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RealPlayer 11 Is a Real Rip Contender

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the making-enemies-on-all-sides dept.

rishimathew writes to tell us TechNewsWorld is reporting that the new RealPlayer 11, not even out of beta yet, has a lot of great new features including the ability to easily rip streaming videos from sites like YouTube, Revver, and Heavy.com. "With the release of RealPlayer 11, the company is boldly moving into another dicey realm: ripping streaming video. Sure, there are lots of means out there to capture video from sites like YouTube Latest News about YouTube, Revver, Heavy.com and such. There are programs like WM Recorder (US$49.95) and Replay A/V ($49.95), as well as Web sites like Keepvid.com and Mozilla Latest News about Mozilla Foundation Firefox add-ons like VideoDownloader. I've tried some of them. Few, though, can match the slick ease of use of RealPlayer 11 -- and it isn't even out of beta yet."

31 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've tried some of them. Few, though, can match the slick ease of use of RealPlayer 11 -- and it isn't even out of beta yet. Alright, alright, I get it, I should buy RealPlayer 11. Enough already, Salesman! You've won. I submit. Here, I will tender all my cash to you. Give me one ... no, two ... no fifty licenses! I need them. I want them all, I don't care if it isn't out yet, I want it. I need it. I have to have it.

    MY LIFE IS NOTHING WITHOUT REALPLAYER 11!

    What? Limited supplies?

    Holy shit, give me the license now or I'll kill you. I'll kill you just like I killed that mother of four for my son's tickle-me-elmo doll. I'll do it. *makes stabbing motions* Ha-HAAAA! *stab, stab, stab* Ha-HAAAA!

    I'm a sick man ... daddy ... needs his ... RealPlayer 11!
    1. Re:Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! by Propaganda13 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I was going to download, but then I realized that the rip would be in a native proprietary format. Unless, of course, you pay them.

    2. Re:Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! by fm6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not only a proprietary format, but Real has always been very aggressive about going after people who try to interoperate without paying for the privilege. Which makes the fancy ripping features of RP 11 just a little ironic.

    3. Re:Holy Fucking Slashvertisment, Batman! by Ilgaz · · Score: 3, Informative

      I am following your blog, they say actually secured (e.g. DRM) content can't be ripped and the people from industry should already use a secure media format (doesn't have to be Real) if the content was such precious.

      Digging the file from your browser/quicktime/flash cache is already possible and I don't think Youtube will go after them since half of content there are ripped from commercial TV and they make money from it already. What Real does is to make it more practical for average user.

      Before Real we should speak about a certain company who advertises their "Pro" version of player when user clicks browser plugins menu to "Save as source" (rip!). They have a file metadata/flag (in spec) to disable that option in plugin but it mysteriously gets ignored. This is going on for years now.

  2. Yea but if history tells me anything by DustyShadow · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...it will be the worst hijacking player of all time. I've never used Real Player because of the sole reason that it would never let me disassociate it with file types. Don't play nice, fine...you don't get installed...ever...again. Some reputations just can't be fixed, and Real ruined theirs long long ago.

    1. Re:Yea but if history tells me anything by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative
      From TFA:

      With the latest version, installation was trouble-free and surprisingly well-mannered. In the past, Real had an irksome habit of planting icons on the desktop without an owner's permission, as well as making a power grab to associate all multimedia file extensions with the player.

      This release of the software is very scrupulous about modifying a system that it has been invited to enter. What's more, the program, by default, will only claim as its own files not associated with any other applications on a computer.

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    2. Re:Yea but if history tells me anything by Angostura · · Score: 4, Informative

      "What website uses real media these days anyway?"

      The BBC for one. And the free version for the Mac is excellent. Don't know about the Windows version.

    3. Re:Yea but if history tells me anything by everphilski · · Score: 3, Informative

      /shrug. Sucks to be you then. The rest of us will enjoy. I have the latest version (non-beta) at work, no popups, no annoying links, no annoying file associations. My CD's play in Windows Media Player, as do my MP3's. Just because you can't change, or comprehend that a company can listen to customers and change, doesn't mean they won't change.

    4. Re:Yea but if history tells me anything by Ecuador · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I 've also had horrible experience with Real Player in the past.

      Once, I really needed to install it for a course. The professor was ingenious enough to have notes in some streaming format that required Real Player (real alternative couldn't handle it). Instead of setting up something like a VM for it, I was in a hurry so reluctantly decided to give Real Player another try (don't remember which version, it was around 2004). Despite my previous bad experiences I was unprepared for what awaited, as Real Player for some reason assumed that everybody had Windows Media Player installed and that it could hijack it as it pleased. I, of course, did not have Windows Media Player, I had replaced it completely with Media Player Classic. So, the installation crashed halfway through. It left me with a system whose registry was full of Real's (failed) hijacks, a system on which trying to launch a media file resulted in a call to mplayerc with some unrecognised command line options and a few error popups. Of course no automatic uninstallation was possible - the installer crashed before creating that.

      For me, Real is up there with Sirius Cypernetics in the all-time hall of shame, and there is no way I will ever trust their products again in an unprotected (i.e. non-vm) environment.

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    5. Re:Yea but if history tells me anything by cbhacking · · Score: 4, Informative

      As somebody who, back in the Win9x days (I forget, 95 or 98) installed a early version of RealPlayer that hijacked my entire sound card while in Windows (neither system sounds nor sound from other players would play, whether RP was running or not, although I could get sound in other programs like Warcraft 2) I can certainly appreciate your view on this. That was, however, roughly a decade ago, and while I still don't care for the company and certainly won't claim they've been perfect angels since then, every now and then you should give somebody a second chance.

      RealPlayer 11 is actually a pretty good product, considering its beta status (the version I downloaded had a couple showstopper bugs on Vista, mainly involving volume control, so I don't use it much). RP10 is absolute garbage on Windows - huge, slow, bloated, ad-filled, and aggressive system changes set by default (although they can be unchecked) that I really don't care for. The version for Linux is actually a good product though - I prefer Amorak for casual listening, but for some video formats RP is a better bet than anything else I have installed.

      Also, Real has recently begun selling DRM-free MP3s through their Rhapsody online music store. The tracks are ripped at 256kbps (same as their DRMed versions) and cost the same as well. Most of their catalog is still DRMed, and the Rhapsody player itself isn't going to win any awards from me for being great software, but moving even a little away from DRM earns them big points IMO. Now, if only they would make it possible to purchase MP3s on Linux it would be even better...

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    6. Re:Yea but if history tells me anything by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 4, Funny

      well, the commonly held belief that real play farts in your face while you are asleep is totally false.

      --
      What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
  3. Obligitory by Ralphus+Maximus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Buffering........... Cheers, RM

    --
    Nobody's as dumb, as I appear to be
  4. If it's from Real I won't use it. by casualsax3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's unfortunate, but I'm among those users so horribly scarred by Real so long ago that I'll just never use another product by them. I think it's the name - it just makes me nauseous now. It could be the best app on the planet - but unless they change the name I just won't go near it. End of story.

    1. Re:If it's from Real I won't use it. by MMC+Monster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I used RealOne player as my sole audio player for quite some time. Once it was set up, it worked quite well. (The setup was a b!tch, though). I made the mistake of downloading version 2 when it was available. It was definitely a downgrade rather than an upgrade, and I did go back to version one for a while. I finally realized that I wanted to use a player that respected me, and started using winamp.

      (Of course, now I'm using amarok, but that's another story...)

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  5. And the company are still die-hard spammers, no? by seebs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, back in the day, Real spammed. A lot. They spammed constantly, they spammed everybody (like IETF role accounts), and they did so unrepentantly, with forged addresses in the headers and everything.

    Has anything changed?

    I somehow don't think so.

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
  6. Change in tactics? by jma05 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Amusing, given that they sued companies which made software that ripped real streams back in 2000.

    1. Re:Change in tactics? by evilviper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, that's why it's news... The sheer irony of it all.

      If Real would have endorsed or adopted such copying capabilities into their player circa 2000, they might have had a chance of staying relevant through the years. Now, when there are hundreds of other programs that can easily do the same thing, it's not even a notable feature, except for the ironic aspect.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  7. Alternative: by UncleTogie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wait for Gutsy and use clive...

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  8. Re:What's the second generation of YouTube video? by nocomment · · Score: 4, Funny

    So basically the same way we watched pornos in 8th grade?

    --
    /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
    /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
  9. I haven't read the fine article by LordSnooty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yay, so now I can convert streaming video in one proprietary format into another local storage proprietary format? Joy.

  10. cut-n-paste by PadRacerExtreme · · Score: 3, Informative
    The submitter just cut-n-pasted from the article. Which had links. It looked like this on screen

    sites like YouTube (magnify glass), Revver, Heavy.com but when you cut-n-paste the (magnify glass) turned into

    sites like YouTube Latest News about YouTube, Revver, Heavy.com
    So not only are the editors not reading the submissions, the submitters aren't reading the submissions!
    --
    Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.
  11. Ease of use? by VE3OGG · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now, surely you jest... I find unplug works very well, and is quite reliable, and is very easy. If you have access to a unix box, you can even issue a simple conversion (or write a simple script):

    ffmpeg -i filename.flv filename.mpg (or ogg, or mp3, or...)

    If no Linux box is available, then you could always just watch it straight through VLC. And the nice thing about all of this: it is free (as in beer and as in choice). And of course you get to not support a company that has (rightfully) earned the ire of many IT people the world over...

  12. Re:A Real(tm) Comeback by Constantine+XVI · · Score: 3, Informative

    And their Linux version is pretty good (not fantastic, but pretty good). It's built off the Helix DNA backend (headed by Real themselves) which is open-source. The major difference in the closed-source version (RealPlayer) is the DRM "support"

    --
    "I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
  13. Re:It's closed, so it's dead by Constantine+XVI · · Score: 4, Interesting

    https://helix-client.helixcommunity.org/
    I rest my case.

    --
    "I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
  14. RealPlayer.... Isn't that a virus? by MarkToronto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I treat RealPlayer like a virus or mal ware. Everytime some jackass installs it on my computer I immediately get rid of it. That and Adobe Reader. Down with bloated software !!!

  15. Someone saying something nice about Realplayer? by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is this another Dvorak troll masquerading as an article?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  16. Saving YouTube videos by ThePyro · · Score: 5, Informative

    Am I the only one who just copies the videos directly from the FireFox cache folder? It's pretty easy to find them - they're huge compared to the other cached stuff. Just copy the file, rename to .flv, and you're ready to play it.

  17. So...... by demachina · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...you work for Real don't you rishimathew. It looks like all three of your Slashdot submissions are about Real. Nice free advertising for them, good work /. editors.

    --
    @de_machina
  18. All is not well... by Herms · · Score: 5, Informative

    Few, though, can match the slick ease of use of RealPlayer 11 -- and it isn't even out of beta yet.
    Also, few can match the problems caused to completely unrelated software by simply installing it. The mechanism they use for flash video ripping is (as far as I've been able to tell) pretty much undocumented and, as it currently stands, breaks lots of stuff. My company's product breaks in a couple ways, even though our product has nothing to do with Real Player and doesn't serve video. Here are some links with info on the problems: I also created a wiki page on the osflash site to document them and workarounds/fixes if they're found: http://osflash.org/flashcoders/realplayer_bugs I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Real gets sued by someone over RP11. Either for stream ripping or simply for breaking Flash related products.
    --
    ~Herms
  19. Re:And the company are still die-hard spammers, no by seebs · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ahh, yes. It was "her" address (actually, a /dev/null box, as they later confirmed) that was put on all the spam, to give the impression that they gave a fuck whether it was bouncing or not. They didn't. I think it's funny that they apparently never complied with the law that she claimed was a good anti-spam law. I mean, it's bad enough that she was involved with legislation that was utterly worthless; so far as I know, their spam never even complied with that worthless legislation. Insult to injury, that.

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
  20. I was in the pub just last night by Bertie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And there was a girl there who I hadn't met before. She used to work for my company, but now works at RealNetworks, managing what content they make available for purchase or something. Now, like most of you, my first reaction was "boo, hiss" when she told me who she worked for. But she swore to me that their top brass have seen the light and realised that annoying the living shite out of all your users isn't a good long-term business plan. She was raving on about their new player that's about to come out, particularly about its ability to save stuff from Youtube etc., and advised me to give it a chance, because it wasn't the RealPlayer we all know and hate from the past.

    And I probably will give it a chance, purely because she's extremely attractive...