. you don't really understand QT if you don't mention what codec it was using. QT supports about 12 video codecs out of the box, from Apple-only ones like "Animation" to standards like "Sorenson" and "MPEG 4". Quicktime is a file and syncronization format, not a codec. It's a media wrapper.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Well, RealShittyPlayer folks, if you read Slashdot, I hope you read this. Try not to take it personally. Your product sucks. Sucks SO BADLY that I prefer a Microsoft product over yours, something which I thought would never happen. Windows Media Player is less intrusive, less full of spyware, easier to use, more attractive, and sucks less. Now for the constructive criticism: Get rid of the "messenger" ad spamming service. Oh boy, that's fun. I love ads that come up AFTER I've closed the program. Thank you so very much. Get rid of the "feature" that makes RealShittyPlayer the default application for every media type on my computer. Get rid of the "service" that signs up unsuspecting users for spam for eternity. Make the application skinnable while you're at it. The default is INCREDIBLY ugly. I won't ever use it again anyway, seeing as how it FUCKS UP THE COMPUTER when trying to uninstall it, but I thought I'd put those suggestions out there. One more thing...please go out of business as quickly as possible. kthxbye
Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
There are good media players out there, you just need to know what to look for and where.
Media Player Classic (MPC) is a shining example of a solid, simple player with a good feature set.
Since you're probably interested in being able to play most video formats, you'll want to download Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative to save you the hassle of installing the invasive Quicktime and Real players. Both QT and Real alternative are codecs rather than full blown players, and allow you to view their respective video formats in MPC.
Top it off with the DivX and XviD codecs, and you should be able to play pretty much anything under the sun with the exception of DVDs.
Unfortunatly I don't know of a free codec that can play DVDs, thanks to the RIAA's work on DeCSS. If you have a registered DVD decoder package, you'll probably be able to use MPC with it's supplied codec.
You can now play all your videos in a single place without sacraficing your privacy.
I hope that helps.
I used RealPlayer when I first got my PC WAAAAY back in the day. I was unimpressed with the average video quality, and I was unimpressed with the clunky interface in the player. As a result, it didn't last out the week on my PC. I never reinstalled it for years afterward, as I never saw a need to.
Last year, someone gave me a CD with a bunch of movies in .RM format on it, and me and my roommate at the time watched them together. I was forced to watch them with RealOne, as I didn't know about RealAlternative at the time. The movies would freeze at times, the player was a miserable experience. I would be doing whatever on my PC, and an ad would pop up advertising something I didn't want (at least you had the balls to admit that it was RealOne displaying the ad. Kudos for that.) The player was clunky, and although better than previous versions, my roommate was well used to me swearing at RealOne every time it froze, crashed, or even just hit the end of the current movie.
The point I am trying to make here is that I have had nothing but bad experiences with RealPlayer. With RealAlternative, I can watch .RM files in Windows Media player without issue, and WMP is one of the few Microsoft products that I have to give kudos to. There just aren't many out there that are any better.
The sad fact of the matter is that I do not feel like I SHOULD give RealPlayer 10 a chance. I don't like the .RM format, and I dislike the player. All the previous versions were horrible, and WMP does the job fine for me.
Me too.
.rm files I have floating around. Once I have this, I'll have no need of Real Networks anymore.
So that I don't add a unhelpful ``me too'' post to the world, I'll elaborate. I use Win95c (when I use Windows, I'm mostly Linux now). Typically I need to reboot once every week or so. It runs this long because I have a very limited set of programs that I run from Windows. Firebird, Zmud, and Irfanview account for 99% of what Windows gets to run. Opening RealPlayer is a guarantee that I'll have to reboot within 24 hours or so, assuming it doesn't outright crash. I'm through with RealPlayer. It doesn't matter how good Real's new player is, nor does it matter how good Real's new codec is. I'm not going to sit here and passively wait on Real (or Microsoft, for that matter) to get their shit together. I'm actively searching for a replacement so that I can play (or convert) the few
Here's a free tip, guys at Real: release the specs for your old codecs so that nobody has to use your player anymore.
Now I have a dislike for apps like RealOne as much as the next person BUT all the media players do the same thing. WMP and Quicktime all make programs that don't follow interface standards try to make it so that for viewing movies you need different players. (imagine needing different browsers for different sites or different image viewers for different codecs)
Real is accused of phoning home but so did WMP when you played DVD's. WMP has the same bloat.
So considering they are all equally bad why is real getting all the flak? I think that MS does have the winning strategie. People put up with bloat just as long as it comes pre-installed. Quicktime and Real you have to jump through hoops to add to a windows machine (linux to for that matter) and this puts people in a bad mood even before the program is launched. If then even the tiniest mistake like taking over existing extensions is made people will be pissed off wich is reinforced everytime they are forced to launch your program.
Moral, perhaps release a codec only install that simply allows every player to play your movies. Make your money on the creator side and let the player be as unobstrusive as possible. Of course this carries the risk that your name will disappear. Then decision makers will simply presume that MS is the only codec maker and that everyone runs windows, oh wait. They already do that.
Never mind.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
I clicked on the big, orange, "FREE DOWNLOAD" 14 day trial button (god knows why?) and I get through to the very end and I am expected to enter my credit card details, for a FREE trial?
:-) Thanks, guys!
Firstly, I don't know what possessed me to even think of trying your evil software again, but the deed is done - there's no going back.
Secondly, I saw NO mention of having to hand over my credit card number until AFTER I enter all sorts of information you DON'T need to know and that I will NEVER give you.
Finally, in the spirit of forgiveness, I should actually be *thankful* to Real Networks for actually asking for the credit card number because I pressed ALT F4 the moment I saw it. So, you see, Real Networks have saved me from themselves - a fate worse than death
They want you to get an account to be able to download the Helix Player binaries.
(Call me paranoid, but I'm just not sure I trust a project which claims to be OSS and then wants me to tell them who I am before I d/l their software)
How was actually locating the exe to install? In my past experience with installing RealPlayer, the install was the minor part, and 99% of the bother consisted of trying to navigate Real's labyrinth-like frequently-changing website to find the series of three tiny links in successive pages that would take you to the page where you select your platform and download an installer, while huge, deceptive buttons that make you think they lead to the free version try to lure you off path and into whereever it is that Real sells you their Super Premium Ultra products which requires a credit card number to continue.
Really, this is the part that made me get to the point that now, if someone gives me a media url, if it can't be played in Quicktime or VLC I just don't bother.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Click on Free Player.
View page about the non-free player.
Find hidden link for Free Player.
View another page advertising the non-free player.
Find hidden link for Free Player...
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
You clicked the wrong button. Try looking in the upper righthand corner and clicking on Free Realplayer
Quicktime and iTunes have a very large number of problems. But at least they've never tried to embed advertisements into your playback windows.
...starts quicktime...
"Hey you downloaded the free version of our software. But you really want to pay version, right?"
not in the playback window, but still, an ad pitch.
Um... WMP takes up a lot more than 6MB, you just can't see it directly because it's all in the core system.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Yes, we read these posts. Yes, we have had to build a business model on Windows that doesn't assume we can extract un fair rents from the OS. On Linux we have a new open source strategy and the codecs announced today are available to Linux users. When Linux wins Real wins since we are building the best open source linux player and selling added value services users really recommend, like Rhapsody.
Kevin Foreman
Okay, so if I ignore the annoy-ware and spy-ware issues, I still have problems with the basic operation of Real Player. Two to be exact:
1. It is slow to respond to user input, even when it is the only thing running. I admit that a 300 MHz machine is not blindingly fast by todays standards, but Real Player should at least be usable in this environment.
2. Crashes - I can't listen for more than about 20 minutes without it locking up. Sometimes only the program, sometimes Win-98. Frustrating enough to keep one from even trying to use the software.
If only there was a Winamp plugin to play ".rm" files..........
--
Just my $0.02
That's the euphemism of the decade.
Game... blouses.
I just tried to download the Helix Player Binary. I again needed to accept a license which states:
...
2. LICENSE RESTRICTIONS.
a) You may not: (i) permit other individuals to use the Software except under the terms listed above; (ii) modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or use any other method (including "clean room" development) to learn the source code of the Software
So, if I agree to that license, does that mean I am never ever again allowed to do a clean room implementation for any Real formats?
Thanks for any thoughts about this.
Clicked the button in my freedesktop.org KDE/Gnome menu and it worked.
No spam, popups, system tray crap, or anything else in the Linux version. Though they should
Here's the package, by the way, for Fedora Core 1.
Here's the source package
If the files aren't there right now, they will be soon.
Media Player Classic with QT Alternative (and Real Alternative if you need it) should be able to do that without a problem. Then you can get rid of QT too :P
Why should I pay for the right to use a media player which I dont even need?
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Well shit, you missed out on the best part. On the next page it asks for your social security number, ATM PIN, and mothers maiden name.
I found a program called "Real Alternative" that plays Real video files on MSWindows. I think I first found it from another Slashdot post. It works well without any of the bad stuff of the official players from Real.
.rpm) .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil) .smi and .smil files only play the first part of a clip. This is a limitation of the current Media Player Classic.
From the installer notes:
---
More information and updates can be found on the following websites:
http://www.freecodecs.com
Now a "Coming Soon. But domains from us" page
http://mirror.edskes.com
Redirects to http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm that has downloads available
Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files. This way you can play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer/RealOne Player. You do need a player that is capable of playing RealMedia. The included Media Player Classic supports it and works very well.
Supported:
- RealAudio (.ra
- RealMedia (.rm
- RealText (.rt)
- ReadPix (.rp)
- RealMedia embedded in webpages
---
The player says it is GPL by "Gabest". He has programs at http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/. He wrote the "Media Player Classic" that RealAlt extends.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
Actually, on my Win2k box here, iTunesHelper.exe is sitting at about 4.8MB, and iPodService.exe is at 3.3MB. It ain't exactly svelte, but it ain't 30 megs either. :)
Okay I found a substitute for Real Player. Have not yet tried to use it, but the site note reads:
a lterna tive.htmt ernative/p rivate/1.11a re/04_data.ht ml
Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files. This way you can play RealMedia files without having to install the RealPlayer/RealOne Player. You do need a player that is capable of playing RealMedia and the included Media player Classic supports it and works very well.
Check out:
http://reformed-theology.org/downloads/real
http://lekkerekwal.com/downloadz/RealAl
http://home.wi.rr.com/johnhood/freew
Quit your bitching ...
It's FREE!
If you don't want to run RealPlayer run HELIXPLAYER.
It's Open Source and runs on Linux!
$0.99/song and $9.95/album
and Hi-MD with 1GB capacity. The new MD walkmans cost $200 to $400.
Interesting to see how Apple would respond.
(you can't install it on more than 2 machines?)
(you can't call the plugins via, say, mplayer?)
(DRM, yummy!)
WTF?
Note: you can't disable it: only change the frequency
No thank you.. I'll pass!
Ok, so im willing to give RealNetworks a chance. Heres my take on Helix.
;))
I downloaded and installed the rpm with no problem.
Clicking Applications->Sound and Video shows an icon in the expected place (a lot of programs dont bother to put icons in the gnome/kde menu).
Clicking the icon brings up the Helix Player almost instantly. I must admit, it doesnt *look* like Real Player, which is definitely a Good Thing(tm).
The interface is clean.
Help->Contents doesnt work, neither does Help->Search or Help->Accelerators. (But who actually asks for help in linux eh?
Im kinda doubting that there is any spyware in the program, since the source code is available. But if someone else could shed some light on this, it'd of course be helpful.
So, jokes aside Helix Player works and works as i'd expect a music player to work. A *HUGE* improvement from the old Real bloatplayer.
I work for RealNetworks, and I am the first to admit RealPlayer is not my favorite media player. For video, Media Player Classic (MPC) is, and yes, I use MPC to play my RV9-EHQ aka RV10 content.
Previous RealPlayers have been pretty impolite to put it mildly, and along with so many other computer users, I have been ticked off by its behaviour in many ways. It has been possible to make it well mannered, but it has included being forced to delete certain files to prevent that annoying Message Center. However, it has not been spyware in a long time, even though one old player did send back some usage information. That's long gone, but it's hard to be forgiven for that mistake.
Considering how past players have created such a bad reputation, this post is probably futile, but anyway... Thanks to those few positive posts though, especially for the Linux and OS X players. It is nice to see someone taking the time to give it a another chance.
This RealPlayer 10 is better than before, it is fast, small, and does not run +10MB services in the background, like one well known example, name withheld. However, this post is not really about performance, even though a lot could be said about improvements in this area. More importantly in this discussion, it is also better in terms of its behaviour, albeit less better than me, many of my co-workers, and all of you, had hoped for.
Here's what you need to do when installing:
So to summarize, a few clicks are needed to opt-out, you have to "sign in" the first time. Yes, somewhat annoying, but that's about it. It could have been better, but compared to many other examples, it's not that terrible. Since it has been so very bad in the past though, it clearly should have changed more to make a shining example, but since it is RealNetworks' main vehicle for generating revenue, there is a lot of nervousness about changing things too quickly.
Download the free RealPlayer 10 Beta here, with no re-direction or sales tricks:
http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=slashdot
And you can find me the forum below with more information about all the gory technical details about what's new with the Real 10 Platform, including RV 10, and RA 10 (AAC!):
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid= 68245
I don't think Real has done anything all that bad in the past. They are a company, guys! They are going to have make money to stay in business. Advertisement is one of the common ways a company tries to collect revenue without having to charge the user money. If you disliked this so much, did you ever write them even a single email telling them so? If so, you are part of the problem -- complaining to yourself accomplishes nothing.
I applaud Real's attempt to make a player that is better than the next guy and is attempting to be free. I've worked for a few companies now, and I know that getting everyone to agree on making something GPL is most often laughable. It takes a big culture change. Reward those who make that culture change with kind words, don't be rude!
Consider the guy who was on the fence when these decisions were being made. If he read half of these comments he'd just think that these people just want the software for free, they care about nothing else! (He might even be right.)