There is no constraint on any reviewers (or real users) about taking own photos or videos... there are of course (as with most new product launches) screenshots, how-to videos, user guides etc. that are made available by Microsoft. Given the preview just started, more hands-on reviews are just making their way out. Several have been posted already - and are pretty representative of the diversity of experiences ("magical/awesome" to "can't handle my accent/recognize my speech"), and have continued to be helpful in improving the system - which is the entire point of a preview release.
Here are a couple that I bookmarked:
http://mashable.com/2014/12/15...http://www.gizmodo.in/news/Sky...
This is work that's been done at Microsoft Research for a long time, and we have been continuously improving it (and sharing a lot of the research behind it with the world). Remember this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It's exciting for us to be able to see real people use it!
(full disclosure: I work at Microsoft Research and am involved with Skype Translator)
I work on Skype Translator. Given the complexity of the technology in the back-end, the team looked for a client code base that was fast to experiment with, develop and release on - and so the modern windows 8 app seems like a good way to go - no other nefarious reason. Also, users of skype translator can call other Skype clients (Skype Desktop is officially supported, while I have certainly called ios, xbox on other clients successfully).
Thank you:-)
It has been fashionable to diss everything related to Real on Slashdot. Over the last two years though, I have seen a change in the perception - a just reward for the hardwork by the teams (be it the Mac player, or the new better-behaved windows player and of course the linux player) and the commitment shown by management to these efforts.
I am very much for calling a spade a spade, especially when it comes to pointing out what we could do better. Having a simple GUI to setup the helix server would be nice - might be a good project to propose on the helix community? http://www.helixcommunity.org
I believe winamp has payed these fees (for windows) and passes that license on to it's users. There hasn't been anyone that was crossplatform that did this till Real came along.
I am glad you like the Helix Player. You are right, if you do not care about the closed codecs and would like to only use open ones - Helix Player will get you all of that. In fact, together with the open source server and producer software - you can have an end to end Helix multimedia solution using all free software.
There is no reason to believe that this is the case. It has been evident over the last couple of years that Real's focus has shifted to providing consumer services (RadioPass, Rhapsody etc.). It is good to have the choice available - in fact, the completely open source Helix Player touts Ogg as it's main media formats. We were the first (or one of the very first) to add support for Theora to our player.
RealPlayer source code is available on helixcommunity. As for the widget set - we use what GTK offers, mainly because we want the player to fit in well into the overall GTK theme that users choose. The only reason why some of this functionality is not in Helix Player (it used to be in the beginning) is because the community wanted to the choice of having a pure GPL open-source player (which is Helix Player) that is a lot more freely redistributable.
That's great Mat. I would love more feedback on what works and what doesn't work for you in the player in terms of usability. Feel free to email me vikram (at) helixcommunity.org. thanks! V
Glad to hear that you liked the player. I will try to answer some of these questions/concerns:
1) Differences between RP on windows and Linux. RP10 on Linux is, as I mention on the player project page, an effort at creating a easy to use, functional and fast media player for Linux that works hard at confirming to standards and being a good citizen in the linux world. The design focus for us thus was to find a balance between advanced functionality and most used functionality. Whenever in doubt the vote went for keeping things simple than complex - a decision that has been well recieved by the thousands of users who downloaded the player. On the whole, RP10 for Linux is all about creating a solid platform on which we can build exciting features. RP10 for windows has passed that phase and has a lot more features (premium content and services, media management, cd burning, portable device support etc.) Some of these features will surely find their way into RP10 for Linux, but the idea has not been to create a clone of the windows player. Hopefully the increasing number of helix developers will influence positively the direction that Helix Player will take, adding innovations that propel themselves into the next versions of the Linux RealPlayer as well.
2) BHOs
This is tricky. BHOs are a microsoft/IE invention. The idea is very typical of how microsoft does things - give a lot of power to the developer/sitedesigner. And as it often happens with such ideas, they are double edged swords - BHOs have become notorious by their association with spyware. Nevertheless, a lot of companies (including Microsoft) install BHOs to offer rich functionality to the end users. My only comment here is that with the advent of Windows XP SP2 which includes a feature called "Internet Explorer Addon Management" the BHOs will become less maligned and more manageable.
iTunes doesn't support any drm'd files besides Apple's, so there's no incentive for Wal-Mart, Napster, Real, MS, or anyone else to sell to Mac users, since no Mac users are going to abandon iTunes. This is the market reality right now.
Helix does build on windows - the reference player (splay) builds and nightlies are available here: http://forms.helixcommunity.org/helixdnacli ent/ As for the Helix Player, it can be built from CVS.
Both these features are under consideration for the next version of the Helix and Real Players. This has been asked in the forums and I just added one of your requests there. Feel free to track it there (and file a feature request in the bugzilla as well).
thanks!
V
How long has it been since you visited the site? If you go to real.com using a linux machine you should directly go to the free linux player page. Likewise on windows.
Please do check for yourself.
-V
It's that hope that has kept me doing what I am doing. By way of clarification - I am program management lead on the Helix Player Project (including the RealPlayer10 for Linux) and also program manager for the RealPlayer for OSX.
There is nothing that makes the day better for my teams than to see that all the work we are putting in isn't for a lost cause.
Hope.. like you said, is an amazing motivator.
It's not just claims I hope. Apart from the improvements on the windows side, have you looked at the mac player beta yet? Also, how many commercial software companies have made commitment to have linux as one of their major platforms? and opensourced their player?
I hope that it is still true that actions speak better than words.
Thank you. The focus for 1.0 of the player is to create a simple and fast player that focused on stability and ease-of-use than a multitude of features. We are close to realizing this goal.
What we would love is for feedback from you and the many other users as to what you would like to see in the future.
--
Vikram Dendi
Program Manager and Project Lead
Helix Player Project
Don't accept Real and Helix because code has been GPL'd. Accept because we are making a sincere effort to make Linux better and more powerful. We are working hard to be a good citizen in the Linux world and we are throwing our (not inconsiderable weight) in the multimedia world behind Linux and opensource. Accept because the more backing Linux gets today, the stronger this community becomes.
-- Vikram Dendi Program Manager & Project Lead Helix Player Project
Sivaram, the mozilla plugin is quite stable right now and we have had lot's of great feedback so far. I recommend you try it and let us know what your experience is. We can use as much feedback as you can give us.
I am the Program Manager for both the projects (Linux and Mac) and you see the influence of the Mac player's user friendliness on the Linux player (we hope). Not only that, they share code at several levels (Hxclientkit, the media engine itself etc.)
We are also working on getting the powerpc build of helixplayer for those who run linux on their ppcs. We need some help on that front though.
Is a player that touts the completely Ogg vorbis and Theora (and SMIL) as the primary formats so useless?
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
Why should JoeSchmoe get the (supposedly spyware infested) RealOne to play back content? Why not the RealPlayer Alpha that is based on Helix Player?
We ARE a "wannabe" project. But we are a wannabe opensource project that wants to excite developers and users alike. We work as hard as any other opensource person and we care about the open aspect of it!
Technically RealPlayer10 for Linux (which gives you free RA/RV/MP3/Flash etc. playback) is HelixPlayer plus those codecs. Seperating out a completely opensource player makes licensing easier to deal with.
This FAQ talks about this differentiation in detail.
Slashdot Mirror
There is no constraint on any reviewers (or real users) about taking own photos or videos... there are of course (as with most new product launches) screenshots, how-to videos, user guides etc. that are made available by Microsoft. Given the preview just started, more hands-on reviews are just making their way out. Several have been posted already - and are pretty representative of the diversity of experiences ("magical/awesome" to "can't handle my accent/recognize my speech"), and have continued to be helpful in improving the system - which is the entire point of a preview release. Here are a couple that I bookmarked: http://mashable.com/2014/12/15... http://www.gizmodo.in/news/Sky... This is work that's been done at Microsoft Research for a long time, and we have been continuously improving it (and sharing a lot of the research behind it with the world). Remember this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... It's exciting for us to be able to see real people use it! (full disclosure: I work at Microsoft Research and am involved with Skype Translator)
I work on Skype Translator. Given the complexity of the technology in the back-end, the team looked for a client code base that was fast to experiment with, develop and release on - and so the modern windows 8 app seems like a good way to go - no other nefarious reason. Also, users of skype translator can call other Skype clients (Skype Desktop is officially supported, while I have certainly called ios, xbox on other clients successfully).
Thank you :-)
It has been fashionable to diss everything related to Real on Slashdot. Over the last two years though, I have seen a change in the perception - a just reward for the hardwork by the teams (be it the Mac player, or the new better-behaved windows player and of course the linux player) and the commitment shown by management to these efforts.
I am very much for calling a spade a spade, especially when it comes to pointing out what we could do better. Having a simple GUI to setup the helix server would be nice - might be a good project to propose on the helix community? http://www.helixcommunity.org
Glad to see this fixed. Please send any other questions or concerns you might have with the RealPlayer for Mac to macplayer@real.com
The caltech student handbook has these guidelines in them - even for on-campus pranks.
This is a server configuration setting. If the servers are properly configured, this should never happen.
I believe winamp has payed these fees (for windows) and passes that license on to it's users. There hasn't been anyone that was crossplatform that did this till Real came along.
I am glad you like the Helix Player. You are right, if you do not care about the closed codecs and would like to only use open ones - Helix Player will get you all of that. In fact, together with the open source server and producer software - you can have an end to end Helix multimedia solution using all free software.
There is no reason to believe that this is the case. It has been evident over the last couple of years that Real's focus has shifted to providing consumer services (RadioPass, Rhapsody etc.). It is good to have the choice available - in fact, the completely open source Helix Player touts Ogg as it's main media formats. We were the first (or one of the very first) to add support for Theora to our player.
RealPlayer source code is available on helixcommunity. As for the widget set - we use what GTK offers, mainly because we want the player to fit in well into the overall GTK theme that users choose.
The only reason why some of this functionality is not in Helix Player (it used to be in the beginning) is because the community wanted to the choice of having a pure GPL open-source player (which is Helix Player) that is a lot more freely redistributable.
It also doesn't support Thunderbird mail. It doesn't seem to be able to index firefox unless firefox is set to be your default browser.
That's great Mat. I would love more feedback on what works and what doesn't work for you in the player in terms of usability. Feel free to email me vikram (at) helixcommunity.org.
thanks!
V
1) Differences between RP on windows and Linux. RP10 on Linux is, as I mention on the player project page, an effort at creating a easy to use, functional and fast media player for Linux that works hard at confirming to standards and being a good citizen in the linux world. The design focus for us thus was to find a balance between advanced functionality and most used functionality. Whenever in doubt the vote went for keeping things simple than complex - a decision that has been well recieved by the thousands of users who downloaded the player. On the whole, RP10 for Linux is all about creating a solid platform on which we can build exciting features. RP10 for windows has passed that phase and has a lot more features (premium content and services, media management, cd burning, portable device support etc.) Some of these features will surely find their way into RP10 for Linux, but the idea has not been to create a clone of the windows player. Hopefully the increasing number of helix developers will influence positively the direction that Helix Player will take, adding innovations that propel themselves into the next versions of the Linux RealPlayer as well.
2) BHOs
This is tricky. BHOs are a microsoft/IE invention. The idea is very typical of how microsoft does things - give a lot of power to the developer/sitedesigner. And as it often happens with such ideas, they are double edged swords - BHOs have become notorious by their association with spyware. Nevertheless, a lot of companies (including Microsoft) install BHOs to offer rich functionality to the end users. My only comment here is that with the advent of Windows XP SP2 which includes a feature called "Internet Explorer Addon Management" the BHOs will become less maligned and more manageable.
iTunes doesn't support any drm'd files besides Apple's, so there's no incentive for Wal-Mart, Napster, Real, MS, or anyone else to sell to Mac users, since no Mac users are going to abandon iTunes. This is the market reality right now.
Helix does build on windows - the reference player (splay) builds and nightlies are available here:i ent/
http://forms.helixcommunity.org/helixdnacl
As for the Helix Player, it can be built from CVS.
Both these features are under consideration for the next version of the Helix and Real Players. This has been asked in the forums and I just added one of your requests there. Feel free to track it there (and file a feature request in the bugzilla as well). thanks! V
How long has it been since you visited the site?
If you go to real.com using a linux machine you should directly go to the free linux player page. Likewise on windows.
Please do check for yourself.
-V
There is nothing that makes the day better for my teams than to see that all the work we are putting in isn't for a lost cause.
Hope.. like you said, is an amazing motivator.
It's not just claims I hope. Apart from the improvements on the windows side, have you looked at the mac player beta yet? Also, how many commercial software companies have made commitment to have linux as one of their major platforms? and opensourced their player? I hope that it is still true that actions speak better than words.
Thank you. The focus for 1.0 of the player is to create a simple and fast player that focused on stability and ease-of-use than a multitude of features. We are close to realizing this goal. What we would love is for feedback from you and the many other users as to what you would like to see in the future. -- Vikram Dendi Program Manager and Project Lead Helix Player Project
Don't accept Real and Helix because code has been GPL'd. Accept because we are making a sincere effort to make Linux better and more powerful. We are working hard to be a good citizen in the Linux world and we are throwing our (not inconsiderable weight) in the multimedia world behind Linux and opensource. Accept because the more backing Linux gets today, the stronger this community becomes.
--
Vikram Dendi
Program Manager & Project Lead
Helix Player Project
Helix Player has the flexibility to add any media format that other players can play. It's a matter of writing a renderer/fileformat plugin. This is how theora & vorbis support happened.
-- Vikram Dendi Program Manager & Project Lead Helix/Real Players for Unix
We are also working on getting the powerpc build of helixplayer for those who run linux on their ppcs. We need some help on that front though.
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
Why should JoeSchmoe get the (supposedly spyware infested) RealOne to play back content? Why not the RealPlayer Alpha that is based on Helix Player?
We ARE a "wannabe" project. But we are a wannabe opensource project that wants to excite developers and users alike. We work as hard as any other opensource person and we care about the open aspect of it!
This FAQ talks about this differentiation in detail.