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!"

Comments

Now all that

[TCaM]

remains for my life to be complete is for Gator to OpenSource their wares.

warning,

[Quai]

Both bz2 files extract to the working dir..

Re:warning,

[phoxix]

Both bz2 files extract to the working dir..

Hrm, I just DLed the source file and it didn't do that.

Anyways, you should always use:

tar xvjf foobar.tar.bz -C $extraction_dir

To prevent from this sorta thing

Sunny Dubey

Standalone players ...

[ciupman]

... are neat, but i like media frameworks better. I 'm eagerly waiting for a final (stable api) gtreamer

No windows port...

[arduous]

So it looks like I will be sticking with Real Alternative

Why do some many open source developers limit their program to just the linux world? On my main workstation (XP box - don't work, I have linux servers just about everywhere), I have Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, FileZilla, Nvu, OpenOffice, VideoLAN, GAIM, Dev C++, and many more.

Re:No windows port...

[pe1rxq]

Why 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

Codename HXPlayer?

[Quai]

In the about-dialog on the realplayer its named "About hxplayer" :P

Re:What's the point?

[pe1rxq]

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

Helix Player doesn't compile

[Anonymous Coward]

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?)

Re:screenies?

[richie2000]

didnt think they made open source projects without screenshots anymore

They don't.

thanks for nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

seeing as the player is useless without the closed source binary only codec why should i download this player ?
there are plenty of open source players that do what this player does, we all know no-one is interested in the player and everyone wants to see the codec source and Real isnt going to do that so the offer of "100% open source" is worthless

of course this isnt really about the player but the codec and the server, we all know that if JoeSchmoe needs to play realAudio (because your server is serving it up (hopes Real)) he will download the spyware infested nagware RealOne not the helix player

Real must think us developers are stupid if they think we cant see through their helixcommunity as a fake "wannabe" project staffed by employees, Real are no more interested in Open source as Microsoft is

Re:thanks for nothing

[ajs318]

Back in the DOS days there was a programme called "DEBUG" which took a binary file as its input and displayed the corresponding assembly language source. You had to do a lot of guesswork; but when you had written Spectrum machine code using no programming aid more sophisticated than the character chart in the back of the manual, that wasn't as bad as it sounds. Surely a binary-only codec could be probed with something similar?

Extended disclaimer, for the paranoid: Pentium assembly language isn't a secret, reverse engineering for the purpose of creating interoperable products is explicitly permitted, and it's never illegal to decrypt something if you can prove you are the intended recipient.

Re:thanks for nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok - I'll make an initial statement here: I avoid Real products, so I don't really know what I'm talking about.

"of course this isnt really about the player but the codec and the server"

Isn't it actually the reverse of that? The problem with putting Real Player on your computer (historically) is that you get a bunch of other crap in the bargain. You go to watch some Real video and then Badness 10,000 happens and you cry yourself to sleep.

Well, that's the player right? The player has all sorts of spyware. The codec is just encode and decode. I'm sure there are AV flavored geeks out there who would love to look at the codec code, but I guess I figure most people aren't that interested.

I've read here (what?! trusting what you read in /. comments?) that the helix player is just the real player w/o the codec... So doesn't this get around the most common complaint?

"I don't like the spyware in real player!"
"OK, so run helix w/ the closed source real codec - helix is open source and all the crap can be / has been removed."

Is this not the case?

Great!

[TheSurfer]

My overall first experience feels good. All the video and audio examples are working perfect now. But I still have some problems:

• 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 work :) The player interface is really nice, and I'm sure the remaining bugs will be fixed soon.

Re:What's the point?

[eclectro]

So, given that, why would I want to install Helix

Maybe to take advantage of unique promotional offers, special "member" content deals, opportunity to buy the deluxe version, discounts on merchandise, and news about regular updates.

What more could you want???

Re:Record from realmedia stream?

[motte_fra]

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)

The first one is free says the shadowy man...

[Raspberry]

where's the obligatory "registration required" notice in this Post?

Login with this ID:

Username: raspberry
Password: wedontneednostinkinpasswords

enjoy.

Re:hmmm...

[madsenj37]

There are many uses for it. for one, competetion is a good thing. The more the better. It forces innovation and evolution in products. products have a reason to become better. Also, you are belittling their open source efforts. Soem open source is better than none. They are off to a good start. Apple and Sun both contribute to open source, but do not release eveything that way, why cant real?

Re:So...

[martin-boundary]

There's two problems with streaming, the quality and the pauses during streaming. The quality you can't do anything about, but you can get rid of the streaming pauses quite easily:

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.

Install the RPM

[Anonymous Coward]

If you install the RPM it automatically enables the plugin in Mozilla which works great on sites like News.com, MTV.com, and BBC.co.uk. This is the first time I've been able to view streaming content from these sites in Linux without numerous problems. I think a big congrats is in order to the Helix community who do offer the 100% free Helix player for download. It is only RealPlayer which contains the proprietary components. I see a lot of people bitching here who are obviously uninformed. Anyway, congrats to Helix, hurray streaming media on Linux!

-5, Not Informative

[anti-NAT]

The Helix / Real Player being talked about is for Linux / Solaris or Symbian OSes. So why compare it to WinAmp, when WinAmp doesn't run on any of these OSes, nor is the source code available ?

Re:What's the point?

[pantherace]

There are 3 ways mplayer can play realaudio/realvideo files:
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.)

Install on non RPM based distros

[mmport80]

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/

Once a-f*cking-gain:

[Qbertino]

RealPlayer is *not* Spyware. And it's not shoddy and it does *not* bloat your system.
Lots of Ads at startup? And a crappy website for years on end? Ok, I'll give you that. But anything else is just plain baseless FUD!
I must say that I am gratefull for Real actually offering a Linux Player for their stuff long befor any other company had the amount of braincells to grasp the concept of alternative OSes.
It works, doesn't look to crappy, even on Motiv-only systems (which is quite an achievement, admit it) and SMIL is actually a very nice thing and was an official, fully XML compliant open standard long before SVG even crossed the mind of any one at Adobe and Macromedia still was f*cking around with a crappy Flash 4 that couldn't even get it's own IDE sorted out. Not that they have been able to do that up to date.

That this OSS Helix Player is bound to be the first one to support SMIL 2 is an impressive thing and could actually use some moral support. Real back in the dot-boom days was the only thing you actually could do dynamic rich media media with. I was doing SMIL with an EDITOR back then. Try that with any other 'open' standard even today.
As soon as this works I'm outta Flash 2k4 Pro again in an instant. Unless Macromedia gets a grip and sorts out their serious IDE problems. They actually should do that before they semi-port stuff for Linux with Wine, imho.

Bottom Line: Quit the Spyware Legend and support a working streaming media standard that isn't half as nazi about DRM than Mickeysoft.

Re:Once a-f*cking-gain:

[BenBenBen]

I'd say that a program that installs itself and runs constantly without my asking it to, that can't be disabled or stopped from within itself, and which includes a built-in SMTP engine for mailing out stuff to HQ counts as Spyware.

Maybe we just have differing definitions.

Re:Once a-f*cking-gain:

[Anonymous Coward]

And obviously you haven't used the Helix Player or RealPlayer 10 for linux.

1) the last player for linux was realplayer 8... are you saying rp8 has an smtp engine and spyware? It runs without asking and you can't stop it? then you obviously have never used realplayer8 on linux and dont know how to use your linux system. I've never had rp8 add a run level 3 start script.
2) I just tried realplayer for linux and I had none of the issues you speak of above.

Do people not realize that this is a good thing? I for one am happy we have the beginnings of another player on linux that's open source to boot.

Quit bitching.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Damn buncha Slashbots and their anti-Real groupthink. What is it that's always being said? "It's the applications." Here we have Real, an ISV that has finally committed to supporting Linux ... and y'all are bitching about it.

RealPlayer 10 (alpha) was an easy install ... I just plugged in the RPM and went on my merry way. I didn't even have to go find some eastern European web site where software patents haven't been legalized, to get a player with actual codecs in it. Sure, everything can play OGG. Big deal. Go find me a media site that has OGG feeds available. RealPlayer is a great way to output not only Real's own formats, but stuff like MP3 as well.

Real needs our support, not our scorn. If you have a problem with their business model, or the 'extras' that are installed on the Windows platform, it would behoove you to politely tell them what your problems are. You are, after all, a customer. But please, for the sake of all of us, shut off the Slashbot hive mind for a couple of minutes and consider that Real is one of the VERY FEW things standing between Microsoft and a total WMA/WMV monopoly.

Re:Quit bitching.

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

"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.

Re:What's the point?

[a_karbon_devel_005]

I'm not sure why people are so anti-real player to be honest. It's the only player for linux that I know that legally plays all the different codecs.

They've started an open source project that further strengthens their commitment to linux, though I would like to see more, but how can you fault them? Here's a market that regularly uses questionable codecs constantly, yet Real is trying to make itself available legally in our market. Do you see Windows Media player for Linux? iTunes for linux? If you do, tell me because I don't know about them.

Also, this is a company who has been snubbed out of a market by MS's desktop domination... I mean .. lets see 99% of computers come with Microsoft WMP, and you're Real... what would YOU do?

And on another note, most of my friends in the AV industry have said that the Real codec is, if not the best, in the top two ( next to MPEG-4 ) in quality/compression. ( of the formats in relatively common use today ).

Now.. on the NEGATIVE side, this is VERY very alpha type stuff (Helix) from what I've seen and I'm not aware of a Real Mozilla plugin, but then again I've not googled for it.