Slashdot Mirror
100% Open Source Helix Player 'Alpha' Available
kforeman (Kevin Foreman, Helix GM at RealNetworks) writes "Helix Player 1.0 and RealPlayer 10 Alpha are now available. The Helix Player is 100% open source, and includes support for Ogg Vorbis and Theora, as well as SMIL 2.0 so that you can combine Theora videos with JPEG, GIF, or PNG images and RealText. The RealPlayer 10 alpha is a superset of the Helix Player alpha, and adds support for RealAudio, RealVideo, MP3, and Flash. See the release notes to find out about the rest of the enhancements and give the players a whirl. We love your feedback and comments as always, so use any avenue you are comfortable with (forums, email, bugzilla) and let us know what you think! The team has tried hard to get all the bad bugs out, but remember that it's alpha and constantly improving with your feedback and help. Enjoy the player!"
Both bz2 files extract to the working dir..
--
You don't have to miss out on real content... mplayer plays it just fine. Infact it plays it infinitly better than real's own open source player...
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
I have GTK 2.4.1 and Gnome 2.6 but Helix doesn't compile. It bails out after a while on /player/common/gtk/hxplayer.cpp (or something like it) because it uses gtk functions that are deprecated. GTK_DISABLE_DEPRECATED is set to 1 on the header file, but it seems that the Real engineers are using an even older version of Helix.
Guys, if you are reading this, please try to compile your player with a newer GTK+.
And another one, there is no "make install" facility, how do you install that thing (if it compiles?)
They don't.
Money for nothing, pix for free
- Xlib: unexpected async reply errors. I had this problem since the early hxplayer versions, and it's still here.
- Flash is not working in RP10alpha, I get a "general error" dialog. Too bad, because I'm searching for an alternative to the Macromedia Flash player/plugin (that thing is darn slow).
- The tarballs layout is plain crazy. Please archive your files inside a directory. It really suck to extract a tarball and find the files all over your home dir.
But looking at the whole thing, I can only say one thing: keep up the good workWhy do some many open source developers limit their program to just the linux world?
Most programs are more limited to the posix world than to the linux world and will run (maybe with some minor tweaking) on anything that resembles unix.
For a lot of open source developpers its a hobby... Why should I care about windows? It is such a pain it is just no fun....
I am not a big corporation wanting as many customers as possible, I don't car about windows users.... I like programming and if someone finds my stuff usefull than great, but it wasn't the reason for writting it.
But the source is available, if someone wants a windows version its possible (just don't wait for me doing it for you).
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
if you use mplayer with the -dumpstream option on an rtsp:// url, the dumped file is then readable with realplayer (and probably others, but I haven't tried)
Using mplayer, record the .rm file to disk as it is being streamed:
mplayer -dumpstream -dumpfile xxx.rm rtsp://where/the/stream/is
Then, using Linux, wait for 5 minutes and start playing the file from disk in a separate console:
mplayer xxx.rm
This way, you have 5 minutes worth of cached stream, and you'll never see the "buffering" message or other pauses ever again.
1. Native ffmpeg or mplayer-only (I seem to recall it being libavcodec based (in other words: ffmpeg) but ffmpeg's online docs don't show realvideo just realaudio.) realvideo support. It has drawbacks: doesn't always play things correctly, and only is rv10 and rv20 (real video 1 & 2, and not 3 & 4)
2. Native Linux real codec. It uses the files that install with realplayer to play realaudio/realvideo. It is the native decoder made by real, so it works nearly as well as real ever works.
3. Windows dll codecs. Similar to the Linux codecs, but it uses the windows codec via a loader that branched from wine years ago. Same advantages as #2, but drawback of having to have windows dlls, and the even thornier legal questions.
Please note that #3 is available only on x86, while #2 is available on alpha & x86 (might be more if realplayer ran on other versions of linux) and that #1 was at one time (and still may be) limited to x86 due to problems with the code, though it should work on other archs. (That last I looked DID affect ffmpeg's sorensen video codecs, they are/were x86 only.)
Lots of people know this, but for those who don't a program called Alien can convert packages from RPMs to DEBs etc. http://www.kitenet.net/programs/alien/
"Real needs our support, not our scorn."
Any company which develops software that spies on its users and interferes with the operation of their computer deserves our scorn.
RealPlayer (on Windows):
- Runs on login
- Displays ads in the "messege center" (even when you are not running RealPlayer)
- Sends the URLs of the websites and clips you view back to Real
- Sends a unique ID so Real can track your habits
- Takes over file exensions
- Resets the auto-run-at-login registry key if you delete it
- Displays advertisements all over the interface
- Misleads individuals into purchasing subscriptions
- Attempts to conceal the fact that they offer a free player
- Displays advertisments in the player after 30 seconds of inactivity
- Requires personal information and an internet connection to "activate" it
Why would a company which produces such crapware deserve anything *but* our scorn.
Real has been doing this crap for *years*. Their software was the first major product to contain spyware, and it set a benchmark for scum matched only recently by Gator and friends.
Being polite isn't going to get anything done. Real's product is crap and their policies are crap.
My problem with their business model is that they are a bunch of con-artists. I had to spend TWO HOURS on the phone with them after my grandmother accidentally signed herself up for a subscription to their "SuperPass". Real lured her in with a big sign that said "free" and small text that described what she was really doing (signing up for a 14-day "free trial" which auto-bills after 14 days and can only be canceled by calling Real).
Not to mention the advertisements for "full screen high quality video". Yeah, that will work great over my Grandmom's 56K modem. Yet the disclamer ("Broadband required") was in 6 point type at the bottom of the page.
Oh, and the advertisement she got to upgrade to the "Free!" RealOne player (actually just a free trial that auto-billed) was in her older version of RealPlayer - integrated into the plugin, so it looked like a part of the NPR page.
I WILL NEVER USE ANOTHER REAL PRODUCT EVER AGAIN. OPEN SOURCE, CLOSED SOURCE, FREE OR PAID, EVEN IF THEY CORRECT ALL OF THE ISSUES IN THEIR SOFTWARE, I CANNOT AND WILL NOT USE PRODUCTS FROM A COMPANY WHICH ENGAGES IN SUCH MORALLY REPREHENSABLE PRACTICES.