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NPR's Car Talk Switches Back To RealAudio
taped2thedesk writes "Today, NPR's Car Talk, a 'call in talk [radio] show about car mechanics', announced they were switching back to RealAudio, after dumping it for Windows Media a few months ago. When the show switched to Windows Media, Real took notice and convinced the show to switch back, by addressing various listener complaints about their player (many of which were fixed in RealPlayer 10). The hosts say: 'We believe [Real have] made a serious and successful attempt to address those things that our listeners complained about most... They even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover.'"
From Real: We think our new RealPlayer 10 is, beyond a doubt, our friendliest and best player yet.
Nice to know that I can listen to Click and Clack on my computer without being constantly bombarded with pop-ups from a piece of annoyware.
Oh wait, I've been doing that for weeks thanks to Real Alternative. All the joy of streaming audio without Real's player.
It sounds like Car Talk's Complaint Line Operator, Xavier Breath, earned his paycheck this week.
Wow. First Microsoft adds a project to Sourceforge and now Real has admitted that not everyone likes being bombarded by pushy bookmarks and shortcuts of unusual size. What next? SCO admiting that maybe they didn't invent sliced bread?
Seriously though, I'm glad to see that Tom and Ray gave Real a second chance. If it's true that they is dedicated to responding to customer's complaints then this is a good thing for everyone.
He took a duck to the face at 250 knots.
I liked Real Audio streams back when the Real Audio plugin was an embedded object in the webpage. Same holds true for windows media. I consider this to be a step in the WRONG direction... I dont want a whole app suite firing up, spamming me, just to listen to some audio. My Rant is done.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
From the system requirements for RealPlayer 10.0:
"- Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0
with Service Pack 6 or later(playback only), Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows XP
- IE 5.0 or later"
I truly wish they would do more to support *nix users - they DO have *nix versions but they are well behind the development of the Window$ versions... I'd like to see a *nix version of their Rhapsody player made available as well.
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code...
I subscribe to Liverpool Football Club's liverpoolfc.tv service that provides live streaming audio of all of Liverpool's football (soccer) matches. Based on "user complaints", they switched to Windows Media streaming audio feeds from Real Audio for the first time this weekend. If user comments are any indication, this was a complete failure. Admittedly this was the first major test, but the performance was extremely poor, the audio cut out frequently and the quality of the feed was much poorer than I'm used to.i ng-I-do software packaging as much as the next person, but I think its well worth it for the superior experience you now get with it. And the improvements since Real 6.0 with its leak-buckets-of-memory-and-crash-Windows issues is significant.
I hate the Real bundle-of-everything-I-don't-want-with-the-one-th
On the other hand, Real's reason to exist is streaming media....and admittedly, they had a headstart over the others. But is it really feasible for them to survive based solely on RealServer software sales? I don't think any reasonably sane/not abnoxiously rich person would subscibe to their "Real Gold Superpass" etc.
I think that's why they were pushing on advertising, popups and spyware with such fervor - that's about the only means of income and existence they have left - without a reliable business plan.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
But the real reason is they got free hosting from Real.
;)
And they even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover.
We're in no position to ever turn down generosity, no matter how misguided. So, we took them up on their offer, before they could reconsider.
Also they mentioned the "Hidden" free player problem. I mentioned it awhile back on slashdot but the trolls came out and said "Its right there!!!" Well, looks even Real admited the free version was hard to find.
On the issue of the "hidden" free player, they've agreed to provide a direct link from Car Talk to a clear, uncluttered, free player download page. On the issue of pop ups, they tell us they're gone.
I hate to say this, but after staying far, far away from Realplayer for years (I don't think I've used it since 1999), I finally found something I really, really wanted to listen to online that was RealPlayer only. All the alternatives to RealPlayer seemed like too much of a pain to set up (I'm extraordinarily lazy), so I decided, against my better judgment, to give the new player a download and see how it worked.
It's actually really not bad at all. The install is fairly short and lets you pick your media types, what shortcuts to install, etc. and unlike old versions of RealPlayer doesn't just DO IT ANYWAY. ("Would you like your homepage changed to real.com?" "No." "Homepage changed!") It doesn't ask for some obnoxious registration, load itself into my start bar, or do any of that other "helpful" BS that made the old RealPlayer such a dog.
So far it seems to be a small little player that does what it does, and nothing you don't want. Since I still don't really trust Real, I'm waiting for some popup to come up, or wake up one day and find "RealConsole RAM-Fucker Pro" installed on my desktop or something, but so far, nothing.
But for now, it just plays Realaudio files. What a novel concept for an application. It's actually been pleasant to use. (RealVideo still sucks, though.)
As of last Friday at least, clicking on the "Download Free Player" would only take you to their store, which had no links to the actual free player (wanted it for http://www.airamericaradio.com).
As an avid WNYC listener and member, I applaud the choice to move away from Windows Media format. However, MP3 is a patented format that is not Free (as in Freedom). I am sure that I am in the minority here, but I can't help but feel that in some way I am being slighted. In my opinion, the principles involved in my choice to use Free Software on my computer are much akin to the reasons I choose to listen to Public Radio.
mp3licensing.com states:
"A license is needed for commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3/mp3PRO in broadcast systems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other distribution channels), streaming applications (via Internet, intranets and/or other networks), other content distribution systems (pay-audio or audio-on-demand applications and the like) or for use of mp3/mp3PRO on physical media (compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the like)."
"However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00."
How does this apply to WNYC? I for one prefer not to have my contributions to be used to pay support this kind of thing, when it is against my social and political ideals. Especially when there are free (as in beer and speech) alternatives such as the Xiph project.
It is my hope to not second guess the current decision to standardize on MP3, but to perhaps begin a dialogue for openness in media formats in the future of public radio. For now I can live with MP3. I will have to compromise and add non-free software to my computer, for now.
Not only is it right there on the left side of their front page, they also left me with a pop-up (pop-under) offering their free player for download when I closed their site window! hahaha...
Hey, didn't Complaint #5 deal with popups?????
--D
I understand (and sometimes make) the argument that "gratis" doesn't always mean "cheap", since someone has to run the system and in this setting you'd probably have to pay them to do it. Still, the whole reason I love listening to these guys so much is that they are the alpha geeks of the automotive mechanic world. It's not like Tom and Ray are a couple of guys who tinker with cars in their back yard and have no technology background.
Real Player doesn't come with Windows XP, so you can't use the argument that you don't want to make your users install additional software, since they'll have to anyway. The official answer from NPR is that
although I'm not quite ready to believe that compressing to Real or WMA format is less costly that compressing to Vorbis.Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
The newest version of RealAudio crashes my computer.
Completely. Utterly. Requires a hard reset.
It has the disticntion of being the only peice of software I have ever installed that can do this EVERY TIME I START IT under Windows 2000.
Does that answer your question?
Pros
The worst ad's are sponsorship recognition
You learn something new every day
You become more liberal every day
No spyware
Supported by most AM/FM radios
Better news coverage than Fox News
Less Hollywood gossip induced brain atrophy
None of that [BUFFERING....] [97%][BUFFERING...] crap!
Cons
You still have to listen to the registration notice [Fund Drive] twice a year, even after you've paid the annual support fee! :)
Friends look at you funny when every other sentance starts with "I heard on NPR that..."
Screw you ClearChannel, we don't need that poppy Britney, Timberlake, OMG WTF Celeb shit, or the 57 Minute Non-stop Commercial MegaMixes!! Get your spam off of my radio
Sorry for the rant, Car Talk rulez, keep it real Click & Clack!
-- In Soviet Russia, radio listens to YOU!
I'm still not going to install their crapware, though, no matter what the EU says :)
This reminds me of something that happened a few years back. We were contacted by a certain very large fast food chain (who shall remain nameless) and they wanted to use some of our technology on their web site. They felt what we were doing with surveys and other systems were superior to everything else out there. The problem? They were in bed with Microsoft and Microsoft offered to provide free programming for their web site. Even so they were willing to pay us to integrate our technology into their web site because they felt it was better than anything Microsoft could offer. The problem was, because MS was willing to whore itself out to a large corporate client, we were forced to low-ball the value of our services in order to get the job to the point of losing money (and whoring ourselves out as well). In the end, we felt it just wasn't worth it.
This kind of practice is rampant in the industry. A company with large resources gives away inferior products and services in order to maintain business. A classic example of how the larger companies intentionally lose money to maintain the status quo, stifle innovation, and keep smaller operations from getting good contracts.
Obviously in the case of Real verses WMP, it's two big companies, but you'd think MS might also jump into the whorehouse against Real, but since WMP is the crux of a lot of suspected anti-trust activity, maybe they won't? In any case, all this stuff is really bad for consumers and the industry.
I don't know what version of Realplayer I have, but if I dare click on a link, when the program launches, it still installs that insideous tkbell.exe "worm" in my startup. I'm sick of Real.
No it is really meant to expose the hypocrisy and for people that read it to reflect of the danger of too much "Faith".
I think it's offensive
The comment is absolutely true I think the problem is that is co-opt a word that you think is useful for your agenda and I find dangerous.
Help fight continental drift.
The Car Talk guys own a garage in Cambridge, MA, and that is where I had my car serviced when I was a grad student at (I shall not speak the name of the evil institution).
The guys in the shop were not what you usually expect a mechanic to be. What I saw in those guys was the same thing I see in my propeller-headed software engineer colleagues. They were car hackers.
The most interesting visual in my memory was the heavy bearded guy welding a muffler with safety glasses on his face (i.e. no face mask) and a cigar hanging out of his mouth, talking about the physics of engine compression and how it is related to the exhaust system.
KiTA, Thanks for your great post. Every day we put more an more investment into our media players, regardless of OS. Win/Mac/Linux/Symbiam/PalmOS/and several other are being advanced daily. We have a new product development strategy that embraces open source and making it easier for users to work with us. We appreciate your support. Kevin Foreman GM, Helix RealNetworks, Inc.
Kevin Foreman
I complained to Click and Clack via their web-thingie when the original story posted and explained that running Windows Media Player just wasn't an option for us Linux users. I even got a nice reply from - I believe - their producer explaining that they "were working on it". Now if Real would just update their Linux player. C'mon guys - we're stuck at RP8 for how many years now?