ah yes, my comments about OS X and Linux were related to the positive responses, about the earlier player versions on those platforms, and how they behave themselves very well.
RealPlayer 10 Beta is available only on Windows for now. OS X on the way.
For Linux and Solaris, there is the on-going Helix Player open source project. This is not RealPlayer 10.
The Helix Player is the Helix Community's open source media player for consumers. It will have a rich and usable graphical interface and support all of the types of media currently offered by our Helix DNA Client. Features
* Gtk+/Gnome interface * video zoom: original, double size and full screen * media type support: o SMIL 2.0 o RealVideo (RV9, RV8, RV7, RVG2) o RealAudio (RA8, G2 audio) o MP3 o Ogg Vorbis o MPEG4 (patent license for MPEG4 must be obtained separately) o H.263 * Mozilla browser plug-in * graphical installer * RPM installer
Latest status:
The latest nightly builds of Helix Player will be able to play
most of the RA/RV10 codecs.
Current status is RealVideo 10 works, RealAudio low-bitrate
works, RealAudio high bitrate (AAC) doesn't work, but should start
working in a nightly soon. We will post an update here when
RA high bitrate is working as well.
I work for RealNetworks, and I am the first to admit RealPlayer is not my favorite media player. For video, Media Player Classic (MPC) is, and yes, I use MPC to play my RV9-EHQ aka RV10 content.
Previous RealPlayers have been pretty impolite to put it mildly, and along with so many other computer users, I have been ticked off by its behaviour in many ways. It has been possible to make it well mannered, but it has included being forced to delete certain files to prevent that annoying Message Center. However, it has not been spyware in a long time, even though one old player did send back some usage information. That's long gone, but it's hard to be forgiven for that mistake.
Considering how past players have created such a bad reputation, this post is probably futile, but anyway... Thanks to those few positive posts though, especially for the Linux and OS X players. It is nice to see someone taking the time to give it a another chance.
This RealPlayer 10 is better than before, it is fast, small, and does not run +10MB services in the background, like one well known example, name withheld. However, this post is not really about performance, even though a lot could be said about improvements in this area. More importantly in this discussion, it is also better in terms of its behaviour, albeit less better than me, many of my co-workers, and all of you, had hoped for.
Here's what you need to do when installing:
Choose Custom Install
Uncheck all the boxes you don't like for stuff on the desktop and quicklaunch bar. There is nothing hidden by a scroll bar, at least not with my computer screen size.
Check only the media types you want it to play. This is the only time you will be asked this, it will never try to take back any media types. Now, is this really so bad compared to other software, in regards to media types? It's not as polite as MPC, but I have other media players which take over media types, and there is not even an option to customize this..
Start RealPlayer, you may have to create an account. Everybody hates this, and wish it would go way. Agreed, but RealNetworks has to make money somehow, and the number of users is a needed measure to document. So use fake information if you like.
Then go to Tools->Preferences->Automatic Services, Click Configure Message Center, then uncheck "Check for new messages". Click OK on the "warning" that comes up. Now you will never be bothered by the Message Center. In previous versions, you could not disable the Message Center completely, without deleting certain files. Minor improvement, it's still opt-out, but at least it's possible. Check or uncheck Auto-update in its sub-menu as well.
Go to Tools->Preferences->General and set On startup display to "Player only". That way, no browser, and it starts much quicker.
So to summarize, a few clicks are needed to opt-out, you have to "sign in" the first time. Yes, somewhat annoying, but that's about it. It could have been better, but compared to many other examples, it's not that terrible. Since it has been so very bad in the past though, it clearly should have changed more to make a shining example, but since it is RealNetworks' main vehicle for generating revenue, there is a lot of nervousness about changing things too quickly.
Download the free RealPlayer 10 Beta here, with no re-direction or sales tricks:
And you can find me the forum below with more information about all the gory technical details about what's new with the Real 10 Platform, including RV 10, and RA 10 (AAC!):
Slashdot Mirror
ah yes, my comments about OS X and Linux were related to the positive responses, about the earlier player versions on those platforms, and how they behave themselves very well.
RealPlayer 10 Beta is available only on Windows for now. OS X on the way.
For Linux and Solaris, there is the on-going Helix Player open source project. This is not RealPlayer 10.
https://player.helixcommunity.org/ Here is the overview of the Helix Player:
Latest status:The latest nightly builds of Helix Player will be able to play most of the RA/RV10 codecs. Current status is RealVideo 10 works, RealAudio low-bitrate works, RealAudio high bitrate (AAC) doesn't work, but should start working in a nightly soon. We will post an update here when RA high bitrate is working as well.
I work for RealNetworks, and I am the first to admit RealPlayer is not my favorite media player. For video, Media Player Classic (MPC) is, and yes, I use MPC to play my RV9-EHQ aka RV10 content.
Previous RealPlayers have been pretty impolite to put it mildly, and along with so many other computer users, I have been ticked off by its behaviour in many ways. It has been possible to make it well mannered, but it has included being forced to delete certain files to prevent that annoying Message Center. However, it has not been spyware in a long time, even though one old player did send back some usage information. That's long gone, but it's hard to be forgiven for that mistake.
Considering how past players have created such a bad reputation, this post is probably futile, but anyway... Thanks to those few positive posts though, especially for the Linux and OS X players. It is nice to see someone taking the time to give it a another chance.
This RealPlayer 10 is better than before, it is fast, small, and does not run +10MB services in the background, like one well known example, name withheld. However, this post is not really about performance, even though a lot could be said about improvements in this area. More importantly in this discussion, it is also better in terms of its behaviour, albeit less better than me, many of my co-workers, and all of you, had hoped for.
Here's what you need to do when installing:
So to summarize, a few clicks are needed to opt-out, you have to "sign in" the first time. Yes, somewhat annoying, but that's about it. It could have been better, but compared to many other examples, it's not that terrible. Since it has been so very bad in the past though, it clearly should have changed more to make a shining example, but since it is RealNetworks' main vehicle for generating revenue, there is a lot of nervousness about changing things too quickly.
Download the free RealPlayer 10 Beta here, with no re-direction or sales tricks:
http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=slashdot
And you can find me the forum below with more information about all the gory technical details about what's new with the Real 10 Platform, including RV 10, and RA 10 (AAC!):
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid= 68245