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Helix Player and RealPlayer 10 Released
kforeman writes "The RealPlayer 10 for Linux and its underlying 100% open source Helix Player are now both finalized. The RealPlayer 10 for Linux has many new features including a Mozilla plug-in, so you can now enjoy all those embedded media clips, as well as the latest RealAudio 10, RealVideo 10, MP3, Flash, and Ogg Vorbis and Theora support. The Helix Player is 100% open source, (now including the GPL!) and includes support for SMIL 2.0 and open source codecs Ogg Vorbis and Theora. Our goal is to make the Linux desktop a first class citizen and we think today's releases are a good first step in that direction."
Now I don't have to use that pesky, non-intrusive, non-commerical, non-irritating, non-email-address-asking Xine!
AccountKiller
I'd be very concered about hidden spyware/trojans in these programs based on Real's past releases. Is the RealPlayer/Helix relationship similar to Mozilla/Netscape?
Hate to say it, but why on Earth would anyone willingly use RealPlayer? Maybe the Linux version will be different, but I hate the Windows version. Bloated, slow, and full of ads. And where are those near-CD streams? I can find tons of them in MP3 format, but I can't recall the last time I heard a high-res Real stream.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's slashdot code to hate Real, but they've finally done something good. They continue to support Linux, and gave us the core of their player (which, IMO no longer sucks ass) and we're still criticizing them? Has anyone here even used Realplayer 10 Linux or Helix?
For christ's sake, you're all like one of those Windows users who will never touch Linux again because "it's all command line" or a Mac since "longhorn will have a 3D UI". Give the company another fucking shot, it's not every day we get a decent media player that supports Theora, Vorbis or their own codecs.
And along those lines... why linux when we have windows!
How is Linux suppose to be ready for the desktop if developers/users continue with 'patents be damned' attitude?
Xine and MPlayer aren't legal in many major markets. That rules them out for many of us.
Helix is legal and backed by RealNetworks legal department.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
I recently tried RealPlayer 10's beta for Linux. It's actually pretty slick (well, it was beta, so it was a bit unstable at times, but hey...) and plays Icecast streams in Ogg Vorbis pretty damn well (and you can get just plain Helix Player for that too, without RealVideo support). It was small, not too slow (Linux versions of RP are never ever slow!) and there's no trace of ads!
Yeah, Windows players are probably hell, but the *NIX players have the history of ruling, at least to small extent =)
But to be perfectly honest, the real reason I switched from RP8 to RP10beta was the support for XVideo extension and actual support for fullscreen playing. Makes watching some videos far less annoying when you don't need to maximize the window and fullscreen mode doesn't eat all processor. And, yuck, RP8 was a Motif app and RP10 uses GTK+2.
First, it doesn't require any kind of email registration. Second, it based on GTK - that's great, no more outdated Modif GUI. Let's see how it will be handled. I would like to point out that if we would have two descent Media frameworks - Helix and GStreamer (which still has to mature), then it would be very good. It's nice to see that Real learns something from their past.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Now there's no reason not to get it in Debian!
Someone please put up a Debian-package !
because mplayer is infamous for it's inclusion of questionable codecs. xine is pretty much more of the same. distributors like redhat (and fedora) are looking for media players that are as GPL friendly and LEGAL as possible.
a player that only does Ogg[Vorbis|Theora] falls quite nicely into that slot.
does anyone know about the ability to create plugins? it'd be great to have a unified player that takes easy mp3/xvid/dvd plugins.
Interesting, when I try to listen to an audio clip on Amazon.com with Real Player 10, I get an error about the codec being too old and no longer supported.
Perhaps that's because you're logged into Mozilla/Firefox, but you're not in IE? I'm finding that being logged out makes me not get 503's..
Why bother with Helix when there are other freely-availble, open-source alternatives (e.g., mplayer, xine) that appear equally capable of supporting a variety of player formats?
Have you actually tried HelixPlayer, or the RealPlayer for Linux? They are, in fact, very nice, with simple clean minimalist interfaces using GTK. No ugly skinning, no bizarre file selection dialogs (just plain GTK file selection dialogs), no relying on keyboard shortcuts.
I like Mplayer, and I use it a lot, but HelixPlayer really is very nice, and I'm using it more and more. Don't knock it until you've tried it. Real seems to have turned a corner here and gone open source. HelixPlayer is a great open source project, and the RealPlayer based on it is not the intrusive email collecting mess that one used to associate with Real.
I know many here hate Real, and it's understandable given their previous efforts, but they do seem to have changed, and I think they're worthy of a second chance here... now if only they'd free up their codec...
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
As I understand it, Helix was a community-led project to design a cross-platform media player framework, the Helix Player, which is then used by Realnetworks to make their RealPlayer application with the addition of closed-source codecs and probably a degree of Real's nagware added in
So: Where.. or when, can I download Helix Player for Windows? I don't want or need Real's codecs on my system, but if the player is as good as people say I may consider using it instead of Windows Media Player for watching my downloaded movie files
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
about wolves attacking his flocks...untill one time it REALLY happened and no one believed him anuymore.
Now it's the same story for RealNetworks, No ONE believe them anymore after their dark past.
I wish you had actually speficied what the damn good reason is -- I'd like to know -- instead of just putting the word "damn" between two asterisks for added emphasis. Really, capital letters should have been used for that instead.
And what, I'm supposed to believe that they won't put them back in when its convenient to them? I don't think so.
Why don't you wait till they do, and stop using it then?
As it is, you are providing them no incentive to correct their past mistakes.
Erh, US law does not apply outside USA. But with Bush Jr. in power, I suppose you can be forgiven this misunderstanding.
Dont thin that the US is the center of the world , do you ? if its illegal in your country i msut not be illegal in another country. By fact it is most legal in most countries of this world. so stop spreading so much nonsense like : it is illegal.
perhaps you could write : its illegal in the US, the US always wanted to play a special role on the globe, so you have it here. But please keep other countries off this illegal stuff.
In China and India (which are 2/3) of the population of the world this is perfectly legal.