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Helix Player and RealPlayer 10 Released

Posted by michael on from the get-your-drm-on dept.

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."

15 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thats...buffering buffering...great!

    1. Re:Good news by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I used to dislike RealAudio as much as anybody else but the most recent release of their player is actually very good and does not assault me with ads or offers to upgrade anywhere near the extent that the older ones did. I have used MS MediaPlayer quite a bit but recently found that RealPlayer seemed to have more codecs or was able to auto-install them with greater ease than MediaPlayer. Hell, I could be wrong about how that works. But, my user experience is that Real's player is a pretty nice "product" at this point and, at times, has helped me listen/watch something sooner that I otherwise would have. This is just my two cents worth, a personal opinion at best. I am far from a Real Audio "apologist." I understand Real's history and was as annoyed as anyone else in the past. But, I don't mind revisiting something once in a while to see where it's at and I have found the current RealPlayer to be a good product.

      Cheers!

      Erick

      P.S. Yes, I know I should look at some of the other non-MS/Real players out there and will do so.

      --
      http://www.busyweather.com/
    2. Re:Good news by Kristoffer+Lunden · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, on Windows, there is probably no better player than Media Player Classic, which already can run Real stuff via Real Alternative. Also, mplayer is available for windows, though I've not tried playing Real with it outside Linux.

      As for Real themselves, I kinda like what they are doing now, but old grudges die hard. I am torn between wanting to support people doing the right thing and feeling they haven't been punished nowhere near enough for past things yet.

      --
      Spine World
  2. THERE ARE NO 503 ERRORS!! QUIT SPREADING LIES!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot uses Slashcode running on Apache with a MySQL backend. All of these packages are OPEN SOURCE, and therefore the odds of errors occurring are VIRTUALLY ZERO! On top of the impecable software, this site is maintained like a finely tuned machine by some of the most brilliant administrators and programmers the human race has to offer! I'm sick of these rumors about server errors! THEY ARE LIES!

  3. Spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  4. Re:excellent! by groomed · · Score: 5, Informative

    RealPlayer 10 doesn't ask for your email address anymore. I just installed it. It looks decent enough.

    Also support for playing Real media formats in Xine/mplayer still isn't quite as reliable as the real thing. Not to mention the browser plugin support. Finally Xine/mplayer can be a bitch to install.

    I like what Real's doing. RealPlayer 10 is like the RealPlayer 1.0 that never was.

  5. We're so conflicted by tkrotchko · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do we hate Real today or do we love them?

    --
    You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
  6. Going against code. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Going against code. by DMadCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Funny, I've noticed that too.

      Nearly everyone in the Linux community agrees that the way to get Linux on the desktop is to entice the big-name software developers to write more programs for Linux.

      Then, when one of the most well-known (even if not well liked) companies jumps up and does it, everyone cries and whines about it. Frankly Realplayer didn't do anything a dozen or more other software companies did/still do. They just got caught.

      As for Realplayer, my advice would be to download it even if you don't install it. When a company like that supports Linux it's a good idea to at least look like we're supporting them back as a flag to any other companies that may be watching from the fence.

  7. RealPlayer/Helix Relationship by Roguelazer · · Score: 5, Informative
    "The Helix Player is the Helix Community's open source media player for consumers. It is being developed to have a rich and usable graphical interface and support a variety of open media formats like Ogg Vorbis, Theora etc. The RealPlayer for Linux is built on top of the Helix Player for Linux and includes support for several non-open source components including RealAudio/RealVideo, MP3 etc."
    From the helix site itself. :D
    --
    My Systems
  8. Let me know when EFF clears Xine.... by Kunta+Kinte · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...then you may have a point.

    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
  9. Re:One question: Why? by WWWWolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  10. Re:Getting the plugins to work? by falkryn · · Score: 5, Informative

    I did a ln -s /rp_source_dir/plugins/* /usr/lib/mozilla-1.7/plugins

    sort of like a java plugin install. works great for me.

  11. Wrong ... by vlad_petric · · Score: 5, Informative
    xine/mplayer are hardly illegal. They are indeed covered by mpeg4 patents (which only apply if you sell a certain number of units), and furthermore it is illegal (DMCA ...) to distribute them with libdvdread.

    That's all.

    --

    The Raven

  12. Re:THERE ARE NO 503 ERRORS!! QUIT SPREADING LIES!! by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

    EVEN NOW THE ERRORS ARE COMMITTING SUICIDE AT THE GATES OF SLASHDOT!!! THE INFIDEL 503 ERRORS WILL ROAST IN THE BELLIES OF THE SLASHDOTTERS!!!

    Vote CmdrTaco for Slashdot Information Minister in '04.