NPR's Car Talk Dumping RealMedia

olcrazypete writes: "Click and Clack are apparently fed up with Real Networks. They have switched to Windows Media Player format. 'Why? Because, for a long time, we've had tons of complaints about RealNetworks. And the one that ticks us off the most is the perceived trickery they use to sell their premium products. This is just our opinion, mind you, but it's shared by enough of our listeners, that we finally decided to take action.' The whole story is here . My favorite line: 'It stinks so much that it even makes Microsoft look good by comparison. That's something, huh?'"

Comments

Realmedia

[Bishop, Martin]

I would like to write an open letter to the people of RealMedia, telling them how I disp *BUFFERING*

Re:Realmedia

[Ravadill]

Actually I think he's referring to the excellent "Media Player Classic" a GPL "re-write" of mplayer2, it has all of features that the original did (small size, clean interface) and a heap of extra's such as Realmedia/Quicktime and even flash playback support using the IE plugin controls. http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

Re:Realmedia

[dnoyeb]

I think though that real has lots of issue.

1. its HARD to find the free player. They keep saying "free player here" but then nothing be for sale ones show up, then you find the little link hidden in the corner somewhere.

2. they want email for download. I know you can enter a fake one. But I get tired of it all.

3. They will install loads of *extra* garbage that MS wont. (Or MS is much better and covert-ops)

4. It will take you weeks to learn all the tons of things you need to turn off to keep that thing from harrassing you.

5. if you don't register, it keeps asking you each time you try to play a file. You get choice OK-Cancel (among other issues) which implies either register, or don't play. Quicken does the same horrible thing with their update feature...

I used to like realplayer better than MS. But if they are going to be equally as corrupt, I'll stick with MS since I already have it :D Real player was always better on the mp3s though.

Why lock in listeners?

[Gunfighter]

Switch to something a little more open minded... like Nullsoft's Shoutcast. I listen to some pretty nice UK radio stations from across the pond with KDE's Noatun whilst I code thanks to Shoutcast. I don't see any reason why its not usable for radio broadcasts like Click & Clack.

Linux and FreeBSD options

[Larne]

For those who don't know already, both mplayer and xine play streaming windows media just fine on Linux/FreeBSD/etc.

Why not Quicktime?

[BWJones]

Seriously though. These guys (Click and Clack) are Macheads so why not quicktime? The Quicktime streaming server fundamentals are under the Darwin open source and free paradigms, there are no licensing fees as there are with Windows, and hey, it's so easy to use. So, what gives?

Adult Industry

[Neon Spiral Injector]

Back when Real Media was using the adult entertainment industry to get their hold on the streaming media market, they had a special link for adult websites that made it much more obvious how to download the free player. Of course back then finding the free player link from their main page wasn't so hard either.

Divx.com is guilty of the same thing. They have a free codec package that will work fine with Windows Media Player. But it isn't in their table of their three main products. Also if you do find it, and just go with the install default config options, you'll see a Divx watermark at the start of every video. This can be turned off easy enough from the "Decoder Configuration Utility".

Four words

[stox]

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Never go back

[Konster]

Go here to get Real Alternative.

It plays Real Audio crap without the need for Real's crapware.

Windows only, I do believe.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alterna ti ve.htm

Re:Real already changed the site in response to th

[joe_bruin]

no they did not. they are still playing games.

go to http://www.real.com/.
the headline reads: Introducing RealPlayer 10
subheadline: New Powerful Free
with a big image with a big, bright "Free" logo.

click on the free logo takes you here:
http://www.real.com/realplayer.html?pp=home&src=01 2904realhome_1_3_2_1_1_1

there are two big "Download Now" buttons on this site. both lead to the non-free premium player. in the margin on the right, with grey text over a grey background, there is a link to the free player.

that is bullshit. i know the free player is there, and that real plays tricks, so i specifically look for it. the average internet user, on the other hand, may not be that aware.

real are still assholes, and i am glad cartalk is moving away from their format because of their shitty tactics.

File Types

[Anonymous Coward]

To me file types are like a langauge. They should be free and open. Could you imagine the mess we'd be in if we had to pay a fee to use the english language. Or if someone kept it hidden so that it could only be used with their translators. For the man that could patent it, it would be a gold mine.

Behind the scenes

[Alien Being]

Car Talk's technical advisor, Meg Ahertz said that the RealMedia is complete bogosity. "I tried to reason with their VP, Hugh Jass, but he redirected me to their lawyers, Dewey, Cheatham and Howe." At that point, I turned the matter over to our staff mediators, Sue First and Bernadette Bridge. The rest is history.

Re:Surprise?

[1iar_parad0x]

Actually, they're both pretty smart.

Tom Bio
Ray's Bio

Tom had scholarships to both MIT and Harvard, worked as an engineer, got an MBA, earned a PhD, taught for several years as a professor, taught international business abroad, started his own do-it-yourself auto repair shop (very hacker like), and has a successful auto repair show. Oh, and Ray, the "stupid" one, went to MIT too.

Also, if you listen to their show, every week they have a math problem for their listeners to solve. The show is great. They're both pretty funny and the show is surprisingly entertaining. Who said gearheads are stupid?

Re:This will be modded down

[digitaleus]

Slashdot is like any other group of ordinary people - it has it's own prejudices, which may be based in fact but are kept alive by intuitions. Facts are just a tool to validate those intuitions.

Slashdot is not a research facility, it's not a debtate, it's an informal discussion, and you can't come in and demand that people involved in the discussion be less biased - accept that this is the tone of the group, and if you want to, join in.

No one's forcing you to read....